YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

From the Library of
PROFESSOR F. WELLS WILLIAMS
Yale i8jg
Permanently deposited by
Yale-in-China

APOSTOLIC LIFE,

AS REVEALED IN THE ACTS OF
THE APOSTLES.

BY
JOSEPH PARKER, D.D.,
Minister of the City Temple, Holborn Viaduct, London,
AUTHOR OF ''ECCE DEUS," " THE PARACLETE," '^THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST,'
"servant of all," '^THE inner life OF CHRIST," "THESE SAYINGS
OF MINE," "the AKK OF GOD," ETC.

VOLUME LI,

NEW YORK:
FUNK & WAGNALLS, Publishers,
IO AND 12 Dey Street.
1884.

INSCRIBE THIS VOLUME

JOHN CHARLES JONES, Es<

OF CHEDALE HULME AND LLANDUDNO,

IN GRATEFUL RECOGNITION

OF A LIFETIME CONSECRATED TO THE SERVICE OF

OUR

COMMON MASTER.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

VOL. II.

XXXIX, Acts iii. 1-13. The First Missionary Journey  i
Union Possible in Worship — The Ministry a Calling
— The True Preacher.
XL. Acts xiii. 14-41. Paul's First Recorded Speech... ii
The Inspiration of Life — Paul's Consciousness of God
— Paul's Doctrinalism.
XLI. Acts xiii. 38. The Forgiveness of Sin  21
The Mystery of Forgiveness — Forgiveness a Revela
tion — Man's Forgiveness of Man — For Christ's Sake.
XLII. Acts xiii. 42-52. Gro-wth of Apostolic Power. ... 31
The Worth of Sympathy — Cause and Effect — New Tes
tament Preaching — Diverse Effects of the Gospel.
XLIII. Acts xiv. 1-7. Persecution Turnedin to Inspiration. 40
Christianity not a Compromise — Religious Sensation
alism — Heretics in the Church.
XLIV. Acts xiv. 8-18. Apostolic Service and Temptation. 49
The Perceiving Preacher — Self-Knowledge;
XLV. Acts xiv. 19-28. Tribulation Accepted  57
The Energy of Faith — The Living Sermon — God
Working in our Daily Life.
XLVI. Acts XV. 1-2. The Christian Magna Charta  65
Controversy — The Question of Baptism — Evil Influ
ence of Priesthood — Peter's Inconsistency.

vi CONTENTS.
chapter pack
XLVII. Acts XV. 3-6. Working on the Road  74
Domestic Christian Life — Experimental Preaching —
Chosen Vessels.
XLVIII. Acts XV. 7-11. Peter's Speech on Circumcision  82
A New Language — God's Sovereignty — Training Pro
cesses.
XLIX. Acts XV. 12. Apostolic Testimony  90
Unsatisfactory Reporting — Value of Christian Mis
sions — Personal Testimony — Practical Service.
L. Acts XV. 13-29. The Decision of the Council .... 98
Early Church Life— The Pauline Spirit— "Thou Shalt
Not" — A Sublime Epitaph.
LI. Acts XV. 30-35. The True La-w of Abolition  io3
The Rite of Circumcision — The Sabbatic Spirit — ¦
Human Needs.
LII. Acts XV. 36-41. Separation OF Paul and Barnabas. 117
Apostolic Heroism — No Infallibility — Moral Courage.
LIII. Acts xvi. 1-5. Incidental Aspects OF Apostolic Life. 125
Heart-Wounding Questions — Unequal Marriages —
Edification and Evangelization.
LIV. Acts xvi. 6-12. The Supernatural Element in Labour. 133
Ministry of the Spirit — Nearness to God — The
Heathen's Cry for Light.
LV. Acts xvi. 13-15. The Many and the One  141
The Sabbath for Man — Women and Support of the
Church — The Religious Instinct.
LVI. Acts xvi. 16-24. Violent Transitions of Experience. 141^
Fallen Spirits — Unconsecrated Gifts — Hypocritical
Reformers — Hard Doctrine.
LVII. Acta xvi. 25-32. Disadvantages Made Useful.... 15S
The Blessing of Persecution — Preaching by Singing —
Harmful Revivals.
LVIII. Acts xvi. 33-40. Christianity Self-Illustrated .. . 167
Our Yesterdays — Christian Joy— The Supremacy of
Paul — Small Beginnings.

CONTENTS. vii
CHAPTER PAGE
LIX. Acts xvii. 1-9. Paul's Manner  177
A New Battle-Field — Doctrinal Preaching — Haters of
the Gospel — The Name Jesus — What Christianity Would
Do.
LX. Acts xvii. 10-15. From Thessalonica to Berea  18S
The Continual Battle — Tests of Nobleness — Deep
Conviction.
LXX. Acts xvii. 16-23. Paul at Athens  196
Christianity and Art — Intellectual Inquiry — True
Preaching — Better than You Think.
LXII. Acts xvii. 24-28. Paul's Theistic Argument  206
Paul's Preaching — Paul's Emphasis — The Glory to
Come.
LXIII. Acts xvii. 29-31. Paul's Cumulative Argument .. . 214
The Upward Argument — A New Responsibility.
LXIV. Acts xvii. 32-34. The Pointof Departure  221
An Adroit Beginning — Congregations Dissolving —
Words of One Syllable.
LXV. Acts xviii. 1-6. At Corinth  229
Procrastination — Evangelical Preaching — The Attrac
tions of the Ministry.
LXVI. Acts x-\7iii. 7-11. Encouragements — Divine and
Human  237
Indifference to Sin — Divine Encouragement — Corinth.
LXVII. Acts x-viii. 12-17. Reports of Christian Service  245
The Press and the Gospel— Faith Greater than Creed
-Gallic.
LXVIII. Acts xviii. 18-23. Preparing for Labour  253
PrisciUa— Character-Building— Need of Sympathy.
LXIX. Acts xviu. 24-28. A New Man in the Church  26r
Individuality — The Dangers of Fervency — Ignorance
— The Christian's Inheritance.

viii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
LXX. Acts xix. 1-12. Apollos Completed bv Paul  270
Primary Education— Growth in Knowledge — Special
Miracles.
LXXI. Acts xix. 13-16. Seven Sons of Sceva  280
Necromancers and Exorcists — Preaching from Per
sonal Experience — Beams and Motes.
LXXil. Acts xix. 17-20. The Sacrificial Fire  286
Open Confession — Unreserved Renunciation.
LXXII-1. Acts xix. 21-41. Old Complaints and New Reproaches. 293
Persecution a Proof of Power — Religious Panics —
Things Unassailable.

THE PARACLETE.
I. The Witness op the Spirit  303
II. The Human Spirit Limited by the Human Body  310
III. The Culmination of the Gospel  317
IV. The Miracles of the Holy Ghost  336
V. Holiness  345

APOSTOLIC LIFE ;
AS DELINEATED IN THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.

XXXIX.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, upon our hearts do thou write the word of wisdom, and
in our memory do thou put the word of instruction. We forget thy
commandments, and thy statutes flee away from our recollection. Oh
that we might have an inspired memory, so that no word of thine might
ever be lost ! How rich we might have been in wise words ! Our heart
might have been as a store-house laden with treasure from heaven. We
would that our memory were written all over with thine own hand —
with laws of light, with words of truth, with doctrines from heaven.
Then surely the Enemy would have no place in us, nor could we admit
him to the hospitality spread by thine own hand. Bring us daily closer
to the Saviour of men. May we enter into his spirit, having tasted of
his grace ; having been reconciled unto God by him, may our reconcilia
tion become the beginning of a new ministry of our own ! May men
take knowledge of us that we are no longer in rebellion against God, but
are at one with his righteousness and purity ! This is the miracle of
God ! This is the triumph ot Almightiness ! This is the sweet conquest
of the Cross ! We are brought nigh by thy Son ; even we that were afar
off now stand at thy right hand clothed with the garments of holiness and
of praise. We are therefore living miracles ! We are wonders unto
ourselves, and unto many, and we would that astonishment of a saving
kind might strike every one who beholds the wonders of God.
Thou dost not smite to destroy, but to heal. Thy rod is not a weapon
of destruction ; it is, in reality, though hidden from our poor sight, a
sceptre of mercy. May we believe this, and rest in this persuasion, and
be strong in this infinite comfort ; then our tears shall be precious to us ;
in shedding of them we should lose something of thy grace ; for whilst
they are yet in our eyes we see thy providence in its largest and noblest
f(Jrm. Many are thy mercies ; and they are all treasured in Christ for
us. No good thing wilt thou withhold from them that walk uprightly.

ACTS XIH. 1-13.

Thou delightest to give grace on grace, more grace, a continual increase
and accumulation of grace, until grace itself is turned into glory. We
would live in God as revealed to us through his Son. We did not make
ourselves. We are the work of thine hands. As such we would live in
thy presence, and seek to know thy will, and try to do it with both hands
earnestly. May ours be a fervent love, a great and noble passion of the
soul, an enthusiasm full of the Spirit of the Cross ; seeking to redeem
men, and bring wanderers back from the wilderness in which there is no
way. Thou knowest the way that we take ; when thou hast tried us,
thou wilt bring us forth as gold. One day we shall emerge from the
darkness, and when we stand in the light, we shall see that even in the
night-time thou hast been clothing us with garments of beauty. Few and
evil are our days at the most ; they are dwindling fast ; some now in thy
presence see the very last milestone on the road, and they know it to be
the last ; but they are not broken-hearted. They make that stone an
altar ; they write upon it, " Hitherto hath the Lord helped us ;" and in
the strength and majesty of that Divine faith they walk the few remaining
yards, knowing that they are walking towards victory and home. We
bless thee for the inspiration of hope. We thank thee that at night-time
we can sing even in the prison. We rejoice that there is no place, how
ever far off and desolate, that may not be turned into a sanctuary because
of thy presence. Heal the heart thou hast smitten I Find the link in
the chain which thou hast broken ! Bring back memories that shall be
as presences in the night where thou hast desolated the house, and put
out its fire ! The Lord send comfort to all our hearts I Where sin
abounds, may grace much more abound, and where the presence and
sense of sin are intolerable, may there be the shining of the Cross, which
shall make the contrite glad with a renewed hope. The Lord hear us,
and be mindful of us, and kind to the least thankful of us, and pitiful to
the feeblest and weakest, and at the last may we be gathered from the
east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, in the
name of Jesus, and in the blood of the everlasting Covenant, may we
stand before thee a mighty host, free men, loyal in heart, because washed
in the blood of the Lamb ! Amen.
Acts xiii. 1-13.
I. Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets
and teachers [the two not necessarily identical, though the higher gift of
prophecy commonly included the lower gift of teaching], Barnabas, and
Symeon that was called Niger [nothing more is known of him], and
Lucius [probably one of the first evangelists of Antioch] of Cyrene, and
Manaen, the foster-brother of Herod the tetrarch [Antipas], and Saul
[copied from a list made before Saul became famous].
2. And as they ministered [a word commonly used of the service of the
priests and Levites in the Temple] to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy

ANNOTATED TEXT.

Ghost said. Separate me [from the construction of the Greek it would
appear as if the command had been given in answer to prayer] Barnabas
and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.
3. Then when they had fasted and prayed [the fasting and prayer were
continued until the laying on of hands had been completed] and laid their
hands on them [the formal act by which the Church testified its accept
ance], they sent them away.
4. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, went down to Seleucia
[a town about sixteen miles from Antioch], and from thence they sailed
to Cyprus [where the population was largely Greek].
5. And when they were at Salamis [at the east end of Cyprus], they
proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews ; and they had
also John as their attendant [not deacon or preacher : he personally
served in baptisms : he was the apostolic courier].
6. And when they had gone through the island unto Paphos, they
found a certain sorcerer [same word in Matt, ii, i], a false prophet, a
Jew, whose name was Bar- Jesus ;
7. Which was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of understand
ing [intelligent and discerning]. The same called unto him Barnabas
and Saul, and sought to hear the word of God.
8. But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) with
stood them, seeking to turn aside the proconsul from the faith [" the
charlatan feared the loss of the influence which he had previously exer
cised over the mind of the proconsul"].
9. Then Saul, who is also called Paul, filled [the tense implies a sudden
access of spiritual power] with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him,
10. and said, O full of all guile and all villany, thou son of the devil,
thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right
ways cf the Lord ?
II. And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou
shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there
fell on him a mist and a darkness ; and he went about seeking some to
lead him by the hand.
12. Then the proconsul, when he saw what was done, believed, being
astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
13. Now Paul and his company set sail from Paphos, and came lo
Perga [the capital of Pamphylia, about seven miles from the mouth of the
river Cestra] in Pamphylia : and John departed from them [for what
appeared to Paul as an insufficient reason] and returned to Jerusalem.

Notes.— Saul's change of name. " It is impossible not to connect
the mention, and probably the assumption, of the new name with the con
version of the proconsul. It presented many advantages."— /'/2(OT//'?-f.
" The name was one familiar to the Gentiles, of whom he was presently
after the apostle, and agreeable on them rather than to the Hebrew name

ACTS XIH. 1-13.

Saul. It answered also to his stature. Paulus = little. Barnabas gives
place to him from this point.'' — Bengel. " Satisfactory reasons are
sought for this sudden change of name. There were probably more
reasons than one. As a Roman citizen, it would be perfectly likely and
natural that he should own a Roman as well as a Jewish name. He was
now going forth to the Gentiles, and of the two names the Latin would
be much more acceptable to his heathen hearers than the Hebrew . . .
Paulus, though originally meaning small, was a famous name of great
dignity, and associated with high rank." — Malleson.

THE FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY.
IN the Church," — how much is implied in these three words !
How much they assume / From some points of view the
whole Christian idea may seem to be involved in the brief ex
pression — "in the Church." What is the Church.? Is it not
part of common human society .? Why this separateness of indica
tion .? Why treat it as a world within a world .? Why not refer to
the human family as a whole, on the principle that the greater in
cludes the less .? There must be some meaning in this society
within society. Are not men continually engaging their inven
tion in such arrangements .? Whoever speaks of society as a whole,
as a grand sum total of human life .? The integer is broken up into
innumerable fractions of all values and denominations, but there
is ONE fraction, alas ! — only a fraction just now, — which says
that it will, and must, by the force of a sweet and Divine compul
sion, become itself the ivhok number, — that fraction is the Church.
Are they ordinary men who compose the Church .? Certainly not.
How many men does it take to make a Church .? Two! In what
name do they meet .? In the name oi Jesus Christ .^ Where Ao
they meet .? Where they please. What pomp and circumstance
are requisite to constitute them into a Church .? How much
money must they have .? None ! How much learning of a merely
technical and mechanical kind to constitute them into a Church .?
Nom I Then they must be very 7x/ea/4/' That is impossible. The
side on which Omnipotence fights cannot be weak. Then they may
be very poor P No ! The side that banks in heaven can never be
short of treasure. But they must have some place to meet in 1
Not necessarily. Under a tree will do, or in the middle of a
meadow— or within some fold of the night's darkness, — in the dens

UNION POSSIBLE IN WORSHIP,

and caves of the earth, a Church not made with hands ! Why if
that idea in all its simplicity, but unfathomable depth of mean
ing, could seize the Christian mind of to day, a sublime revolution
would be the immediate and permanent consequence. But the
moment two men come together to constitute a Church they forget
that nothing further is requisite but the presence of Christ. They
must build ! Peter wanted to build on the mountain top. They
must create an institution ¦ they must establish an intricate and ex
pensive organization. Kind two godly souls in the poorest village
in the land, and they do not ask for our help. Help ! What lo
do P A Church is as complete as a family ; a Church is self-
bounded, self-contained, self-complete, self-sustaining, so far as
all human resources are concerned. It has an open highway to
the all-supplying heavens,^ and when it goes abroad on the earth,
it is in the spirit of brotherhood and sympathy and common
desire, and neither as a beggar nor a patrom The Church is
composed of redeemed and regenerated men. They are one in
Christ : diverse in stature, in figure, in colour, in speech ; diverse
in everything that enters into the composition of humanity ; yet
they are one in him who breaks down all middle walls of partition,
and in him they have their indissoluble and indivisible unity.
Why do they not, then, ' ' cleave unto the Lord ' ' .? When we
pray we are one ; when we .fpeak to each other we are divided : in
¦worship one, in opinion countless thousands I Then why do we
.viot pray, and let opini'on alone.? "What doth the Lord thy
God require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk
humbly with God .?" But men ¦will have opinions, and opin
ions divide men. The, whole Christian Church this day through
out the world says to God: "Thine is the kingdom and the
power and the glory forever. Amen." And the moment the
Christian Church begins' to preach it speaks ten thousand differing
and irreconcilable dialects. " Pray without ceasing." Meet for
¦worship, not for the propagation of opinions. One man has as
much authority for his opinion as another ; opinions are growths,
opinions belong to processes of education. There is only one
thing true in all the possibilities of its bearing, and that is ¦wor
ship. Could these two ideas recover their place in the Church, I
repeat, a most beneficent and profound revolution would be the
instant consequence. We have torn the seamless robe of Christ

ACTS XIH. I -1 3.

into innumerable rags ! Christianity has now become a tissue of
opinions ; once it was a world-shaking faith; now it is a cage
filled with opinions and dogmas and controversies that can never
be reconciled. Pray on ! Worship is the union of the Church I
" Certain prophets and teachers," — different ^z/z'j-, you observe,
but the same subject. Take care that we do not exclude the
PROPHET from the Church ; we are inclined to do so. The
prophet had a higher gift than the teacher ; the teacher read a
book that was written with pen and ink, but the prophet read a
book not yet ¦written, but that was going to be written. He fore
cast the ages, and read the scroll of the future traced by an invisi
ble hand with invisible ink. Have we reached the final point ?
Do we stop at a flat black line and say — Finis? We have ex
cluded the /r(?//^«/ from the Church; we call him "heterodox,"
fanatical, unsafe, peculiar, not always to be relied upon ; men
write cautiously to him ; men are afraid of him ; they speak of
him with many parenthetic qualifications ; they write about him
with so many footnotes that the substantial text is reduced to a
minimum. It is the prophet that must lead us ; there must
always be amongst us some man who has the next word. I can
not see those who are on the mountain top, but I can see the next
man on the mountain ridge ; that is enough in the meantime,
for he, turning to me below, says, " Come up higher, — higher
¦still." 1 Where is the prophet to-day.? He is a dead man, and
his grave cannot be found !
" The Holy Ghost said." How much is implied in that ex
pression also ! The Holy Spirit dwells in the Church. " Know
ye not that ye are the temples of the Holy Ghost .?" The Spirit
finds his abode in the Church ; there he can whisper ; there he
can touch gently the minds which he seeks to affect ; there he can
tell ' ' the secret things of God." Had we listened more, we should
have known more ; had we invited fuller confidences from heaven,
we should have known the meaning of this sublime word,  " The
secret of the Lord is with them that fear him." The Holy Spirit
must be our genius, our ability, our inspiration, our wealth, and
our whole strength. Pray that the Holy Dove may return, " sweet
Messenger of rest. ' ' He will take of the things of Christ and show
them unto us. He will not testify of himself, but whatsoever he

THE MINISTR V A CALLING.

shall hear the Son say he will whisper to our hearts, and will
" show us things to corne." Alas, we have no future, because
we have no Holy Ghost ! It is the function of the Holy Spirit to
elect his own ministers : do not let us meddle with God in this
matter. God will find his own ministers. A minister is not a
manufacture — he is an inspiration ! ' ' Pray ye the Lord of the
harvest that he would send forth labourers into his harvest."
There our interest may well cease, for a great prayer will answer
itself, and you will be found doing the earthly share of the work
with a glad heart and a willing hand. Ministers are not to be
made by us. Young men are not to be driven into the ministry —
they are to be "called" to it. Put all the emphasis you can
upon the word which the Holy Ghost himself used : " The work
whereunto I have CALLED them. ' ' The ministry is a calling;
men are called to particular work ; they are called to particular
countries, places, and surroundings ; the Lord hath a candlestick
for every candle ; the Lord allots the place as well as calls the
man. A singular combination of th6 human and the Divine you will
find in the third and fourth verses. Barnabas and Saul were
chosen and separated, and we read in the third verse that when
the Church ' ' had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on
them, they sent them away." That is the human side. Now
read the beginning of the fourth verse and see the Divine aspect.
' ' So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost. ' ' We are ' ' fellow-
workers with God. " Who sent forth Barnabas and Saul ? — The
Church did. The Church alone ? — No, the Holy Ghost sent
them forth. Then this was a joint work ? — It was, certainly.
The united work of the Spirit and of the Church. This is the
solution of the whole controversy about the Divineness of our sal
vation and our share in it. " Work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you." So
then we are fellow-workers with God. We are called into this
high partnership — it has pleased God so to address us as to give
us the comfort of having done somewhat in our own case, for
said Jesus to those who believed on him and received his healing ;
" Thy _/«;¦//% hath made thee whole." The two men then were
sent forth both by the Holy Ghost and by the Church, and we
find that their way was marked out and made clear for them.

ACTS XIH. 1-13.

God will take care of his own ministers. No minister of Christ
in all this world but has friends : opponents he may have, but
they will, as the clouds in the air, set out in sharper accent and
more glorified expression the light that is above. Do not tell me
that you can go forth at God' s bidding -without having friends,
and men's respect and confidence and love. You may meet an
Elymas, but you will first meet a Sergius Paulus. God himself
will open a man's way, and the wonder of the man will be, not
that Elymas should have opposed him, but that Sergius Paulus,
the proconsul, should have taken any notice of him. We are sur
prised by love, not by hate : the marvel is that we should have
bread, not that we should sometimes be an hungered. But the true
ministry develops the evil-spirit of the times. Elymas, the Sorcerer,
withstood Barnabas and Saul, seeking to turn away the viceroy
from the faith. So we sometimes hear timid people saying that
whether this or that movement be good or not they will not say, but
certainly since it took place there has been a great deal of rioting
and tumult in the neighborhood ; and such poor philosophers are
allowed to be counted as one each in a vote by hand ! How
pitiable, how heart-discouraging ! Do let us have to do with
men who see that wherever the good is the evil will be developed.
Wherever Barnabas and Saul are, Elymas will put in his claim,
and there will be controversy in any town whose possession by the
sorcerer is disputed by those who claim it in the name of Christ.
Wherever there is a movement in the direction of sobriety on a
larger scale, there will be corresponding opposition to it. "Wherever
there is Gospel preaching of a right sort, not tepid, uncertain, half
hearted, but the mighty yearning preaching of the heart in the
tongue and accent of the people, the devil will leap up from his
darkness and dispute the field. We are disabled by timidity.
Did Barnabas and Saul write home to Antioch that opposition
having arisen, they would return by the next boat .? They were
not given to returning except with victory, or to equip themsehes
for further Christian assault !
It is beautiful to mark how Saul lakes his right position bv a
most natural process. They went out Barnabas and Saul, but
when we hear of them again they will be Saul and Barnabas.
This inversion took place providentiall}^ Men are tested bv
their work. Nothing can keep down a man whom God has ap-

THE TRUE PREACHER.

pointed to the throne. There will be no controversy between
Barnabas and Saul, for Barnabas was a good man, and he
instantly knew where the power was, and he stood aside with the
graceful courtesy which is taught and acquired only in the school
of heaven. '
" Then Saul " wrought \ns first miracle. In many chapters in
the Bible you find beginnings. In this chapter Paul worked his
first miracle. He fixed his eyes on the Sorcerer, and said ; " O
full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou
enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the
right ways of the Lord ?" Truly his speech was then not " con
temptible" ! Stung by fire, he turned into a mighty and thrill
ing speaker. Never could he have prepared those words in any
mechanical sense ; they are the words which follow the touch of
fire 1 That fire we have lost. We talk to Elymas in syllables of
ice ; we look at him with vacant eyes, he returns our unmeaning
stare. This first miracle seemed to bring back Saul's own experi
ence on the way to Damascus. It seems as though he knew only
one kind of miracles, and that was making opponents blind. He
began with Elymas where the Lord began with himself. He had
not yet seen the range of the Divine movement. Many a time he
had thought of the blind days, and mayhap he said to his soul.
This is how Christ afflicts men who oppose him ! — so when he
comes to work his own first miracle he begins with the Sorcerer
where Christ began with himself ; he struck the Sorcerer blind !
Yet he remembered the mercy as well as the wrath, adding —
"not seeing the sun for a season." Just his own experience!
His was not a lifelong blindness, but a temporary suspension of
the visual power. How we repeat our experience in others I
How the father lives again his own childhood in his son I How
the instructor takes his pupils just as he himself was taken some
thirty years before I
In this chapter we shall presently hear Paul' s first speech. Truly
he begins in this chapter !" He has been at home waiting, wonder
ing, reading, thinking much and praying ever day, and now his
turn has come, and in this chapter we shall see his first miracle,
and hear his first thunder, and shall know that the king of men
has arisen in the Church !

ACTS XIH. 1-13.

" Would I describe a preacher such as Paul
Were he on earth, and could hear, approve, and own —
Paul should himself direct me. I would trace
His master strokes, and draw from his design.
I would express him simple, grave, sincere !
In doctrine, uncorrupt ; in language, plain ;
And plain in manner ; decorous, solemn, chaste,
And natural in gesture ; much impressed
Himself, as conscious of his awful charge.
And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds
May feel it too ; affectionate in look
And tender in address, as well becomes
A messenger of grace to guilty men."
That great preacher is now about to begin ! Let us look and
listen well !

XL.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, there are sounds of joy in thy house to-day. Surely
the marriage feast of the Lamb is ready ! Thou hast taken us up to the
top of a mountain, and has shown unto us in the vision of faith the cloud
less land. Thou dost surprise us oftentimes with a sight of the beautiful
country. Suddenly the night shineth as the day, and the day is made
sevenfold in brightness. Sometimes thou dost make us tread upon the
grave with holy scorn, taunting it because its victory is lost. These
things thou causest to pass before us in Christ Jesus, the Child of Bethle
hem, the Man of the Cross. In him we see all things ; he is the open
door into heaven. He is the revelation of thy person, and brightness
and glory. In him is the fulness of the Godhead. His look is light. If
we may but touch the hem of his garment, we shall be made whole. If
he will but breathe upon us, this breathing shall be the gift of peace.
Lord Jesus, make thy Church glad I Come to her in any form she can
bear to look upon, either in great degradation, or in might and glory ; in
mortal agony, or in great strength and pomp. Come as thou wilt, and
as we are able to bear the sight, and make thy Church this day glad with
infinite joy. Thou knowest how long we have trembled in the dark
cloud. Thou hast numbered the days of the bitter wind that has blown
around our shrinking life. Thou knowest how often we have found the
garden to be a wilderness ; now come with the angels, and with the
heavens of light, and let thy Church this day sit down at her Lord's
banquet and feel that his banner over her is love. We are weary of the
world, we have drunk its cup, and found it shallow and bitter ; we are
now stirred by new inspirations which would lay hold of the heavens, and
apply to the wounds of time the balm of immortality. Still we would be
patient, though the road is full of sharp stones and turns that make us
dizzy by their suddenness and violence. Still we would say — now at the
cradle, now at the grave— The Lord's will be done, for it alone is good.
Give us such a hold of thyself in Christ, such a grip of essential truth and
everlasting reality as shall make us strong, solid, noble in character,
beneficent and redeeming in spirit and in action. May we separate our
selves from the world by distances that shall amaze ourselves. May we
know the meaning of the contradictions which we find in Christ, who,
though on earth, was in heaven ; who, having no food, had bread enough
and to spare ; who, being a root out of a dry ground, was the flower of
Jesse and the plant of renown. Lead us away from the narrow and the

ACTS XIH. 14-41.

small and the contemptible, and may we count as our riches the gold of
heaven, and our inheritance the very breadth of thine own infinity. We
come in the name of Jesus, the name to sinners dear ! He makes our
life a beginning, our death a transient shadow, our heaven sympathy with
God. Into this heaven we would now pass by the sacred way of the
Cross. We will say, " Not our will, but thine be done." Lord, do we
say it well, with the lips of the heart, and with the accent of all-believing
love ? or, is it some letter we have learned, and which we utter with the
mouth only ? Write it in our hearts ; make it part of our very life ; may
it be to our thirst the wine of heaven, and to our hunger the bread of life.
Give us triumph as well as peace, joy that sings and shouts, and calls for
organ and trumpet and mighty power of utterance to give it expression.
We could not live alway in this high rapture, but if now we could but feel
its inspiration, in one moment we should forget the sorrow of a lifetime,
and anticipate the heaven beyond the river. The Lord give us bread to
eat. Lead us to living fountains of water, wipe away all tears from our
eyes. Make us wise to redeem the time and do the work of life, and at
the last may we meet those who have gone before, and those who are
coming after, and the whole host of the Lamb in the Chamber where the
feast is spread and where the gladness never ends. Amen.

Acts xiii. 14-41.
14. But they, passing through from Perga, came to Antioch of Pisidia
[one of the many cities built by Seleucus Nicanor, and named after his
father Antiochus], and they went into the synagogue on the sabbath day,
and sat down. [The act implied that they were not listeners only, but
teachers. They sat in the seat of the Rabbi, and thus showed that they
asked for permission to address the congregation.]
15. And after the reading of the law and the prophets [the order of the
lessons was fixed by a kind of calendar] the rulers of the synagogue sent
unto them [it was part of the duty of the elders to offer persons in such a
position the opportunity of addressing the assembly], saying. Brethren,
if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.
16. And Paul stood up, and beckoning with the hand [a gesture of
luaving rather than of beckoning, as if requesting silence], said' [almost
certainly in Greek], Men of Israel, and ye that fear God [the latter being
those who, though in the synagogue, were of heathen origin], hearken.
17. The God of this people Israel [a speech, as we formerly hinted,
modelled upon the plan of Stephen's great apology] chose our fathers,
and exalted the people when they sojourned in the land ot Egypt [they
were exalted in the sense of being innumerably multiplied], and \vith a
high arm led them forth out of it.
18. And for about the time of forty years suffered he their manners in
the wilderness [the Greek word translated " suffered " differs by a single

ANNOTATED TEXT. 13
letter only from one which signifies to carry as a father carries his child,
and that word is used in many of the better MSS. versions.]
19. And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan,
he gave them their land for an inheritance,
20. for about four hundred and fifty years : and after these things he
gave them judges until Samuel the prophet.
21. And afterward they asked for a king : and God gave unto them
Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin [the very tribe to
which Paul himself belonged], for the space of forty years [the duration
of the reign is not given in the Old Testament].
22. And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their
king ; to whom also he bare witness, and said, I have found David the
son of Jesse [the words that follow are a composite quotation, after the
manner of the Rabbis, made up of Psalm Ixxxix. 20, and i Sam. xiii. 14],
a man after my heart, who shall do all my will.
23. Of this man's seed hath God according to promise brought unto
Israel a Saviour, Jesus [even in those remote regions of Pisidia there
was some vague knowledge of the life and death of Christ] ;
24. When John had first preached before his coming the baptism of
repentance to all the people of Israel.
25. And as John was fulfilling his course [the tense implies continuous
action], he said. What suppose ye that I am [the question is inferred
from the substance of the answer. Matt, iii, 10 ; John i, 20, 21] ? I am
not he. But behold, there cometh one after me, the shoes ot whose feet
I am not worthy to unloose.
26. Brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and those among you
that fear God [the two classes, as before, are pointedly contrasted], to us
is the word of this salvation sent forth [the demonstrative pronoun
connects the salvation with the Jesus just named : the expression
"this salvation" recalls the corresponding terms, "this life," Acts
V. 20].
27. For they that dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they
knew him not, nor the voices of the prophets which are read every Sab
bath [the Apostle appeals to the synagogue ritual itself, which had just
been read, in proof of what he was stating], fulfilled them by condemn
ing him.
23. And though they found no cause of death in him [he had been
technically condemned on the charge of blasphemy], yet asked they of
Pilate that he should be slain [seeking to terrify him by the suggestion
that acquittal would mean treason to Caesar].
2g. And when they had fulfilled all things that were written of him
[unconsciously to themselves], they took him down from the tree, and
laid him in a tomb.
30. But God raised him from the dead :
31. And he was seen for many days [he speaks as one who had person
ally conversed with the eye-witnesses] of them that came up with him

14 ACTS XIH. 14-41.

from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are [now] his witnesses unto the people
[literally, the people of God].
32. And we bring you good tidings of the promise made unto the
fathers, 33. how that God hath fulfilled the same unto our children, in that he
raised up Jesus ; as also it is written in the second psalm [in some copies
of the Old Testament what is now the first psalm was treated as a kind of
prelude to the whole book, the enumeration beginning wilh what is now
the second\ Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee [the first
fulfilment was in a victorious king — the final and complete fulfilment in
Christ]. 34. And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no
more to return to corruption [Psalm xvi. 10], he has spoken on this wise,
I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.
35. Because he saith also in another psalm. Thou wilt not give thy
Holy One to see corruption.
36. For David, after he had in his own generation served [ministered
to] the counsel of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and
saw corruption .
37. But he whom God raised up saw no corruption.
38. Be it known unto you therefore, brethren, that through this man is
proclaimed unto you remission ot sins :
39, And by him every one that believeth is justified from all things,
from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.
40. Beware therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken in the
prophets ;
41. Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish ; for I work a work
in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, if one declare it
unto you.
PAUL'S FIRST RECORDED SPEECH.
" T)AUL and Barnabas went into the synagogue on the Sab-
jL bath day and sat down. " They did not violently separate
themselves from old traditions and religious companionships.
Christianity has no battle with Judaism. Surely the Christian is
not the enemy of the Jew ; he owes everything precious in his
civilization, and precious in his hope, to the Jew, and therefore to
hold angry controversy with him would be to display an unappre-
ciative and an unjust disposition of spirit. There was a custom
in the synagogue which we have not in the Christian Church.
The rulers of the synagogue, noticing distinguished persons in the
audience, would almost invariably send to them or speak to them,
saying— If you wish to address the assembly, we shall be glad

THE INSPIRATION OF LIFE. 15
to hear you. The lessons of the day were read, the grand lessons
from the Old Testament, — for then there was no other covenant,
¦ — and then the rulers of the synagogue would say to distin
guished-looking men in the assembly — If you have anything to
say to the people, say on. There is singular dignity and noble
ness in that arrangement ; 2. fearlessness which does not seem to
characterize the spirit of the Church in which we live. Who dares
now throw the meeting open to any stranger who may have come
within its four corners .? In the olden time they seemed to believe
that the Word was its own defence, that the fire of the Lord
would disinfect whatever it touched, and that to be in the syna
gogue was to be reverent, deeply religious, and loyal to the spirit
of the house. These things have all changed. Men can be in
the Christian Church in an un-Christian spirit. The mere ver
balist ; yes, and even the mocker, may find his way into the
church, and might be only too glad to have an opportunity im
pertinently and rudely to contradict what he did not understand.
The usual challenge having been given, PAUL stood up. That
was an event in history. No other standing up was equal to it.
In that brief sentence you have the beginning of a battle which
was concluded with these words — " I have fought a good fight, I
have finished my course ; henceforth there is laid up for me a
crown of righteousness !" Paul did not stand up by himself.
Men are lifted up. Every action of the loyal life is an action of
inspiration. The good man lays no plans, and makes no arrange
ments which can exclude the sudden and incalculable inspiration of
God. Having written his outline of purpose and thought, he
says — " I hold this merely as a trustee, it is not mine, it is God's,
I may never look at it more. I will cry mightily and lovingly to
Heaven and ask for direction, and according to the word of the
Lord I will do." You cannot plan an outline that will exactly
hold God's inspiration. You cannot outline what you will finally
do. Let the publicans, the pagans, forecast and determine and
draw the geometrical figures within which their movements may be
described, but the Christian always goes out without knowing
whither he is going, except that he is going with God ! To that
high faith not many souls have come ; we are still in the infant
school of prudence and calculation ; not in the high school of in
spiration and madness.

i6 ACTS XIH. 14-41.

This is Paurs_;&'j'/ recorded speech. He has been talking
before ; yes, and he has been mightily persuading the Jews that the
Man whom he preaches is Christ, but this is his first recorded
statement of Jewish history and Christian faith. I like to be
present at beginnings. There is a subtle, tender, mysterious joy
sho'o.t planting roots and sowing seed, covering it up and leaving
it in the darkness ; then what a surprise it is to come back in due
time and find the green lancet puncturing the soil and coming
up to look at the light it has been groping for all the while !
Sometimes our first speeches were very poor because they were our
own. We made them, ¦we wrote them out, graved them upon the
unwilling memory, and they were like something prut on, not
growing out ; and so we begged our friends who were unhappy
enough to be able to quote some portions of them to forget them
if they could ! But the first speeches of the Christian defender
were incapable of improvement. They were as complete as the fiat of
God which said — ' ' Let there be light : and there was light. ' '
There was no emendation, no correction of words, no reconstruc
tion of phrases, no mechanical tinkering of the grand utterance.
When Stephen opened his mouth and spoke to the wondering as
sembly, he himself ^¦!& more surprised by the eloquence than any
man that heard it. Surely Paul will grow in speaking power .?
No ! Surely he will at first be timid and stumbling and incorrect,
and people will say— It is a maiden effort, but by-and-by he may
become a tolerable speaker .? No ! How do j^ou account for thatp
Paul based his apology on the model of Stephen. When he
performed his first miracle, which we saw in our last reading, it
was a miracle modelled on Chris f s transaction with himself on
the way to Damascus. As we said before, he probably thought
that there was only one miracle that could be done, and that was
to smite the offending man with temporary bhndness. And now
perhaps he thinks there is but one speech to be made ! Is not this
speech modelled on the lines of Stephen's, which great speech
Saul heard .? We cannot tell of what elements our life is made
up. It is no one shower of rain that makes the summer green.
We are gathering from every point all day long ; we are daily at
school, and every providence that passes before us leaves some
impress on our life. Paul was no student of rhetoric when he
listened, to Stephen ; but Stephen's speech, like all vital speech,

PAUL'S CONSCIOUSNESS OF GOD. 17
got into the man, and became part of his intellectual and spiritual
life. He never forgot that speech ! When he wanted to put his
fingers in his ears and shut out the thundering eloquence, he
could not exclude the resounding tone ! Paul began as Stephen
did, with a narrative of Jewish history. To their credit be it
spoken, the Jews were never tired of hearing their own history.
Whenever a speaker arose in Jewish societ)' determined to carry a
specific point, he came with all the background of Jewish history,
and under the influence of recollections heroic and thrilling, he
endeavored to carry the immediate point of the occasion. One
might have expected that the Jews would have become weary of
hearing their history time after time, but historians record it to
their credit that they were always ready to hear the living story
again. Are we patient under the citation of the facts which make
up our history .? We cannot live in sentiment. You cannot build
a castle in the air that you can live in ; it must be founded upon
rock, however high up into the air you may carry it. This was
the great law of Jewish eloquence and Jewish appeal ; basing the
whole argument upon the rock of undisputed history. Do not
some of us occasionally say, " Tell me the old, old slory of Jesus
and his love" .? — therein we are partly Jewish — that is our story 1
As the Jews began from the formation of themselves as a people,
we begin at Bethlehem, and in proportion as we are in the right
spirit and temper, we are never tired of hearing the old, old
story ; it brings its own dew with it, like every morning in the
year. When we are tired of hearing that story the kingdom of
heaven amongst men will come to a standstill in its halting
progress. Notice in this speech what we may call Paul's grip of GOD.
I know not any speech of the same length in which the sacred
word occurs so frequently. Gather the phrases together, and see
if this be not so : — God chose our fathers ; God destroyed seven
nations ; God gave them judges ; God gave them Saul ; God
raised unto Israel a Saviour ; God raised him from the dead ;
God, God, GOD ! That man can never be put down ! When
he dies he will die a victor, and in his last speech will he make
mention of a crown of glory. The factor we have omitted
from our sermons is only — GOD ! N<i are afraid or ashamed

ACTS XIH. 14-41.

of his name ; we pronounce it hesitatingly, mincingly, timidly.
Paul did not use it so ; he hurled it like a thunderbolt ; he
measured everything by that grand standard. All through history
he saw a Figure after the similitude of God. You can dislodge a
man from any position but that, but once in the munitions of
rocks, once really hidden in the very centre of the sanctuary of
the Divine presence and providence, a man treats so-called
' ' great questions " as a drop of a bucket, he takes up the isles as
a very little thing, he sits with God on the circle of the earth and
all things pompous and great, and in figure dominating and
forceful, he stands baek in the shadow of a sublime contempt !
We lose hold of history when we lose hold of God.
As we find Stephen's character in Stephen's apology, so we
may find Pauls character in Paul's exposition. Mark \i\& cour
tesy — " Paul stood up, and, beckoning with his hand, said. Men
of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience." He was no
rough intruder ; no rude annotator had found his way to the
synagogue that day, but a gentleman born, and indestructible,
all through and through, polite, refined, courteous, gentlemanh'.
His tact is most wonderful ; he notices how the assembly is
made up — he is a poor speaker who takes no note of his hearers ;
he must, without staring, take in the whole company ; he must
take the census, intellectual and moral, and know who is before
him. Paul saw not only the Jews, but the Greeks and proselytes,
who, wearied with the absurdities of polytheism, had come to
believe there was One God, a spiritual, invisible, eternal God ! So
Paul accosted both classes, "Men of Israel" — always distin
guishable, never to be confounded with others — "and ye that
fear God" — converted from mythology to true spirituality of
thought — " give audience." How delicately he puts the case
in the twenty-seventh verse ; speaking of the dwellers at Jerusa
lem and their rulers, he said, " Because they knew him not, nor
yet the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath da\',
they have fulfilled them in condemning him." They knew not
the voice of the prophets ; they heard the letter, they did not
know the inner and spiritual meaning. We do not read a book
when we peiuse its pages as to its mere lines and letters. Some
times we read a book by reading only one page of it ; we know

PAULS DOCTRINALISM.

we have the soul of it in our soul, and all the gamut of its music
repeats itself in our sympathetic ear. Sometimes we read a
book right through and know nothing about it. Pre-eminently
is this so with the Bible. It is possible to read the Bible through
from Genesis to Revelation and to know nothing about its secret
soul, for it is a book of analogue and parable and suggestion, and
not literal meaning, having about it a rilystery greater than itself ;
not ¦Ik. fact, but a truth ; not a point, but a circle.
How wondrously Paul introduced the right way of quoting
Scripture. There is hardly a quotation which he makes here
which is not a double or treble quotation turned into one. For
example, in referring to David, Paul says that God gave testi
mony and said, ' ' I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man
after my own heart, which shall fulfil all my will." That pas
sage cannot be found in the Old Testament ; it is at least three
passages made into one. It is all in the Bible, but is in no one
place in the Scripture. He does not quote the Bible who quotes
mere texts. Those texts in their isolation may or may not be in
the Bible ; the Bible is larger than any one text that is in it.
There is a spirit of collocation and a spirit of quotation, a Bible-
spirit that can bring from the east, and from the west, and from
the north, and from the south Hues that shall focalize in one
intense and dazzling glory. Away, literalists and word-mongers,
and text-quoters, unless they have in them the spirit which sees
how lines converge and focalize, and how scattered parts sum
themselves up into one massive doctrine. Paul's voice surely
had a quiver in it which no reporter could catch — for in reports
we do not get the ionic colour and force of speech — when he said
' ' God gave unto them SAUL, a man of the tribe of BENJAMIN. ' '
There he repeated his own name ; his name was Saul, and his
tribe was Benjamin, and as he himself had changed the Saul into
Paul, and gone over to the Christian host, he would call others to
a new name and a new fellowship, — the name of Christ and the
fellowship of the whole world. Now, at the very beginning
Paul is himself — "Be it known unto you, men and brethren,
that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of
sins, and by him all that believe are justified from all things
from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses."
That is a new voice in the Church ; that is a doctrinal teacher ;

20 ACTS XIH. 14-41.

justified, justified by the law : this is a new intellect, no other
man has ever fought with these weapons. From this moment
Christian speech acquires a new accent ; new words are minted,
new values are attached to old expressions. Here we have the
logician, the philosopher, the theologian. This man will one
day write an epistle " hard to be understood."

XLI.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, we are spared by thy mercy, and to thy mercy we now
come as to a river that is full of water ; for thy compassions fail not : to
thy love there is no end. Thou dost give unto us bread every day, and
every day thou dost draw for us water from the well. Thou art round
about us as the light that is everywhere — like a healing breath from
Heaven, renewing our youth and making our life strong. Thou dost set
in the clouds lights of hope, yea, thou dost make the storm supply a rain
bow, that we may be reminded of thy goodness and thine oath, and that
we may be established in faith that cannot decline. We have seen thee
in all the way of our life, and thy touch has been a touch of kindness.
Thy presence has been unto us as a daily redemption ; thy breath has
been a blessing, and all thy care has been assured by the measure of
thine almightiness. Thou art as a shepherd amongst us, as a father, as
a nurse, as a hen that gathereth her brood under her wings, yea, by
many and strange and beautiful figures hast thou revealed thyself unto
us, all showing thee to be full of tenderness and solicitude and love,
anxious for our life and for our happiness, as if we were the only
creatures in thy great creation.
Thou dost come to us night and day ; thou hast made the sun to give
us day and the moon to rule over our night, and thou hast brought us
through all the blackness and through all the mystery of night into
returning morning, which has rekindled hope, and with new strength hast
thou called us to new duties. We love to think of thee ; the thought of
God makes us more Divine. We are lifted up when we think of God
making all and ruling all, and of his tender mercies being over all his
works. Then do we escape the littleness of our self-hood and rise into
the largeness and the liberty of thine immeasurable being. Save us from
the distress of those who see themselves alone. Help us to see God.
Looking upon God, we shall be affrighted indeed, but when thou dost
speak unto us from the flamin.g bush, thou wilt quiet our fear and thou
wilt cause us to enoy a new and tender hope. Enable us to regard all
life as under thy rule. Save us from the imagination that we can do
anything of our own wit or strength that is good, stable, and worthy.
Teach us that in God alone is there strength, in Christ only is there
peace, and in the Holy Spirit of God alone is there regeneration and
wisdom and holiness. Deliver us from all the terror of unbelief, from
all the crime of disbelief, ' May we rest in the Lord, and wait patiently

PR A YER.

for him, and give up unto him our heart's desire, to be accomplished by
his omnipotence.
We now put ourselves into thine hands — they are well kept whom thou
dost keep. We give up keeping ourselves any more ; we would be cared
for, watched, led, guided, and in all things directed and established by
the Lord ot Host's. Thou dost stoop far to stoop to us ; we ask thee now
in Christ's name and at Christ's cross to renew thy condescension and lift
us up, even us, from the deep pit of our folly and crime. We look upon
the world, and our heart is sad. How great must be the grief of thy
spirit ! We are impatient because of the triumphs of vice — we call them
triumphs, not knowing that they are the utterest and completest failures.
Yet our piety exclaims, ' ' Lord, how long ?' ' We would see thee reigning
over human hearts ; we would see the heavens gather blackness as of a
great storm, yet all the clouds should prove themselves to be laden, not
with tempests, but with blessings, so that there may be a great baptism
of the earth, even the baptism ot the Holy Ghost, refreshing, fertilizing,
and blessing the whole human family.
Yet it thou canst wait, why should we be impatient ? Our impatience
comes out ot our littleness : with less ignorance, we should have less
fear. Teach us that thou are doing all things right and well ; that we can
not see the whole circuit of thy movement or understand the entire pur
pose thou hast in view. We are of yesterday, and know nothing ; we are
struggling, praying, triumphing, and failing_to-day in one little hurried
tumult, and to-morrow we are laid in the grave. Pardon our blasphemy
in asking thee to move more quickly in the reclamation of thy prodigals
and in the establishment of thy Holy Kingdom. Thou knowest our little
ness, the meanness to which we have brought ourselves by long-continued
sin ; and it is this which makes itself felt as a stain and a taint even in
our prayers. God be merciful unto us, and therein show still more the
fulness of his pardoning grace.
We bless thee tor this Whittlde memory, this Pentecostal recollection,
when thou didst come in sounds from heaven, with fire from the upper
altar, with baptism from the secret sanctuary. Renew the baptism of fire
to-day — teach us that religion is enthusiasm, or it is not religion — show
us that if piety be not passion, it is what thou canst hot accept. Oh, reveal
unto us the true nature ot thy kingdom ; show us that it moves men to
great ecstasies and solemn raptures, and fills them with ineffable joys,
and that if it make them not burn, as did the bush near Horeb, and yet
not be consumed, they know not the true nature of thy kingdom and
service. We are dull, we are slow, the fire is not in our hearts ; we use
great words and dwarf them into small meanings ; we do not rise to the
passion of utter, joyous, selt-crucifixion ; we say Christ's name, but hell
trembles not at our poor utterance. To-day, then, on this Pentecostal
festival, this time of the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, we ask that we
may enter into new moods, into higher feelings, into nobler conceptions
of thy truth and thy demands, and from this day we would live more

THE MYSTERY OF FORGIVENESS.

nobly, constantly, tenderly, usefully, in the house of our blessed
Father, God.
Thou wilt surely come and make all things thine own. We know this,
and it is our deepest joy. Thou wilt make all things new — the lame shall
leap as a hart, the blind shall see, the leper shall no more be found in
city or wilderness, graves shall be depopulated, death shall be dismissed,
and time shall be no more. Oh, sweet, tender word —promise of music
and light and rest. It is the word of the Lord, and it abideth ; may it
be realized quickly. Oh, that thou wouldst put on the breastplate that
never was smitten, and take the sword that never was turned back, and
that thou wouldst go forth, thou Prince of Kingdoms, and Lord of
Mighties and Dominions, and conquer all things for thyself. Behold,
this we say whilst the blood of the Cross falls upon us, the eternal revela
tion of the eternal love. Amen.

THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.
" Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this
man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." — Acts xiii. 38.
HOW can it be true that through Jesus Christ is preached
the forgiveness of sins, when, as a matter of fact, the for
giveness of sins is an Old Testament doctrine .? If nothing had
been known about forgiveness until the appearance of Jesus
Christ, he would have been justly entitled to identify his name
with the doctrine ; but seeing that it is historically earlier than
his birth, how is it that the act of forgiveness is now inseparably
associated with his priesthood .?
The solution of the apparent difficulty turns wholly upon the
right principle of interpretation, which I can conceive to be that
the Old Testament — Jewish or Pagan — written or unwritten— is
as full of Christ as the New ; that, in fact, the Old Testament is
an anonymous book until Christ attaches his signature to it.
" Search the Scriptures, for they are they which testify of me." In
my opinion we not only lose nothing, we gain much by tracing
the best elements and aspirations of every paganism to a Divine
source and treating them as an Old Testament full of types and
shadows, yearnings and symbols, which find their meaning and
their abrogation in the truth and love of Jesus Christ. Hence the
wise missionary (Paul at Athens, for example) has ever found it
best fully to acknowledge all that is good in heathenism and to

24 ACTS XIH, 38.

carry it forward to its highest meaning. The application of this
principle to the Old Testament of Judaism puts an end to the his
torical difficulty respecting the forgiveness of sins, by showing that
what was once anonymous has been at length identified as the
anticipatory action of Christ— the more clearly so because no
where in the New Testament is the basis of forgiveness changed ;
it is still, as ever, a basis of mediation, sacrifice, priest
hood. But there is another difficulty less easy of solution by the
mere intellect, the difficulty that the sinner should be forgiven
for the sake of Christ and not for his own sake. It is clearly for
Christ's sake that sin is forgiven; thus: "Forgiving one
another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." This
difficulty has expressed itself in various sophisms, some of them
obviously puerile, some of them disingenuous, but most of them
likely to arrest' and captivate the popular mind. For example : If
sin is a debt, why should Christ have paid it .? If Christ has paid
it, why should men be called upon, in suffering and sorrow here,
and in perdition hereafter, to pay it over again ? How could
Christ's Cross pay debts that were not contracted ; that is to say,
pay in advance the debts of men who were not born and who
would not be born until many centuries after the transaction .?
Puerile and uncandid as these questions, and the group to which
they belong, undoubtedly are, perhaps they only imperfecdy ex
press the agony of many honest minds in wrestling with this
stupendous difficulty of forgiveness for the sake of another. In
offering some suggestions upon this difficult}', let us, if possible,
lay hold of some principles that will carry with them all outposts
and casualties, otherwise we shall be fretted by merely formal
variations of one and the same difficulty. Let the question stand
thus : Why should a man be divinely forgiven not for his own
sake but for Christ's .? And let that inquiry support itself by the
further question. If one man can forgive another without the in
tervention of a third party, why cannot the Almighty do the same
thing as between himself and the sinner .?
These questions, simple as they seem, touch nearly every
point of the whole argument of this book ; it might be permitted
for that reason to refer the inquirer to all that has gone before,
but we will summarize for him that he may the more easily come

FORGIVENESS A REVELATION. 25
to a right conclusion. First of all, he must say distinctly where
he learned that word "forgive," which he now uses without ap
parently suspecting his claim to it. He evidently thinks that he
coined the word, that he fixed its proper meaning and scope, and
that therefore it is his own property. This is exactly what is ut
terly denied. We hold as Christian teachers, that forgiveness is
an idea which never occurred to the uninspired mind ; that it is a
revelation ; and that to the man who exercises it may be said,
' ' Flesh and blood hath not revealed that unto thee, but the Father
who is in heaven." Even if it could be shown that men who
never heard of Christ forgave one another, we should require to
know precisely what they meant by forgiveness. Was it a com
promise .? Was it a purchase .? Was it a snare ? Was it a fear .?
Possiblj' if we knew the exact answer, it might be found that the
so-called forgiveness was itself an offence against morals, and
needed itself to be forgiven. Where, then, did the inquirer learn
the word " forgiveness," and now that he has learned it, does he
know its vital and complete meaning ,? That resentment is nat
ural or spontaneous is known to every man ; but that forgiveness
is natural has never yet been proved : something else has, however,
been proved which makes this argument invincible, and that is,
that to forgive from the heart has never been done even by the
best men without the influence of the most forcible considerations
that can move the human will. Resentment comes easily ; for
giveness has to be explained, inculcated, and commended by the
most pathetic reasons. In a sense, easily-apprehended forgiveness
is unnatural, that is to say, it does not spontaneously occur to the
mind ; and even when it is suggested it is instantly encountered
by a resentment which the sufferer vindicates as reasonable and
just. You' may see, then, that even as between man and man,
when forgiveness is really exercised, it may explain itself by the
very words ' ' for the sake of  ;' ' and the offended man may be
entitled to say, " This offence ought to be punished ; it. is cruel ;
it is horrible; and justice itself demands vengeance; but  ,"
and then may be added reasons which if not immoral must be
sublime with the sublimity of the Gospel itself. Was there not a
creditor who having two debtors who had nothing to pay frankly
forgave them both .? There was, but where .? In the conception of
Christ, and yet the fact has been feloniously appropriated as quite

ACTS XIH, 38.

a common human idea 1 Thus men do steal the stars, and show
them as fires of their own kindling.
Having thus demanded of the inquirer where he learned the
word "forgiveness," we must in the next place call upon him
for a distinct explanation of its meaning. Is it something done
in himself, or merely something done for another .? Does it arise
from moral indifference, a temper so easy as to let moral distinc
tions pass without criticism .? Is it an act affected by time, as, for
example, by decline of mere memory, the resentment being de
termined by the vividness or incertitude of the recollection ? Does
he make forgiveness turn in any sense or degree upon mere time,
saying, " It is yet too soon to forgive ; I may forgive in a year or
two, but not now that the wound is so new' ' .? If so, it may not
be magnanimity that is rising, it may be only recollection that is
fading. But with God there is no change of memory ; there is
no succession called time ; he lives in a perpetual present ; if he
forgives, he forgives when the wound is new ; he receives no al
leviation from the lapse of days ; whilst the dagger is yet in the
wound he proclaims the conditions and opportunities of pardon.
Not only so, when we have forgiven our enemies they have still to
be forgiven by God ; this must be so, if we consider that we can
do no more than forgive offences or crimes (and even these under
limited conditions), we cannot enter the inner region of spiritual
transgression. We forgive the blow, but we cannot forgive the
motive which dealt it ; as between two men the offence and the
release may have been completed, but there remains a farther
settlement in which the offended party may have no voice : that
settlement may be social ; as, for example, in the case of felony,
the man who has been robbed may forgive the thief, but society
takes the case from individual judgment, and determines it by an
impartial and general law ; and even society can only kill the
body, and after that it has no more that it can do ; the offender
has still to answer the law of which other laws were but broken
and ill-assorted parts. So, in view of these considerations, it
would appear that forgiveness is not the easy, simple, superficial
act that long familiarity with its name -^vould seem to suggest. It
is an agony. It is a cross. It is a shedding of blood I
If the inquirer has been proceeding upon the idea that forgive
ness is merely a courteous answer to a personal apology, there

MAN'S FORGIVENESS OF MAN, 27
need be no wonder as to his embarrassment on reading an account
of what is required to secure the Divine pardon of human sin. But
it is his conception or definition that is at fault, and not the New
Testament law. It would indeed be only modest on the part of
the inquirer to say, that seeing God requires such and such con
ditions before he can pardon the sinner, it is evident that the
whole question of sin is larger than man is able fully to compre
hend, having relationships and effects which transcend the circle
of human intelligence. But if the inquirer is yet unprepared for
this admission, we must bind him to a severe scrutiny of the
things which he does suppose himself to know. Unfortunately he
already knows the word "forgive," and it is hard for him to
believe that it is one of the words which have been revealed —
plucked for him from the tree ot life— but in the face of this mis
fortune we must ply him with this question ; Why should there
be such an act as the forgiveness of offence as between man and
man, and of sin as between God and man .? Take the former
branch of the inquiry first. Why should man forgive man .? Will
you thereby gain the man .? But is any man worth gaining who
can offend, annoy, and injure another .? If you say. First punish
the man and then forgive him, you must remember that it the pun
ishment is just, he has by the very fact of its endurance so far paid
off his obligation ; if the punishment was not sufficient to cover
the whole ground of the offence, that is your blame, not his, for
you yourself, without any interference on his part, fixed the meas
ure of the punishment, and finally, if by the endurance of punish
ment a man can honourably though painfully discharge his obli
gations, why should you torment him with a needless charity (a
form, indeed, of malignity), for whose exercise you may be
tempted to glorify yourself, when the man was able and willing to
meet you upon independent terms .? If he did so meet you, there
would be no act of forgiveness ; it would be simply the case of a
man paying his debts to the uttermost farthing. But there is
another question deeper still, which the inquirer is bound to con
sider : Is it possible for forgiveness to be a one-sided act .? This
is an answer to the suggestion that God should forgive the sinner
without terms and without mediation. If it turn out that the
most magnanimous man cannot by any act of his own complete
all that is meant by forgiveness, that fact may change the scope of

28 ACTS XIII, 38.

the whole argument. He may have the disposition to forgive ; he
may declare his willingness to forgive ; he may go so far as actu
ally to say that he has forgiven ; and yet nothing farther than a
one-sided act has taken place. There must be a corresponding
movement on the other side, or nothing effectual can be done.
And this is exactly what God requires. He proclaims himself a
God delighting in forgiveness and mercy, but beyond that he can
not go ; but if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to for
give us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness ; the
penitent thief he will save ; the impenitent thief damns himself.
If a man sins against you and expresses sorrow, you can forgive
and restore the offender ; but if he deny his ofience, or glory in
it, any forgiveness you may exercise can be one-sided only, and
may even tend towards self-demorahzation and social disorder.
Thus God represents himself as jealous, severe, by no means par
doning the guilty, or allowing the sinner to go free ; and this
rigour is the security and defence of the universe. Even God,
then, cannot forgive without confession on the part of man ; and
whether a sinner can confess without Christ is a question which the
inquirer should deeply consider.
Let us include that question in one still larger : Is forgiveness
possible? If by forgiveness we are to understand that a thing once
done can be undone, then we are confronted with something like a
miracle, and we are entitled to ask. Is it possible? Let us grant
that a thing done may be treated as if'xX. had never been done ;
that it may be relegated to oblivion and silence by a determination
of the will on both sides ; but something more than this is meant
by forgiveness, or if it mean this only, we may well say of the
Atonement, Why was this waste made .? The Christian idea of
forgiveness includes cleansing, purification, justification, the utter
destruction of the sin or sins to which it is extended ; it means
birth, sonship, inheritance. " How can these things be.?" We
nowhere find the solution of a miracle in the miracle itself ; we
look beyond, we look above : so we must do in this case ; intel
lectually, as we understand the term, this thing — viz., the oblit
eration of moral history— is impossible ; but in many things we
have to take our idea of possibility not from ourselves but from
God, saying, "With man this is impossible, but with God all
things are possible." So we return to the point from which there

FOR CHRIST'S SAKE.

is no escape, the doctrine that all vital truth is revealed to the
mind of man, and consequently that we walk by faith and not by
sight. Now as to the difficulty supposed to inhere in the words ' ' for
Christ's sake." If man can forgive man, why cannot God forgive
the sinner, without the intervention of a third person ? But it has
already been pointed out that man cannot forgive man in the sense
implied in the objection, and therefore the inquiry based upon it
loses its application and point. Man can forgive offences, he
cannot forgive the sin which they represent ; herein the old in
quiry is for ever pertinent. Who can forgive sins but God only .?
But it is not enough to destroy the validity of the objection ; we
must, if possible, get at the positive truth, and I believe you will
find it in the direction of the suggestion, perhaps in the suggestion
itself, that there is no forgiveness between man and man except i7i
Christ OT ior Christ' s sake ; overlooking there maybe, and pallia
tion, and acceptance of apologies, but it can only be in Christ
that deep, true, cordial, everlasting forgiveness can transpire
between man and man. It is far from certain, however, that the
name of Christ may be present in the consciousness of the man
who exercises this forgiveness ; he may not be able to give a name
or a definition to the motive by which he is impelled ; and yet not
the less certainly may he be acting in the Christly spirit. We do
not always know what we do or why we do it, but Christ himself
will surprise us with unexpected and gracious interpretations
when he ' ' comes in his glory. ' ' The righteous will be told to
their amazement that they have ministered to Christ in minister
ing to the least of his brethren ; and to them also will be revealed
the fact that in making their most strenuous advances in the direc
tion of cordial and absolute forgiveness, they were moving in his
strength, and more or less unconsciously accepting and honouring
his inspiration. So true is it that ' our consciousness has actually
to be interpreted to itself, and that Christ will reveal his presence
and power in the least suspected circumstances. Now in so far as
the doctrine is true that the exercise of forgiveness, whether between
man and man, or God and the sinner, is really and necessarily,
however imperfectly recognized in the former case, something
done for the sake of Christ, it would seem to follow that the basis

30 ACTS XIH. 38.

of true forgiveness is not a matter for metaphysical investigation
and debate, but is revealed to us, and therefore is ours not as a
mere spoil won by force of intellect, but a holy and gracious truth
which we hold in childlike and grateful faith. This is the only
satisfactory answer we can return to the difficulty supposed to be
found in the necessary presence of Christ in the act of forgiveness
as between God and the sinner ; an answer which may be thus
summed up ; (i) Forgiveness is not the easy and simple act which
it is supposed to be ; (2) analogies founded upon human forgive
ness are incomplete, because they relate only to offences and
not to spiritual corruption ; (3) forgiveness itself is not the spon
taneous outgrowth of human feeling, it comes from Divine in
spiration ; (4) human forgiveness, in the sense in which it ap
proaches Divine pardon, is really, though perhaps unconsciously,
done in Christ's name or for Christ's sake ; and (5) forgiveness is
not a question within the province of intellectual speculation ; it is
revealed to us as a possibility ; the questions upon which its pos
sibility is founded are also revealed to us ; and those conditions
are, primarily, the priesthood of Christ, and secondarily, the peni
tent and utterly unreserved confession of sin by the transgressor.

XLIL
PRAYER.
Almighty God, thou knowest what is best for us, and we want nothing
that thou thyself wilt not supply. We come to thee for everything. No
good thing wilt thou withhold from them that walk uprightly. By thy
Holy Spirit alone can we who have found out many inventions return to
the uprightness of our creation. But thy Spirit is freely and largely
promised ; he is not given to us in small measure, but in double portions ;
yea, thou hast said thou wilt open the windows of heaven, and pour out a
blessing, until there shall not be room to contain it. Where sin abounds,
grace shall much more abound. The blackness of our guilt shall be
driven away by the light of the grace of Christ. There is no guilt which
thy grace cannot conquer ; there is no darkness which thou canst not dis
solve and dispel, and in its place set the infinite glory of thy presence.
This is our joy in Christ ; we are no more afraid ; even we who have
lived long in bondage are now in Christ Jesu, the risen One, singing
songs ot liberty. The bitterness of death is past. The victory has been
plucked from the grave, so that there is no more boasting in its cold,
dumb mouth. We are now on the immortal side where there is no win
ter, no pain, no death ; we walk in green pastures, and by still waters,
and at noon we lie down in the shadow, comforted by the Shepherd's
care. We are, in our highest and purest moods, even now in heaven.
This is heaven to love thee as thou art revealed in thy Son ; no higher
heaven is possible to our imagination. We are at rest in Christ ; we are
at peace with God ; we inherit the whole estate ot the promises, and there
is nothing held back from us that can make our souls strong. We do
indeed in our sinfulness fall back from these heights ; the animal triumphs
over the angel tor a moment ; the man is sunk in the beast, than which
there is no deeper fall ; but thou dost recover us with daily redemption,
and at night, enfolded within the arms of thine almightiness, we feel and
know that the darkness cannot put out the stars, that the cloud is not
near the sun, and that thy love towards us abideth for ever.
Help us to read thy Word wisely ; not for our gratification only, but
for our instruction, and even for our reproof. May we come to thy Word
with unbiassed mind ; may our one question be. What saith the testi
mony? Enlightened by thy Holy Spirit, softened and ennobled in every
thought and affection by thy grace, may we hear the Word, and know it
and answer it in an obedient life. May nothing stand between our con
viction and our obedience. Though it be a cross, may we carry it boldly

ACTS XIII. 42-52.

and hopefully in strength Divine ; yea, though we have to pass through
hell itself in all its agony and shame, may we not fear the fire because of
the One who is with us like unto the Son ot man I Enable us also to
read the larger book of thy providence, the leaves of which thou dost turn
every day in our very sight and hearing. If we read the daily event, the
continual occurrence, may we have understanding oftentimes, and know
what the Christian Church ought to do. Lift up the level ot our think
ing ; inspire and attune all our feeling ; destroy the altar of self-idolatry,
and bring us without vanity, or self-trust, or false hope, to renew by the
mighty energy of the Holy Ghost our noblest vows at the altar of the
Cross. Feed us with bread sent down from heaven ; find water for us in
the wilderness, and honey in the barest rocks ; in our dreams may we see
ladders connecting the worlds, and making the universe one temple of
God. Heal our sicknesses, and through them may we pass to youth and life
and immortality. Let the life-day — now declining, now rising, now in
old age, now in childhood — be a day full of the presence of the Lord's
light ; then, whether it be morning, or midday, or eventide, the heart
shall know that in Christ its strength is assured, and its peace can never
be destroyed. Amen. Acts xiii. 42-52.
42. And as they went out [the participle implies that they stopped as
they went out], they besought that these words might be spoken to them
the next Sabbath.
43. Now when the synagogue broke up, many of the Jews and of the
devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas : who, speaking to them,
urged them to continue in the grace of God.
44. And the next Sabbath [probably in the interval Paul and Barnabas
worked at their trade as tent-makers] almost the whole city was gathered
together [thronging the portals and windows, or gathered in some open
piazza] lo hear the word of God.
45. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with
jealousy, and contradicted the things which were spoken by Paul, and
blasphemed. 46. And Paul and Barnabas spake out boldly, and said. It was neces
sary that the word <^i God should first be spoken to you. Seeing ye
thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy [probably a, touch of
irony in the tone] of eternal lite, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.
47. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee for a
light of the Gentiles, That thou shouldst be for salvation unto the utter
most part of the earth [the germ of the argument, afterwards more fully
developed in Rom. ix. 25 ; x. 12].
48. And as the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the
word of God : and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.

THE WORTH OF SYMPATHY, ¦^¦i
49. And the word of the Lord was spread abroad throughout all the
region [the border district of the provinces of Cappadocia and Galatia].
50. But the Jews urged on the devout women of honourable estate, and
the chief men of the city [they compassed sea and land to make one
proselyte], and stirred up a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and
cast them out of their borders.
51. But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came
unto Iconium.
52. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost.

GROWTH OF APOSTOLIC POWER.
THERE are always unexpected hearers arising to give encour
agement to the doubting and often disheartened preacher.
He thinks he foreknows who will be delighted with his testimony
and thankful for his service ; but in most of his forecasts he is
wrong, yet is he not left without encouragement : strangers are
there who spring up, and say, " This is none other than the
house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." The Gentiles
hailed the Word as strangers might hail tidings of home. We
know some things not by direct intellectual instruction, but by
subtle and inexpressible sympathy, V^efeel that certain words are
true. Were we invited to hold controversy about them on general
grounds, we might dechne the discussion, saying,, " Whatever may
be stated on the other side, there is something in this doctrine that
touches my necessity, and offers a balm to my wound and pain."
We may not know music technically, but surely the dullest man
knows it sympathetically, and feels when the right tune is being
sung. He has no explanation in words ; he cannot conduct a
controversy upon the matter, but his soul says, " This wind com
eth from heaven ; this sound is an inspired utterance ; these are
the tones that will find their way back again to the heaven whence
they came." So we sometimes sing, not with the voice — we sing
with the understanding, with sympathy of the heart, with appre
ciation, with answering love. Some persons imagine they are not
singing unless they are uttering tones with their own voice, where
as sometimes the best singing is that which is done silentl)' in the
heart, the heart giving out in great Aniens as the thunder rolls, or
the tender whisper expresses the inmost desire and rapture of the
hidden life. The Gentiles heard a strange speech that day, yet

34 ACTS XIII. 42-52.

they knew it. Sometimes we say, " Where did I see that man
before ? You tell me I have never seen him, but I feel that I
have seen him somewhere." No, you never did in the flesh;
but you know him ; he is a revelation to you — his presence, his
voice, the touch of his hand ; all things conspire to confirm the
impression that you must surely have seen that man somewhere be
fore. So when we hear great gospels, sweet promises, and tender
invitations, we say, " When did these things come under our at
tention before ?' ' From before the foundations of the world !
This is the meaning of the compass and the pomp of God's eter
nity I The tiny little dewdrop moments shall throw back the sun
that fills infinity. Surely we have an identifying faculty ; most
truly there is something within us which says, " This is none
other than the house of God ; surely this is music fit for angels.
Where did we hear this before ? All this is like a dream." So it
is ; because the universe is the expression of an eternal thought.
The Lamb was slain before the universe was built ; the Atone
ment was completed before black Sin struck God in the face. It
is we who are late ; we are behind the ages ; eternity has breathed
its infinite speech across our little time-planet, and we think in
our delirious imagining that we were first, and that all things
came after us 1 Know of a very truth, time is younger than eter
nity ; that time is, so to say, part of eternity, and that the Gospel,
wherever it comes, comes to a measure of preparation — not of a
technical kind, but somehow in the most barbaric and savage breast
there rises up an answering voice, saying, " This is what I have
been waiting for ; this is the piece, one of ten, that I had lost."
Herein is the whole mystery of preordination, election, predesti
nation — namely, the heart throwing itself back upon the Eterni
ties, and finding that things are not broken up into little frag
ments, but that " one increasing purpose runs through all the
process of the suns" ; the purpose of God, the thought of heaven,
the election of omniscient love.
But preachers have to find out their hearers. Paul and Barna
bas wer,e no doubt amazed that ' ' the Gentiles besought that
these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath."
The invitation would have come naturally from the Jews. It
would be a pleasant thing if our neighbors, friends, comrades,
would invite us to this or that renewal of service, but they go

CA USE AND EFFECT. 35

away and leave us. But we are not alone ; for God, who is able
to raise up out of the stones children unto Abraham, raises up
strange hearers, unknown hearts, and from them comes the cry
which we cannot refuse to answer. Every preacher has his own
set of hearers, and they who hear him can hear nobody else with
the same breadth of advantage, and with the same conscious
masonry of love and sympathy. " My sheep know my voice"
is a doctrine which has its human applications as well as its Divine
meanings. There are some men without whom, speaking in
human ignorance, we could not live happily ; there are some
voices which if we do not hear we are conscious of a great
vacancy ; yet the same words may be pronounced, but not with
the same tone. It is the heart that accentuates the speech, and
carries the eloquence, however broken and swift, straight home.
We think we have expressed the very last formula of science
when we say the same causes produce the same effects. There is
something of the conciseness of Euclid himself in that neat sen
tence ; it reads like one of the old geometrician's axioms ; yet it
is not true. If I may so put it, the so-called axiom is a. fact, but
not a truth. The truth is larger than any fact. In mathematics,
or in physical science, the same causes may produce the same
effects, but in all moral questions the axiom is not only doubtful,
out untrue. The Jews and the Gentiles represented this solemn ¦
doctrine in the various ways in which they received the Divine
communication. The Jews were ' ' filled with envy, ' ' the Jews
contradicted and blasphemed ; the Gentiles were " filled with
joy." How do you account for that .? It was the same Sabbath,
the same chmate, the same preacher, the same doctrine, the same
congregation, but the Jews were filled with envy, and spake
against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting
and blaspheming ; but the Gentiles were glad, and glorified the
word of the Lord. There the same cause did not produce the
same effect. You are not dealing with cause and effect only in a
case of this kind ; you are dealing with the middle quantity,
human nature. Like goes to like. " Like priest like peo
ple " ; the preacher incarnates himself in his audience in the
degree in which that audience is sympathetic and appreciative ; the
pulpit and the pew in such circumstances are occupied by the

36 ACTS XIH. 42-52.

same man. Find a congregation knit together in the bonds of
sympathy in reference to the Paul, or the Barnabas, or the
preacher of their choice, and you find a marked intellectual and
moral likeness between the preacher and the people. Like to
like ; hatred may be as sincere as love. The same preacher can
not mimster to all people. A man may dislike this ministry or that
ministry solely because he may not understand it or be in sym
pathy with it, but to another man it is the very breath of heaven.
So, then, let us have the larger outlook, the nobler charity, that
says God's chariots are twenty thousand in number, and you can
not tell in which one of them the king will ride forth ; — it is the
King ; never mind the particular chariot in which he goes abroad.
The Gentiles understood Paul and Barnabas : the Gentiles said,
" This is a true word ; oh, that there were seven Sabbaths in the
week, and that we could stay and hear this wondrous sound, this
music of the heavens." Thanks be unto God, every true Paul,
every true Barnabas, has at least some few Gentiles who under
stand and love him.
The forty-third verse reads, ' ' Now when the congregation was
broken up." Was it then all over.? Congregations should
never break up in the sense of terminating the spiritual min
istry which they were organized to foster and sustain. There
were after-meetings. Beza says that herein is a justification
for mid-week meetings and lectures. " Now when the con
gregation was broken up the people dispersed, and referred no
more to the matter." Does the text read so.? It would read so
if it had been written to-day. I never hear any one make a
moment's reference to the solemn engagements of the sanctuary
after they are over. Who would not be positively astounded to
hear one of his fellovv-hearers refer to the service .? It is nothing,
it is a decency observed, a ceremony passed through, a fact accom
plished. In the olden time Christian service used to be the be-
all and the end-all of the life of those who engaged in it. They
were never late, they were never reluctant ; what was said was
meant to be done in the obedience of a noble life. This was the
ancient Christianity. We have gone down in these latter ages.
Were Paul amongst us now, he would be the first man who would
be turned out of the Church, unless indeed Christ himself were to

NEW TESTAMENT PREACHING. 2,7
come, and he would not be allowed . to live one da}'. We use a
name without knowing any tittle of its meaning ! Here is life in
the olden time. There is a savour of antiquity about it ; it is like
something very old — " And the next Sabbath came almost the
whole city together to hear, the word of God. But when the
Jews saw the muUitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake
against these things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting
and blaspheming. ' ' That was life ! A man could preach then !
Sermons were thunderbolts I Religious services were religious
battles ; they were not opportunities for sanctified slumber ; they
were calls, as with the blast of a thousand trumpets, to the stand
ard and to the sword of the Lord. Nothing now is so easily for
gotten as a sermon — simply because nobody ever listens to one ;
they endure it, they sit it out, but as to listening to it, in the
sense of opening the heart and letting every word go right in as a
guest from heaven, who listens .? We could not be so dumb if we
did it. This is the old familiar scene which has passed before us
so often in the Scriptures. The preacher preaching, the hearer
contradicting, the Apostle declaring the cbunsel of God, the angry
Jew blaspheming. What a medley it made ! What a tumult !
What vexation of mind and distraction of thought ! That was
living ! We have fallen on cold times. Christianity has had its
heroic time even in Western lands, but the heroic days are dead.
In the forty-sixth verse the ministers spring to their feet. They
have felt, as it were, the sting of fire. In this verse they become,
so to say, new men. ' ' Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold. ' '
There is history in these words ; it was a critical moment ; it was
one of two things — the Jews by their blasphemy prevailing, or the
Apostles of Christ starting up and saying, " The day shall be
ours." Some men are so easily put down ; if they think there is
going to be an extra crowd, they remain at home and sigh ; if
they see a man a little rougher than another coming to church,
they go out by the back door lest something should happen.
Paul and Barnabas were not made of such material ; history is not
made of such stuff I Herein do I approve of the badges which
some men wear, proclaiming thereby that they belong to this or
that party, and are not ashamed of their colours ; there are others
whose boldness is in their spoken testimony. Somewhere, in

38 ACTS XIH. 42-52.

symbol or in speech, you must find the heroic element in every
true man. I know nothing of that marvellous love of Christ that
never mentions his name, that never touches his memorial bread
or memorial wine ; that ineffable love of Christ that never gives
him a cup of cold water. Be ours the Christianity that is bold,
open, candid, and, if need be, heroic and self-sacrificing. Let
the world know that we are followers of the Cross. When I
read that Paul " waxed bold," I am not surprised ; but when I
read that Barnabas waxed bold, I wonder if he would have done
so if Paul had not been there. We cannot decide that interest
ing question, but Barnabas ought to take care that Paul is always
there 1 Paul will lead, Barnabas will follow. Barnabas ! take
care that your strong brother is always nigh ai hand when you go
out to do Christian work, for in his strength you may be strong.
"As many as were ordained to eternal life believed." How
many poor souls have stumbled there, as if a door had been shut
in their faces, whereas there is no door but an open one to the
heart of God ! Never found what you call good theology upon
bad grammar. Always, first and foremost, be right in your
grammar, and then build your theology, because if you build a
theological system upon a sandy foundation, the rains will fall,
and the floods come, and beat upon it, and your theological
house will fall down because it is founded upon the sand of bad
grammar. Happily these words, which have frightened so m-any,
need not frighten any more, for the most learned men tell us that
they might be read " and so many as set themselves in order"
were saved ; as many as took up this matter ; as many as accept
ed the Word ; as many as disposed themselves in soldierly order
and array went on to victory and honour. There can be no more
terrible blasphemy than for any man to think that God has a spite
against him, and will not let him be saved. Beware what you
say ! It is a fearful thing to stand up and say — magnifying your
selves so as to be of importance to the universe — " God has a
feeling against us which prevents us accepting the Gospel of Salva
tion." From end to end, from top to bottom, in every point
of it, that is a lie ! God would have ALL men to come unto him
and be saved. Jesus Christ came " to seek and to save that
which was lost." If you are "lost," he came for you ; if you

DIVERSE EFFECTS OF THE GOSPEL. 39
are not lost, he did not come for you ; for " the Son of man is not
come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
Notice one extraordinary expression. In the forty-sixth verse
" the Jews were filled with envy" ; in the fifty-second verse we
read "the disciples were filled with joy. " It is always so with
the Gospel ; it is a savour of life unto life, or of death unto
death ; it makes a man a worse man, or a better man. The Gospel
will not let a man remain just as he is ; coming to a man, plead
ing with the man, asking for his confidence and love, and the man
saying NO — from that moment the man is a worse man than he
ever was before. Or the man saying " YES ; come in, thou
blessed of the Lord, and take every inch of my heart' ' — then the
man is what the Lord would have him be — noble, pure, upright,
a creature in the image and likeness of the Creator. But " my
Spirit shall not always strive with man." The Apostles said " It
was necessary that the Word of God should first be spoken to
you" ; but after that comes the withdrawal of the opportunity, the
taking away of the light, the shutting of the hospitable door.
This may be our last chance ! We cannot tell what a day may
bring forth. " He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck,
shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." As a
matter of fact — solemn, interesting, and thrilling — the great Gos
pel of Christ is now amongst us in this synagogue or congrega
tion ; it is offering itself to every heart, and it is for us to say
whether this Sabbath shall be the most memorable in our history
by our acceptance of the Divine Guest, or whether it shall be the
most memorable in our history in that we said, " We will not
have this man to reign over us." But know that whether we ac
cept or reject, God's house shall be full. He is able of these
stones to raise up children unto Israel I Out of the dust of the
earth he will make himself an exceeding great army. What say
you .? Unto us the opportunity is now given. Christ will not be
disappointed ; in the long run he shall see of the travail of his soul
and shall be satisfied, and at his great banquet board there shall
not be one vacant seat. " Seek ye the Lord while he m.ay be
found, call upon him while he is near." " Ho, every one that
thirsteth, come ye to the waters." " The Spirit and the bride say.
Come ; let him that heareth say, Come. Whosoever will, let him
come." Shall so fair a chance be answered with a mean reply ?

XLIII.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, do thou come to us as the light ; make morning in
our hearts ; let the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings,
and flood our souls with the dawn ol heaven. Thou knowest how our
eyes are filled with darkness, and how our feet stumble like those who
walk in the night ; but it thou wilt come to us, the gloom shall flee
away, the whole sky shall burn with glory, and our life shall be a joyous
advance amid the increasing splendours of day. Thy Son our Saviour is
the Light of the world. In him is light, and there is no darkness at all.
May he be amidst his saved ones, walking in their midst as their light,
their salvation, and their defence. Recall by his presence all his min
istry ; then shall we hasten to Bethlehem to see the Child Jesus, and to
the temple, and to all the way of the cities and the villages which he
visited, and we shall find Golgotha, Calvary, the Cross, and see the blood
and know its meaning, and watch by the grave until death is swallowed
up in victory. Thus in the presence of his life on earth shall we see the
meaning of his ministry in heaven, and great and elevating comfort shall
lift up our souls to a new level of existence, and sacred joys shall drive
away all earthly sorrows, until our hearts shall be as temples of God. If
we breathe great prayers in thy hearing, it is because thou hast first
breathed them into our hearts. Lord, thou dost teach us how to pray ;
thou dost not inspire the prayer and then deny it ; thine answer is as
large as thine inspiration. So are we comforted by replies from the
throne of grace. We will not be downcast into despair by reason of our
sin ; we will rather be driven by it to penitence, to broken-heartedness,
and to the contrition which brings sweet hope and tender grace ; thus
our sin shall open wider the door of thy love ; where sin abounded, grace
shall much more abound, and out of a bitter root shall there arise a tree
the fruit of which shall be good. Thou art our Lord and God, the source
of our being and the source of our regeneration ; and because of this
faith, we are strong to-day, looking upon all the incidents of time with a
calm and patient contemplation, knowing that thou art sitting on the
circle of the earth, that all things are in thy right hand, that not a sparrow
faileth to the ground without thee ; and comforted and strengthened by
this deep and sacred trust, we wait and watch and sing in the night time,
and above the morning glory we see a still brighter light. We come
always to thee as thou wilt, and as our sin necessitates. By no golden
stair of our own making do we climb — we come by the way of the Cross ;

ANNOTATED TEXT. 41
we have not found any other way into the court of thy righteousness, or
into the presence of thy mercy ; in our right hand is blood, in our left
hand is blood, upon our head is blood — the blood ot Jesus Christ thy Son,
which cleanseth from all sin, answering every charge of the law, repelling
every suggestion of despair, and drawing us into deeper and tenderer
trust in the living God, the Saviour of all mankind. If all our days are
few and evil, thou canst make them many and good. The disappoint
ments ot time thou canst sanctify, the losses of eaith thou canst make up
to us until we forget their distress — yea, the grave itself is the field on
which thy greatest miracles can be seen. Thou who dost bring creation
out of the void, thou who dost find order and beauty in the midst of
tumult and shapelessness, wilt also bid death, cold and dumb, arise and
stand up and forget itself in the glow of immortality. This is thy sweet
Gospel, thou who once wast crowned with thorns and pierced with spears,
Man of the Cross, Creator of the world ; and we receive it and answer it,
and will live in its spirit, and die in its light, by the mighty energy and
tender and continual comfort of the Holy Ghost, Amen.
Acts xiv. 1-7.
I. And it came to pass in Iconium [fifty miles from Antioch] that they
entered together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that [cf.
" so that" in John iii. 16] a great multitude both of Jews and of Greeks
\i.e., uncircumcised proselytes of the gate, xiii. 43] believed.
2. But the Jews that were disobedient [to this word] stirred up the
souls ot the [heathen] Gentiles, and made them evil affected against the
brethren [literally : " stirred up and exasperated the souls," etc.. Psalm
cvi. 32. Jews excited all the persecutions of the^Acts except two].
3. Long time therefore [because of the faith of some, and of the disobe
dience ot others to the Gospel] they tarried there speaking boldly in the
Lord, which bare witness unto the word of his grace, granting signs and
wonders to be done by their hands.
4. But [the second, unfavourable, consequence ot the faith and disobe
dience] the multitude of the city was divided : and part held with the
Jews, and part with the Apostles.
5. And when there was made an onset [a " movement," not an actual
onslaught] both of the Gentiles [v. 2] and of (he Jews with their rulers
[the conspiracy was Jewish in its organization, cf. Phil. i. i] to entreat
them shamefully, and to stone them,
6. They became aware of it, and fled unto the [minor] cities of
Lycaonia [Pliny states that Iconium was still the capital of tbe " Lycao-
nian tetrarchy." The Gauls or Galatians who had dispossessed the
former Phrygian owners of Central Asia Minor, in the third century
before Christ, had divided themselves into 12 tetrarchies. Amyntas " ted
his 300 flocks" in Lycaonia, before becoming king of all Galatia. After
his death Galalia was organized as a Roman province. This Lycaonian

42 ACTS XIV, 1-7.

" region of Galatia" was.revisited by Paul (as related in xvi. 6, and xviii.
23). To these Galatians Paul wrote his epistle], Lystra and Derbe, and
the region [of Galatia] round about.
7. And there they preached the Gospel.

PERSECUTION TURNED INTO INSPIRATION.
THE Apostles had finished their work in the Antioch of
Pisidia in a great storm. Can that be true, a sweet word
of God, which so violently impassions men and divides quiet cities
into hostile camps .? It would seem as if the heavenly word
would surely bring heavenly peace along with it, and seal its
divinity by composing into enduring rest all controversy and dis
cord. That is our narrow and sophistical reasoning. The Son
of man came not to send peace on the earth, but a sword. Do
not think that I have come to send peace on the earth ; I have
come to send fire. That is the idea which we have lost. Now
that the Apostles have come to Iconium, they will act in a differ
ent manner. We correct ourselves by our mistakes, and thus we
make to-day nobler than yesterday ; but we find that such was not
the case. There, in little beautiful Iconium, we have angry divi
sion, despiteful usage, and stoning I How is this .? There must
be an explanation beneath it all, otherwise we had better let
Christianity alone. These histories throw some light upon what
is called unanimity. We find that unanimity is now regarded as a
virtue by some people. There is no more virtue in unanimity
than there is in sincerity. It we have been thinking that sincerity
is a virtue, we have been thinking on wrong lines. Unanimity is
no virtue, sincerity is no virtue, earnestness is no virtue ; we must
ascertain what the unanimity is about, and what men are sincere
in doing, and earnest in carrying out, because good fire may be
used for the forging of bad instruments. Surely it was a pity for
two wandering tent-makers to go from town to town, disturbing
the unanimity of families and of townships ! Why not let fami
lies and corporations alone ? They are living peaceably, quietly,
without controversy, without the spirit of hostility. Why not say,
" Sleep on ; yea in deeper slumber still take your rest " .? Why
this propagation of a fighting faith ? Why this inauguration of
controversy which brings with it stoning, imprisonment, fire and

CHRISTIANITY NOT A COMPROMISE. 43
blood ? This is the way of Christianity. It will not let people
alone. Hence we find these histories throwing some light upon
Christian doctrine, as well as upon unanimity. It was not a little
puzzle to please the fancy, nor a pyrotechnic display around
which the children gathered, and which they hailed with child
like pleasure and gratification. It was something very differ
ent. Christianity is not a suggestion; there is no "If you
please" in the lips of Christianity ; it saves, or slays. It builds
high heaven, sunlighted and eternal, or it digs deep hell, and
plunges into it all wickedness and unrighteousness, all rebellion
and perverse disbelief. We are always open to suggestions if
men will timidly whisper them and mealily refer to them cir-
cuitously, and in language which will admit of any number of
modified interpretations ; we are not the men to disdain them ;
but Christianity comes in and puts its foot down soundingly
on the Church floor, and lifts itself up, and says, " What is
this.?" and then unfolds, in royal tone and noble speech, its
revelation ; and though smitten in the face, it lifts up a counte
nance, marred and broken, of indestructible beaut}', and repeats
the revelation which has thus been brutally received. What
wonder if it came upon sleepy towns like the rushing of a thun
derstorm, unparalleled, at midnight .? Christianity is not a com
promise ; it does not come saying, ' ' I can complete the line
which you have drawn" ; it does not propose to give a littie and
take a little, and make a quiet pacific arrangement with anybody ;
it comes with instruments that mean digging up and pulling
down, and blowing all to pieces the proudest and strongest for
tresses of man's trust. We are always open to a compromise ; we
are willing to meet difficulties, and to adjust them by apparenUy
fair and equitable concessions, but Christianity concedes nothing,
admits nothing ; Christianity insists upon having everything ; it
receives no suggestions, makes room for nothing else ; it fills the
whole space of the mind and heart. What wonder, then, that
everywhere it broke up families, and set the father against the son,
the mother against the daughter, and friend against friend .? See
ing your hand locked in evil friendship, it does not hesitate to
rend your hearts asunder ; when all your papers are kept together
in the same archives, and your secrets are whispered to one
another in tender confidence, Christianity does not hesitate to set

44 ACTS XIV, 1-7,

fire to the archives and the papers, and to blow the secrets away
by a furious wind wliich cannot be stilled. Christianity says,
"Behold, I make all things new." It will not say to a man,
" Hand me your work, and I will complete it ; I will give the
last touch of beauty to what you yourselves have been labour
ing upon successfully" ; — it comes with a mighty iron hammer,
which it wields with an arm of omnipotence, and it shatters our
brazen idols and all our best performances, smiting them in vital
parts, and denouncing them with fierce righteousness. Then it
must be a long time since we have seen anything of Christianity !
So it is ; we know nothing about it in these social aspects now —
it is a name we sometimes conjure by. It is not the power of
God — it is a theology, it is a controversy in words, it is a map of
orthodoxy ; if you will buy it, accept it, fold it up, and put it
away — that is all that is often asked of )'0u !
These histories throw some light upon Christian service. The
ministry used to mean something — it means nothing heroic now.
It is a profession. It is one of the learned professions ! The
ministry a profession ! It was not much of a profession in the
days of Paul and Barnabas, and their missionary visits and pro
pagations of the faith. Christian service is the supreme passion :
it puts out everything else, it has no partnerships, it has no rela
tions except those which it can press into its own purpose and sac
rifice. We must love the Sabbath more than the day that went
before, or the day that comes after, if we are truly in the Lord's
work, and bound to the altar hand and foot, head and heart. To
us, then, there is only one day in the week, a seven-day-long
Sunday, — Christ's day, the Cross day, preaching day ! It is not
so sufficiently now. We mark off Sunday ; we lock up the
church ; we attend to its business after all other business is done ;
we give our weariness where we ought to give our enthusiasm,
and put out a stiff hand, cold and bloodless, where we ought to
send forth a whole heart burning with the very heat of God's
own love. Christian service exposes to daily danger. If we have
escaped the danger, it is because we ha\'e escaped the service.
When did we ever rebuke a wrong-doer ,? We have talked about
him when he was not there — that I admit ; and that has proved
our z/«-Christianily : about the latter there can be no doubt.
When did wc ever say to a man face to face — "You lie" ?

RELIGIOUS SENSATIONALISM. 45
That would now be called discourtesy ; but when were we ever
licensed to be courteous to falsehood .? Produce the charter
which entitles you to treat a liar as a gentleman. Christianity is
not a book of etiquette — it is a book of commandments, statutes,
precepts, a gospel of righteousness as well as a gospel of compas
sion. When did we ever stand before a house, and say, " This
house must come down if the price be fivefold what it will fetch
m the market ; it must come down, it is a trapdoor into hell, and
it must fall"? Let a man say that, and he will soon see that
England is like Antioch and Iconium, and all the other scenes of
apostolic labour and sacrifice. But if we come into the church,
pass through the services, hasten away home again, and lose our
selves in controversy that has no heavenly accent and no heavenly
savour, I wonder not that we pass our days and nights very com
posedly, and that we are going to heaven, as we imagine, lulled
by some theological narcotic. It is no heaven we are going to !
It may have written heaven above its portals, but that inscription
is a lie I You cannot speak the truth and be quiet ; you cannot
be true and have no trouble. " If any man will live godly in
Christ Jesus, he shall suffer persecution"; the persecution itself
may change in form and method and tone, but righteousness
can never confront unrighteousness without a battle.
Christian service divides public opinion. " A great multitude
both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed, but the unbe
lieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil
affected against the brethren." " The multitude of the city was
divided : and part held with the Jews, and part with the Aposties."
That is how it ought to be always. It is pitiful to hear sundry
self-indulgent persons talking against what they term religious
sensationalism. They do not know what they speak about ;
Christianity is nothing if it is not the supreme sensation. It is
not one of many. It takes its numerical order, as first, midst,
last ; and so is passed by if it be not fire, sword, uproar, tumult
of a vital kind. There are those who say they do not believe in
sensationalism. What do they believe in ? Have they read the
New Testament.? Are they in sympathy with the ministry of
their own professed Lord and Master .? They cannot be ! If
Christianity were amongst the churches to-day, men, instead of
criticising sermons which they hear, would go out and preach

46 ACTS XIV. 1-7.

sermons themselves, would borrow any chair, or stand on any
stone at the street corner, and if they could not preach the Gospel,
they could at least read it. Fifty thousand men at the street cor
ners to-day reading, with one voice, the third chapter of John ! —
why. Apostolic times would have come back again ! That chapter
needs no comment ; it says, " Read me, and let me do my own
work. ' ' Do not be frightened by the long word ' ' sensationalism' ' ;
people who use it do not know its meaning, and they only seek
to terrify you out of your newborn earnestness in the Christian
cause. Nothing divides society like Christianity ; its voice is.
Come out from among them, and be 3'e separate : the good to
the right ; the bad to the left." It isa tremendous righteous
ness ; it does not sit in silken slippers, and in downy chairs, in
dulging itself with philosophical musings about nothing ; it goes
to roots and cores, to hearts and inmost lives, and there its law
pierces like a sting, there its righteousness burns like an oven,
there its Gospel sings like an angel.
Christian service survives all ill-treatment. The time had come
when the Jews, with their rulers, began to use the Apostles despite-
fully ; that is, with wanton malice and cruelty, and to stone them.
And as soon as the Apostles became aware of this determination,
they ' ' fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto
the region that heth round about"; and then in one line in the
seventh verse we read as if nothing had happened before, " and
there they preached the Gospel." They preached better for their
persecution. We should have wonderful preaching if we had
more burning and stoning ; marvellous preaching, great bursts of
vital eloquence, cries that would pierce, and welcomes that would
warm the heart. We should, too, have wonderful hearing as well
as wonderful preaching ! If we had to steal into the church by
some backway, and had to listen in fear and trembling lest the
oppressor should lay his iron grip upon us, — oh, how we should
listen ! How every word would become a jewel set in heavenly
gold ; how every promise would be a door straight opening upon
the glory unseen ; how the Bible would be like a sheet let down
from heaven, fastened at the four corners, and containing all
sweet messages from the skies ! The loss of persecution is the
loss of spiritual energy. So-called "peace" maybe but mere
indifference or cowardice. Do not say that Antioch wasat/m«

HERETICS IN THE CHURCH. 47
until the Apostles visited it ; peace is a composite term ; it is not
a simple sound. Peace means intelligence, purity, righteousness,
trust in all good ; then it cannot be broken. There is a so-
called peace that is only a false name for death. How then can
we enter into tumult and difficulty now the times of persecution
have gone .? No ; as we have advanced from darkness, go from
light to light. You will, pursuing that course, soon find out
persecution !
We must in our Christian system make room for so-called
heretics. The heretics may be Paul and Barnabas with modern
names. If men come amongst us denying the Bible, flatly con
tradicting what we believe to be revelation, then have no part or
lot with them ; but if men come amongst us, saying, " This is
the right interpretation — hear it," then let us listen. If men of
spotless character and sacred devotedness of spirit should arise in
the Church, and say, " Men and brethren, we have found the
interpretation of this Scripture, or of that, ' ' hear them, though
many an old notion may be displaced, and many an old inter
pretation may have to give way before truer grammar and deeper
exposition. We use heretics of that kind most basely ! Who
can tell where truth begins and where truth ends, or how much
is involved in the word orthodoxy, or the word heterodox}' .? —
two words the history of which is a history of mischief. There
be men in Christian cities to-day who have no dinner because they
are supposed to be heretics. They may be the angels of God ; they
may be the Paul and Barnabas of their day ; they love the Bible
¦ — they come to it as men come to fountains for water, to the sun
for light ; they think the Spirit has revealed to them some new in
terpretation, or entrusted them with some new light, but when they
speak they are counted as evil persons, and when they write their
writings are left unread. Let us make room for every man who,
reverently accepting God's Word, thinks a new interpretation has
been entrusted to him. What was the fault of Paul .? This :
that he said a prophecy had been fulfilled — nothing more.
Whilst men were looking for the fulfilment and realization of
ancient prophecy, he said, " Men and brethren, the Word you
expect to be fulfilled is fulfilled " : that is all he said. The Jew
said, ' ' The prophecy is there — we are expecting its fulfilment.

48 ACTS XIV, 1-7.

we are praying for its fulfilment " ; and when the Apostles arose,
and- said, "The prophecy is fulfilled — it is a living fact," they
were stoned, they were driven from house and home, they
wandered about in sheep-skins aud goat skins, being destitute,
afflicted, tormented — of whom the world was not worthy I And
Christianity has its prophecies. Christian doctrine has yet its issues
brighter than our fancy has measured ; and if any man, coming
with Moses and the Prophets, and the Psalms and Christ, and the
Apostles, shall say, " Men and brethren, let us sit down together,
and read the Holy Word, and hear what I believe to be its true
meaning," let us not take up stones to stone him, but listen,
knowing, in the words of the Pilgrim Father, ' ' that God hath yet
more light and truth to break forth from His Holy Word."

XLIV.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, thou wilt not mock our hunger. Surely it is not in all
the purpose of thy love to cause our hearts disappointment and grief in
thine own house. Thou wilt not appoint the time, and the feast, and the
place, and not be there thyself. Thou art thyself the feast ; without
thee we can hold no banquet ; thou art the living One in whom our little
lives are hidden. Thou art here, and thou art here to bless. This is
thine own house, this is thine own day, this thine own Book, and we are
thine own creatures, for thou didst make us, and not we ourselves. We
have come up to offer common worship, that what is wanting in one way
may be made up by another ; and so by the blending of our voices, and
the intermingling of our praise and of our prayer, there may arise from
this altar sacrifice acceptable unto God. We know what thou dost
require of us — to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy
self, but who can stretch himself around this infinite commandment?
Not our energy only, but our love, fails in this tremendous task. But
with the commandment Ihou hast also given strength and hope and grace
that is infinite. Through Jesus Christ thy Son our Saviour — he is Lord
of all — we can keep all thy commandments in the entireness of their
breadth and claim ; we can do all things through Christ strengthening us :
he is out strength, he is our peace, he is our all in all. " Other refuge
have we none." We are all before thee with broken life and threatened
purpose, and grievous affliction because of sin. See thy providence in
our history ; read thyself in the story of our short life. Thou hast taken
away the child where there was only one ; thou hast made the survivor
old by one stroke of thine hand ; thou hast made the young man into an
old traveller by one night of heart grief. Thou hast made our hearts
very sore because of thy chastisement falling quickly and justly upon our
sin. We can do nothing and say that of a certainty it will abide ; we
dravy straight lines, and thou dost tie them into knots ; we plant roots
that are to bear fruits of pleasure, and, behold, they bear fruits of death ;
we say, We will do this, and complete in a triumph ; we go out to accom
plish it, and return no more. All things are verily in thine hands ; we
would deny it if we could, but thou dost silence us by the pressure of
facts which cannot be gainsaid. Thou dost keep us from madness by
drawing lines around our ambition ; thou wilt not let us build above a
certain line : if we do so, thou dost touch the tower at the base, and
fling it upon the common earth. We are thine, we are but for a moment.

50 ACTS XIV, 8-18.

but in this moment is a concentrated eternity, it is a moment ot life,
wondrous, measureless, boundless life ! Regard us, then, with thy com
passion, take us up into thine arms ; yea, through thy love do thou be
familiar and kind with us, pressing us to thy heart, giving us to feel that
between us and ruin are the arms of Almightiness. Come back to us ;
return, O Holy Dove ; bring our best memories before us so vividly that
we shall take heart again, and with louder, bolder psalm than ever, praise
thy holy name. Forgive us every day's transgression by the blood ot
Christ ; cleanse every moment from the defilement with which we have
spoiled it. Our very breath is corruption ; our walking is profanity, and
our downsitting is blasphemy ; our whole life is empoisoned in fountain
and in stream. We pour out our hearts' complaints at the foot of the
Cross, and, seeing the flowing blood, the dying but everlasting Priest, we
say, God, be merciful unto us sinners. May we abound in the fruits of
the Spirit. May our life be a tree bearing heavenly blossoms and
heavenly fruits. By our conversation may men take knowledge of us
that we have been with Christ ; by our faith, our simplicity, our love,
our self-denial, may we show that we have been born again. Give us the
grace which results in joy. We would glory in tribulation, not accepting
it meekly, but triump'ning over it, and making wrath a root of praise and
gladness. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
"Lord, increase our faith." "Lord, we believe; help thou our un
belief." Amen.
Acts xiv. 8-18.
8. And at Lystra there sat a certain man, impotent in his feet, a cripple
from his mother's womb, who never had walked.
9. The same heard [G., "was listening to"] Paul speaking: who,
fastening his eyes upon him, and seeing that he had faith to be made
whole [G., "saved." Paul had done no miracle here before to give the
lame man the idea of obtaining physical healing ; but as the man listened
believingly to the Word he felt within the " power of God unto salva
tion," and Paid saw that he possessed in this faith the subjective condition
necessary for the accomplishment of the miracle. For the two objective
conditions of salvation, see verses i, 3],
10. said, with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he' leaped
up and walked [G., " was walking"].
II. And when the multitudes saw what Paul had done, they lifted up
their voice, saying, in the speech of Lycaonia [which the Apostles did
not understand. But all these Galatian tribes would understand Greek as
the Welsh do English], The gods are come down to us in the likeness of
men. 12. And they called Barnabas, Jupiter ; and Paul, Mercury, because he
was the chief speaker [see Ovid, Met. 8, for the legend of a, previous
appearance ot these divinities in this neighbourhood. Barnabas was

ANNOTATED TEXT.

51

probably of more venerable aspect than Paul, but there is no ground here
for the tradition about Paul's mean physitjue].
13. And the priest of Jupiter, whose temple was before the city, brought
oxen and garlands unto the gates [of the town ; for these supposed
divinities were there in the city], and would have done sacrifice with the
multitudes. 14. But when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul [Barnabas takes the
lead], heard of it, they rent their garments [Matt. xxvi. 65. Ritualists
put on garments at such times, that they may exploit the superstition of
the masses], and sprang forth [out ot the city] among the multitude,
crying out,
15. and saying. Sirs, why do ye these things ? We also are men of
like passions [lit., " sympathetic"] with you, and bring you good tidings
[the evangel versus ritual], that ye should turn from these vain things
["vanities": the imagined presence of these gods] unto the living God,
who made [ch. 17] the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that in
them is :
16. who in the generations gone by suffered all the nations to walk in
their own ways.
17. And yet [how mildly — Chrysostom says " secretly" — the charge is
laid against them ! See Rom. i. 22, iii. 10, etc.. for the way Paul writes
of the same things to converted people. The model missionary is here !]
he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave you
from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and
gladness. 18. And with these sayings scarce restrained they the multitudes from
doing sacrifice unto them.
APOSTOLIC SERVICE AND TEMPTATION.
THIS [v. 8] is the kind of man who is always looking out
for religious excitement or entertainment. He would not
be admitted into a drawing-room ; he would be a spot on any
feast of high conviviality ; he could not join in the whirling
dance ; he must find his dissipation in listening to speakers who
have something novel to say. You find this man everywhere — he
is the padding of every congregation ; he seems to have a kind of
hereditary right to be in the Church, and to take an interest in
speakers of all kinds ; we could not well do without him ; he is
a good make-up, and gives a base to the assembly. We begin
with him everywhere. If we can advance to a higher social grade,
well and good ; but Christianity always begins with the cripples,
with the poor, with the outcast, with the friendless. Christianity

52 ACTS XIV. 8-18.

will begin anywhere. The one cry of Christianity is, ' ' Give me
a man," and in reply to this man, the cripple has always been
given. The rule seems to have been to say to the cripple, " You
go in first, and we will see what effect it has upon you. ' ' There
are those who have no comfort but in the house of God. Bless
their old withered hearts, that house is always open I The lovers
of excitement will not have you because you cannot walk, or run,
or keep up the race : you would be in the way, but the Church,
dear queenly mother, the great Heart, the sweet redeeming loving
spirit, she will say, " I have come down to wait for the weak, to
gather up those that are lame, and to speak a word in season to
him that is weary." This is the defence of the Church of God
properly understood, that it shuts out no man, but finds a seat
even for the cripple who cannot stand.
Paul, ' ' steadfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had
faith to be healed." — That man is also everywhere. He is
here in great force this morning — the man who has not faith to
use his faith ; he is a believer, but he cannot say so. He does
believe, he does love, he does pray, he is a very Simeon in ex
pectation, but he needs some apostolic man to say to him, " Use
your faith : be what you are." That is my speech to you.
Don't tell me that you are not a Christian — you are ; your being
here means a whole heartf ul of meaning. Do not let some notions,
and theories, and words without shape, and ideas without author
ity, keep you out of your inheritance. " Dost thou believe on
the Son of God .?' ' Believest thou the prophets ? I know that
thou believest. What you want is the faith to use faith, the cour
age of your belief. You have wings, and you know that when
you are in private — yea, in solitude ; you do sometimes lift them ;
not for the world would you be seen doing so, but you do it. In
solitude you fall down on your knees, and look up to heaven
dumbly ; not for the world would you have it known. Why .?
You want faith to use faith ; you want confidence to use the
power you have. The great, kind sea waits for you. It is not
wrathful, destroying ; it is a great easy nurse, a great giant
mother, and says, ' ' Come, throw yourselves right upon me, and
you shall not sink." Who can tell but that some poor soul
now hearing these words may say, " Lord, I believe ; help thou
mine unbelief"? If so, this will be the day of cure, of miracle.

THE PERCEIVING PREACHER, 53
of resurrection, the day of the Son of man upon the earth, when
the blue heaven comes down to our green sward, and the angels
set foot upon the earth.
I wish we could be as sure that Paul is here as that the cripple
is. You have here an illustration of Paul's insight into character.
" Perceiving that he had faith." Not long since we noticed that
Barnabas " saw the grace of God." What eyes those men had :
eyes that "wandered through eternity," that knew the Divine
grace when they saw it ! They knew faith when it was only a light
in the face, a gleam in the eye, a new movement of the body.
There is more faith in the world than the preachers have yet con
ceived. Preachers must be perceiving men ; they must know one
character from another ; they must see without looking. There is
no stare in the eye of true penetration. You have faith. With
out faith you could not live. Why not call things by their right
names.? Your life is faith, your breath is belief, your action is
doctrine. Why not eat and drink abundantly at your Father's
table, on your Father's express invitation.? We make great
mistakes in confounding one character with another, and in mis
taking the symptoms that are offered to view, in order to deceive
the very elect. Many a man laughs who has no joy — he laughs
to keep you off the scent ; he is not laughing with his heart ; he
is gay with his father and mother, and they (dear unsuspecting
souls I) think he is glad, and they rejoice in his gladness, whilst
all the time his laugh has been a lie, and, under his assumed
gaiety, his heart has been ' suffering from the bite of an adder.
The wise preacher, whether in the pulpit or in the house, must
perceive this : he must have the critical eye which is not deceived
by mere symptoms, which pierces the reality and core of the case.
Many a man is addicted to bantering who is not frivolous. We
have known a man banter the preacher, and the professor, and the
Church, whilst all the time he has been seeking by banter to
elicit sympathy ; he has thought that by this light raillery he
would bring from you some further word, some other utterance,
some deeper expression. If you had been gifted with apostolic
insight, you would have seen under the banter a seriousness
almost pathetic. Many a man is silent who wants to speak.
All silence is not the same. There are men who have distressed
themselves by their own silence, because all the while they have

54 ACTS XIV. 8-18.

been endeavouring to frame the very first sentence, and it would
not be framed. You have thought them cold, distant, indiffer
ent, self-involved ; you have complained of want of sympathy,
want of speech, want of communion ; and many a man has been
misjudged in this way : in his heart he has been saying, " Would
God I knew how to begin ; if I got out one sentence, I could get
out another ; I want to speak, but my lips cannot be opened even
by a two-edged instrument." Beware of rough and hard judg
ment upon men. No one man knows any other man through
and through as that man knows himself. Let us, however, pray
for the spirit of discerning, the spirit of judgment, and the spirit
of penetration, and let us so use that spirit as to bring men who
have taken one step on the right road forward on their journey.
Why did Paul speak " with a loud voice" .? Some people
object to loud voices — they say they could hear quite well if the
preacher did not exert himself so. It is not enough to hear —
you must overhear. An utterance must not deliver its own syllables
only, but take with it heart, blood, fire, music, life. If you had
spoken with a subliipier audacity, you would have elicited a nobler
reply. People knew that Christ spoke with authority, and not as
the Scribes, and Paul spoke with a loud voice ; not in the sense
of mere vocal loudness, but in the sense that his heart went with
his voice, and every syllable that he uttered was thus transfigured
and glorified into a power.
Not only had Paul keen insight into the character of others, he
had also keen insight into his own spirit. 'I'hat kept him right
Here, as in the case of John the Baptist, is the hour of tempta
tion. Two men are in a heathen country, two men are asso
ciated with a miracle which excites the wonder of the pagan mind
¦ — ^enough has been done to excite faith in the deity of the men —
the very high-priest of Jupiter was prepared to offer sacrifices unto
the visitors. The oxen are in the streets, the garlands are at the
gates, the knife is waiting that shall draw the blood from the oxen,
and Paul and Barnabas, you shall be the gods of Lycaonia, and
have what you ask for. Every life has its temptation, its forty
days in the wilderness, its hand-to-hand fight with hell. Why
did not Paul and Barnabas settle down upon this eulogium .?
They need not perform any other miracle ; they have performed
one, and on that one they may rest as long as they live ; they

SELF-KNO WLED GE, 5 5
could become the tyrants of the place, ordering and command
ing what they please, and drawing to themselves the superstitious
homage of minds wonder-struck and all-trusting. It was the
devil's hour — if they get over that bridge, the Apostles will be
safe ! They were over it ! When Barnabas and Paul heard of
what was going on, "they rent their clothes, and ran in among
the people, crying out, and saying. Sirs, why do ye these things .?
We also are men of like passions with you." Their self-knowl
edge was, humanly speaking, their salvation. If we knew our
selves, we could not be puffed up by any vanity, or so inhale the
incense of adulation as to lose our balance and our reason. Let
all men know themselves to be but men, let us be one in the
common persuasion of our common origin ; and then praise will
not be flattery, eulogium will bring with it honest encourage
ment, and instead of offering sacrifices, we shall offer the nobler
homage of confidence and love. Paul said, " We are men of like
passions." Like, yet unlike. Preachers are examples as well as
expositors : that is to say, they are to show in themselves what
Christianity can do, as well as speak out of their spirit what
Christianity really is.
This narrative throws some light upon Christianity itself. Chris
tianity makes people do what they never did before. The man is
described as one who had never walked. This is the peculiar
prerogative and function of Christianity — it always makes us do
what we never dreamed of doing before. What sacrifices we
make, what devotion we offer, -what journeys we accomplish, what
insults we endure, what persecution we accept, even with joyf ul
ness — we who once resented injury now pray for the offender !
Christianity does not make us do things a little better than we did
them before ; it makes us do things we had never done, and
which the world thought it impossible for us ever to do. The at
tention paid to Paul and Barnabas was natural, it was only exag
gerated ; its root is right. But the preacher must never become
the priest. Paul must never separate himself from the current
of human sympathy. This is the danger of all class education,
of all monastic withdrawment from all human activities, with a
view to becoming prepared for the ministry. The temptation to
the young man's mind is this : I am not what I used to be ; I
now belong to a class. I have become separated from the com-

56 ACTS XIV. 8-18.

mon herd. I am different — I am a priest. That is the sophism
that must be burned out of the Church. The preacher is only an
upper pew-holder ; the preacher is one of us, or he cannot preach
to us. Christ could not preach from Heaven ; he must needs
come down and be made like us, that he might save us. It is
right that Paul should be recognized and honoured and blessed as
a servant of God ; but he must remember that he is a servant
only. The effect of Christianity is to confound all rivals. Chris
tianity will not live in the house with any other religion. Chris
tianity will never allow itself to be stitched to some old rag of
paganism. Christianity is a seamless robe woven throughout that
cannot be improved and must not be rent. When the priest of
Jupiter saw what was done, he said, " We have never beheld any
thing like this before !" Why the man was prepared to put the
knife to Jupiter's own throat. Said he, "This is unrivalled.
This man has been coming backward and forward to these rites
and ceremonies of ours a long while, and we could do nothing
with him ; here is a religion that comes and makes a man of
him : this is the true faith." Christianity must vindicate itself by
the men it makes ^not by learning, not by eloquence, but by the
men it makes. Convince the priests of Jupiter, not by metaphys
ical reasoning, but by noble manhood.
The man ' ' leaped and walked. ' ' You cannot leap long — the
law of gravitation is against that — but you can walk all your life
time. A man leaping always is beside himself ; a man walking
has serious business, and he is going to do it. We cannot live
in leaping, we cannot live in raptures and in tumult of soul, but
we must leap at first. Those who have seen God, and have
received of His strength, mount up as on the wings of eagles :
then they run, then they walk. It would be pleasant to see some
of us leaping a little, running a littie ; it would do the preacher's
heart good to see some people trying to fly a littie. Without en
thusiasm, what is the Church .? It is Vesuvius without fire ; it is
Niagara without water ; it is the firmament without the sun.

XLV.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, thou hast made the gate ot tribulation the way into
thy kingdom. It is a hard and narrow way, but the end thereof is ever
lasting life. Where we fear, thou dost cause us to hope. Where we
expected to die, thou dost enable us to pray. Thou hast overruled all
difficulty and battle and sorrow, and shown us how, through fields of
severest controversy, we may pass into the land where there is no sorrow,
nor crying, neither any more pain. The gates ot hell shall not prevail
against thy Church, thou crucified and risen Christ. Tribulation shall
work patience ; and patience, experience ; and experience, hope ; and,
thus, cut of a black root thou wilt bring blossoming infinite in the tender
ness of its beauty. All things work together for good to them that love
God. Perfect love casteth out fear. We have no more cloud or doubt '
resting upon our lite when it is hidden with Christ in God. Then the way
is upward, and the light increases as we ascend, and heaven comes down
to meet us on our upward pilgrimage. Put within us thine own Spirit,
thou living Christ, thou mighty Priest, whose prayer carries its own con
clusion and is its own beneficent reply. Then shall we know nothing ot
fear, or unrest, or trouble, but our heart shall be as water undisturbed in
its depths of sacred and holy peace. Thou dost teach us by the events
of time. Thou dost send messages to us from the houses ot our neigh
bours. The dead man delivers thy letter to the living. We see by those
who are falling around us that our turn may suddenly — and must surely
— come. May we be among those who are wise servants — waiting, hav
ing their hearts stirred by a secret expectation that the Bridegroom may
come at any moment, and complete his love. Show us thy way, O Lord,
and enable us to walk therein steadfastly and lovingly. May thy way be
our delight, and may thy statutes be our songs in the house of our pil
grimage. Thou dost take away one and another. Thou dost dig up the
cedar, and the fir-tree howls because ot the mighty fall. Thou dost also
pluck off the blossom ere it is yet formed, or set in promise of fruit.
The old thou dost call home, and the young thou dost take up in thine
arms and suddenly transfer to the upper kingdom. It is the Lord ; let
him do what seemeth good in his sight. The Lord gave, and the Lord
hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the Lord. Our loved ones,
who have died in Christ, are not lost, they have gone before, they have
washed their robes and made them while in the blood of the Lamb ;
therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night

S8 ACTS XIV. 19-28.

in his temple. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more,
neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat ; but they shall dwell in
thy presence, and be led by the Lamb to living fountains of waters, and
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. We will not, therefore,
bow down in trouble and sorrow, but rather stand erect in the conscious
ness of an infinite triumph, and say, O death ! where is thy sting? O
grave ! where is thy victory ? We will not look to the grave of the body,
but to the heaven ot the spirit. We will comfort ourselves with the holy
words, the Resurrection and the Life.
The Lord destroy everything in us that is evil, set up his kingdom in
our heart, and perfect us in the grace and virtue of Christ Jesus. Amen.
Acts xiv. 19-28.
19. But there came Jews thither [to this foolish, fickle Galatian mob]
from Antioch and Iconium ; and, having persuaded the multitudes £that
if the Apostles were not gods, they were God's foes], they stoned Paul
[2 Cor. xi. 25], and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was
dead. 20, But [again], as the disciples stood round about him \so we learn he
had not preached here in vain ; Lois, Eunice, and Timottiy probably
were about him. Cf. xvi, i ; 2 Tim. i. 5 ; and Gal. iii., iv., v.], he rose
up [miraculously restored], and entered into the city : and on the morrow
he went forth with Barnabas to Derbe.
21. And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had made
many disciples, they returned to Lystra, and to Iconium, and to Antioch
[in Pisidia],
22. confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in
the faith, and that through many tribulations we must [it is necessary,
for God so idHIs it] enter into the kingdom of God.
23. And when they had appointed for them [gross Roman Catholic
mistranslation. The Greek verb means to elect by holding up the liand in
the ecclesia or church-meeting ; rarely, as here, used of the president, in
the sense ot causing the assembly so to elect. When they had caused
each church to elect its elders. Note the plurality of elders in these the
first small-town churches], and had prayed with fasting [G. fastings],
they commended them to the Lord [G. has no comma, i.e., they are
referred to the Lord as the true Shepherd of each of these separate
churches], in whom they had believed.
24. And they passed [from Antioch] through Pisidia, and came to
Pamphylia. 25, And when they had spoken the word in Perga [xiii. 13], they went
down to Attalia ;
26. And thence they sailed to Antioch [in Syria], from whence they
had been committed to the grace of God for the work which they had
fulfilled [four or five years were thus occupied between 44 and 51 a.d.

THE ENERGY OF HATE, 59

The Apostles went not as Xavier or Livingstone, sustained by wealth and
political influence, but like Socialist workmen go earning their bread as
they pursue their propaganda from town to town].
27. And when they were come, and had gathered the church together,
they rehearsed all things that God had done with them \i,e,, as their
Helper], and how he had opened a [G. the] door of faith unto the Gen
tiles [hitherto only Gentile proselytes had passed on to Christianity from
Judaism ; no^w it was proved possible to found Christian churches, at
once, among the pure heathen. Jew and Gentile henceforth entered
abreast into the fold of Christ].
28. And they tarried no little time with the disciples [here, probably,
Titus was converted — 2 Cor. viii. 23].
TRIBULATION ACCEPTED.
THE Apostles Barnabas and Paul had wrought a great mira
cle at Lystra, and so astounded were the people that they
wished to offer sacrifices unto the Apostles, and were hardly re
strained from doing so by the stern and severe expostulation of
the Apostles themselves. The enemy can be as active as the
friend. Sometimes we are inclined to think that the enemy can
outdo the friend in energy. Enemies seem to be more deter
mined than friends. As a general rule friends are timid, and re
luctant to move. They wish to live quietiy, whereas enemies are
not so restrained, they are fearless, desperate, resolute — nothing
will stand in the way of the accomplishment of their base designs.
Still one would rather lean toward the thought that love can out
live hate ; but, truly, hate has a long life ! We find that Paul
and Barnabas were not allowed to go upon their journey without
knowing that the enemy had them in full view. There came to
Lystra " certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who per
suaded the people" and turned their hearts against the very men
whom but yesterday the Lystrenians would have deified ! The
Jews from the Pisidian Antioch and Iconium brought reports
from these places concerning Paul and Barnabas, and turned the
homage of the people into hatred. So Paul was stoned. The
Jews had no easy work to get to Lystra. They also had to travel
the hundred and thirty miles which separated the towns. But
what is a distance of a hundred and thirty miles, even in an age
so ancient as the time indicated in the text, when the heart is
burning with hatred, and the life is aflame witii sectarian indigna-

6o ACTS XIV, 19-28.

tion ? The Jews did not travel the hundred and thirty miles
under such disadvantageous circumstances merely as a luxury.
They hated the new faith, they abominated the detestable democ
racy which would throw down sonship in Abraham, and make
the Gentiles equal to the Jews, and so they, too, were missiona
ries, though animated by a different spirit. Paul -vyas but o?ice
stoned, and he never forgot it 1 Writing an account of his ex
periences, he puts into the summary of them thi& line — " Once I
was stoned. " No man can forget that experience. In former
years those who were engaged in stoning Stephen lay down their
clothes at a young man's feet whose name was Saul. The wheel
of Providence turns round ! There is no resentment in God, but
there vs, justice at the very heart of things. When Paul himself is
stoned it will not be to gratify a grudge, but to express the spirit
of the eternal righteousness, without which the whole heaven of
stars itself might fall in night, fustice keeps things together.
Righteousness must hold the reins. Once let wickedness hold
them and drive the steed of the universe, and in one night they
will plunge into abysses out of which there is no extrication.
" The LORD reigneth ; let the earth rejoice," for the security
of goodness is not in strength but in righteousness. They left Paul,
"supposing he had been dead." That is a common mistake
about Christianity itself. Many a time has Christianity been
stoned and drawn out of the city, and thrown into the ditch
" supposed to be dead." Paul recovered his consciousness. He
was blinded and stunned, but not killed. So, to the joy of the
littie circle of weeping disciples, he got up, and stood upon his
feet — a kind of resurrection before the time ! Take it as a typical
instance, and regard it as teaching the impossibility of killing
truth. You may "suppose it to be dead," but the error is in
the supposition. Whatever is true rises again. It ma}' be thrown
down ; it may be kept upon bread and water ; it may be spat
upon ; it may be thrust through with a dart ; over it all hell may
have a moment's laugh, — but it finds its feet again I " Truth
is great, and must prevail." These incidents, which we call per
sonal and transitory, are in reality typical, and because of their
interior meaning and suggestion, they are the strongest and broad
est lines in history.
The next day Paul travelled twenty miles — he departed with

THE LIVING SERMON. 6l
Barnabas to Derbe ; and the thought came to the two men that,
instead of making a detour, and getting back to Antioch by any
short cut that might be open, they would go, step for step, along
the road they had come. They would have a return missionary
journey. It is not enough to go once over a track. People do
not know you on one visit. Life is a revelation. We see sec
tions of one another, but we must live with one another — the year
in and the year out, all the four seasons — to see really the depths
that slumber in any genuine life. Paul and Barnabas, therefore,
went back, " confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting
them to continue in the faith" — with this line added : " and that
we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of
God." We cannot copy pathos. We must learn it by life.
We may not write our sermons with ink, for then they would be
but rhetorical emptiness. We must live them, gather fruit from
trees that have grown around us, and return to the people week by
week with some new blessing in the language, some deeper tone
in the voice, some nobler appeal in the exhortation. How
simply, and yet subtiy, comes this line into the preaching ! — ¦
namely, " that we must through much tribulation enter into the
kingdom of God." Paul was suffering when he said those words.
His head had not recovered the stunning blows of the stoning
at Lystra. There was a subdued sob in the man's emphasis as he
said this. Strangers might not detect it, but the speaker him
self was conscious that a new thread — a golden one — was being
run through the web of his eloquence as he exhorted' the Chris
tians at Derbe and Lystra and Antioch and Iconium to con
tinue in the faith, and to accept tribulation, not as a discredit,
but as an endorsement.
Paul and his colleague came back to Antioch after, some say,
moire than a year's absence, and others calculate an interval of
nearly two years, and the twenty-seventh verse would seem to
contain the summary of all that was done, but it does not.
' ' And when they were come, and had gathered the Church
together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and
how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles. ' ' Into
no 'speech with which I am acquainted is so much meaning con
densed. It is the penalty of speakers who have a condensed style
that they do not get credit for all they say. There are minds

62 ACTS XIV, 19-28.

that must have bulk as well as quality ; minds that must have
everything beaten out to the thinnest and widest possible surface
before they can begin to think. They do not fly on the wind,
or take two mountains at a time in their gigantic stride ; the}',
therefore, say they cannot follow the writers who have written such
a verse as the twenty-seventh, which is now before us. Look at it.
" And when they had gathered the Church together." How
easily we say these words ! How much they may possibly in
volve ! The Church did not live on the open street, or in the
fine houses. The Church was a scattered people, a hidden little
band, talking in whispers — perhaps often communicating secretiy
— despised amid the pomp and splendor of the Syrian Antioch.
The Church had to be "gathered together." But why not tell
the little missionary story on the open thoroughfare to the passers-
by .? Simply because it is useless to speak to men in an unknown
tongue. Only the Church can understand the speech of the
Church. Even those who can catch the English sentences do
not catch the Christian sentiment, unless they be in the secret
which unites and inspires Christian hearts. Having gathered the
Church together, they "rehearsed ALL." But we want to hear
the detail. The little word "ALL" is really the greatest word
in human speech. In its three letters the whole universe is in
cluded. We want to take it to pieces, to go into analysis, into
the separation and classification of events, to understand the entire
case. But we are put off with an allusion instead of being grati
fied -by a detailed rehearsal. "They rehearsed all" — and yet,
perhaps, they did not. Who can tell all ? You cannot write
all you want to write. Having written what you think is a com
plete statement, you find that it is only a table of contents, and
not a statement at all 1 After having elaborated the rehearsal until
you think not one line can be added, you read the whole, and are
appalled to find that you have referred to everything but the sub
ject I Whatever is deep requires long time for its evolution.
Whatever is spiritual requires all language for its expression.
Not in a handful of words can you set forth the details of a life
time. "They rehearsed all that God had done with them."
They connected the whole story with God. What — the stoning ?
Yes 1 The statement does not read that, having called the
Church together, Paul put his hand upon his head, and said.

GOD WORKING IN OUR DAILY LIFE. 63
" Oh, what I have suffered for you !" Not a word of the kind
is said. Stoning and hunger and peril and persecution — these
things God has done ! It is because we do not recognize that fact
that we suppose ourselves to be the victims of circumstances and
the butt of enemies. Get rid of that sophism. God sent the
hunger to bite you. God spread the cloud in the face of the sun
to shut you out in darkness. God allows your enemy to smite
you on the head, and on the face, and to malign you, and mis
represent you — it is God' s doing ! It is part of the Divine educa
tion. " Can there be evil in the city, and the Lord not have
done it.?" Done it ! — not in the little narrow technical sense of
hand-working, but in the larger sense of working up together in
one complete massiveness — hells and devils, dangers and sorrows,
into one sublime issue. " He maketh the wrath of man to praise
him, and the remainder thereof will he restrain." The Lord
reigneth. The wet days are his, as well as the days that are full
of summer light and summer music. And the graves are his, as
well as the flowers which grow upon their green sward. And hell
is his, and the key of it is on his giidle, and he will know what
to do with it in the upgathering and total issue of his providence.
They left one impression upon the Church — what was it ? How
God " had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles." There
is no whine in that tone ! The Apostles, returning to the Syrian
capital, said, " Brethren, the door is opened, the Gentiles are ac
cessible. Arise : shine ! for thy light is come, and the glory of
the Lord is risen upon thee." They were very heroes of men !
Instead of saying, " The way is very diflScult, " they said, " The
door is open." Instead of saying, " If you go to the Gentiles,
you may expect to be stoned by the Jews," they said, " Who are
these that flock as doves to the windows .?" These were the men
that rocked the world in the storms of their sacred enthusiasm I
All personal suffering was forgotten in the opened door. The
stoning was a very littie thing when the Apostles thought that the
Gentile provinces were to be added to the empire of their Lord.
Nor was this all. There was an incident that happened which
is not recorded in this verse. Twenty years afterward Paul wrote
a letter to a man whom he called " my own son in the faith,"
and " my dearly beloved son," and "my fellow-worker" ; and
in that letter he said, " But thou hast fully known my doctrine.

64 ACTS XIV. 19-28.

manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,
persecutions ; afflictions which came unto me at Antioch, at
Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured : but out of them
all the Lord delivered me." How did Timothy come to know
about the stoning at Lystra, and the persecution at Antioch and
Iconium ? Paul, writing to Timothy, said he greatly desired to
see the youth, being mindful of his tears. " When I call to re
membrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first
in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice, and I am per
suaded that in thee also. ' ' Where did he make the acquaintance
of the little family — grandmother and mother and Timothy .?
Why, at Derbe probably, on this very missionary journey. That
was the proof that the Lord was v/ith him. He brought up from
the Lycaonian wilds — the dreary wolf-land — memories of Lois
and Eunice and Timothy, which cheered him in his old age ; and
in the loving Timothy, who would carry on his own noble work,
he found a compensation for the stoning at Lystra. We cannot
tell what we are doing. Some men may be won to Christ by a
discourse who will afterward vindicate the propriety of the argu
ment which that discourse contained. Twenty years after we may
hear of some young man who, being here this morning, was
touched with a live coal from off the altar, and has gone out to
declare that " this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all at:cepta-
tion, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."
Christ will find his own ministers. Christ will not let the Chris
tian pulpit go down for want of capacity, ability, eloquence,
learning, pathos, or sympathy. We do not always know what we
are doing, but the Master knows, and that is enough.

XLVI.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, because thou art full of compassion our lives are
spared until now. We are wicked, and deserve not to live, but thy grace
is greater than our sin, and thy love enables us to live even amidst the
corruption of sin. We have read of thy lovingkindness and thy tender
mercies in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament of thy Son we
see thy grace and truth and love. The law came by Moses, but grace
and truth came by Jesus Christ. He is thy Son. In him shone the ful
ness of thy glory. He was the express image ot thy Person. So we do
not only read of thy love : we see it, and touch it, and rest upon it, in the
Person of Immanuel. He is all our salvation, and all our desire. In
heaven he is the light ; of the cities of the earth he is the One Saviour.
By his grace he has redeemed all time from contempt, and saved the
earth from being swallowed up. The Cross of Christ is our hope, and
light, and infinite strength ; hidden within its purpose, we know no pain,
or shame, or fear ¦ we have peace with God. Enable us continually to
realize this sacred truth, and to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Keep us to vital principles. Root us and ground
us in the unchangeable truth. Deliver our mind from all influences that
are local and temporary, and fix our hearts upon eternal realities. Then
shall we be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus ; not living in our
own opinions, but in the broad and full and holy revelation of thy truth.
May thy grace glow in our hearts like a hidden fire, which burns but not
consumes. In that fire may we find thyself — the God of history and the
God of prophecy, the Beginning and the Ending, the First and the Last
— filling the one circle which includes infinity. Reveal thyself to us day
by day in new aspects, and speak to us with tones that shall surprise
even the hearts that are most familiar with that sweet music. Thus
shall we have the old and the new, eternity and time, the holy heaven
touching with benediction the unfcoly and transient earth. Thou knowest
us altogether. That is our terror and that is our joy ! Give unto us
according to our sin, necessity, and pain, and enable us in all thy gifts
to trace the Image of thy Person. So shall we be consciously near thee,
and every occurrence in life shall come to us, not as an accident that shall
alarm, but as part of thy purpose which thou art carrying out with all the
breadth of infinity, and all the duration and calmness of eternity itself.

66 ACTS XV. 1-2.

We pray for one another : tor the heart that is enduring the anguish of
its first great sorrow ; for the eyes that are looking upon death as they
never looked upon it before ; tor the heart that feels the intolerable cold
ness of death. Thou dost make us acquainted with the enemy. Some of
us thou hast made familiar with his presence, and some of us are now
looking upon him for the first time, and the sight affrights us by its in
finite ghastliness. Come, thou Spoiler of Death, and bless us with one
glance of thine eye, with one smile of love, and all the darkness shall
flee away, and the valley ot the shadow ot death shall be as the sanctuary
of thy presence.
Regard those of us also who are in high glee of heart, full of prosperity,
and abounding in strength, lest in the rioting of our power we forget that
our breath is in our nostrils, and our roots are covered by a very shallow
soil. Help us to make prosperity an altar, and success a place of sacred
worship. Send messages of comfort to those who are in the sanctuary of
home — prisoners for a time, but prisoners of hope ; from thy banqueting
table send some gift which shall make them glad also, yea, lengthen the
table till it reaches from the church to the house, and makes the banquet
ing chamber as large as human necessity. Kiss all the children, and
give them to feel that thine arms are about them. Find flowers for them
in the darkness, and sing songs to them when their little hearts are afraid.
Send messages to the despairing ; to the men who have broken all the
commandments, and torn down the cross, and trampled under foot the
blood ot the everlasting covenant. We do not know their speech : it is
mt in our power to say one word to them ; but thou dost make speech.
Language is but an instrument in thine hand ; make new words that shall
touch this intolerable desperation. The Lord comfort us, enlarge our
inheritance, show us that our estates and riches are in eternity, and away
in tlie fair land where there is no sin, no night, no death. Amen.

Acts XV. 1-2.
I. And certain men came [were not sent; for the kind of men they
were, see v. 5. Peter may have preceded them ; in tliai case we have
Paul's opinion of them in Gal. ii. 4] down from Judsea and taught the
brethren, saying. Except ye be circumcised [Gal. v. 3] after the custom
ot Moses, ye cannot be saved [liberal Jews, like Hillel, especially Grecian
Jews, accounted devout Gentiles to be true proselytes, although uncir
cumcised : Pharisees, such as Shammav, would not eat with them ; such
persons worshipped Jehovah and kept the seven precepts ot Noah and
were aftei-Tmards called proselytes of the gate]. And when Paul and
Barnabas had no small dissension and questioning with them, the brethren
[vers. I and 3] appointed that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of
them [Titus, Gal. ii. i] should go up to Jerusalem unto the acostles and
elders about this question [Gal. ii. 2].

CONTROVERSY. 67

THE CHRISTIAN MAGNA CHARTA.
THIS is one of the most important chapters in ecclesiastical
history. This chapter is the Magna Charta of the Chris
tian Church. I make bold to say that if we could fully master
the reasoning of this chapter, and fearlessly reduce it to practice,
we should give the Church of Christ a new standing-place in the
mind and heart of our age. This is the chapter which the Church
either cannot or will not learn. The key to universal confidence
and progress is here, and we are afraid to use it. There arose a
certain number of men who said to Gentile Christians, " Except
ye be circumcised, after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be
saved. ' ' What has that to do with this age .? I reply fearlessly
that with this age, and every age, this matter has to do vitally.
The voice of the Judsean teachers was clear,, and their doctrine
was short, Behind it there was an undoubtedly sacred history,
and in the spirit of the men there was what would be regarded,
without questioning, as a loyal and filial obedience to law and
tradition. Just at this moment the Church needed a kind of man
it had not yet fully known. From this point Paul becomes the
man that God meant him to be when he elected him as a chosen
vessel unto the Gentiles. Paul made history at this moment.
Just this type of man was wanted. Barnabas was no debater when
he was alone. Peter could make a short, distinct, and emphatic
speech ; but even Peter had not escaped the period of education
in which even noble spirits may momentarily dissemble. A new
type of man was needed. Paul was a minister without whose
presence the Church, humanly speaking, would not have been
complete. He was intellectually and spiritually gifted with
piercing insight ; a man who could lay hold of the essential
realities of things and distinguish between the accidental and the
permanent. That man is needed in every age. So Paul, having
had much dissension and disputation, said, " This matter must
go further, and must be settled." The Judaizing teachers said to
the Gentiles : " We are quite willing for you to come into the
Church : you may believe in Christ as we have done ; but you
must do more ; you must obey Moses as well as Christ ; there
fore, unless you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye
cannot be saved ; add circumcision to faith, and then all will be

68 ACTS XV. 1-2.

right." That seemed to be a reasonable case. The most diffi
cult positions to assail are those which seem to be supported by
most obvious reasons. How will Paul address himself to this oc
casion ? Compare his speech with others, and see how it rises
immeasurably above them in spiritual majesty and moral massive
ness. Peter will make a good speech, but his speech will relate
to an incident that occurred in his own life. Peter will relate an
anecdote, and found upon it a gracious judgment. Paul will de
velop a philosophy. That is the difference between the men.
This question must be settled upon principle. Any anecdote
that can be quoted may be taken as helpful and elucidatory, but
we cannot build a great temple of truth upon a personal incident ;
we must have principles, philosophies, and reasons time can
neither change nor impair. At this moment Paul became his
very self. "What," said he, "having begun in the Spirit, are
ye now made perfect by the flesh .?" " By the works of the law
no flesh is justified." " If righteousness come by the law, then
Christ is dead in vain." The men who want you to submit to
the Jewish rite of circumcision know not what manner of spirit
they are of ; they are bondmen, not freemen ; they are still in
the beggarly elements, they have not advanced to spiritual princi
ple. ' ' Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath
made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bond
age. " Christianity is not a set of rites and ceremonies; it is
spiritual ; it is a condition of the heart. All the law is fulfilled
in one word, even in this — " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself." That was the grand speech which Paul made. He
had no personal anecdotes to quote, beyond giving an account of
his missionary journey ; but he felt that this was the only right
and unchangeable view. We know some things without having
been formally instructed in them. The heart is often its own
theologian. Deep communion with Christ brings away from the
sacred and glowing fellowship a power of insight and exposition
which no formal teaching can ever give. But what has this to
do with the century in which we live .? No man wants us now to
be circumcised ; all references to circumcision are out of date ;
we live under new conditions, and the sooner circumcision is for
gotten the better. In that view you are mistaken. The Pharisees
still live, so do tho Judaizers, so does every man w.ho in any age

THE QUESTION OF BAPTISM, 69
ever sought to add anything to the simplicity and dignity of faith.
Probably there are no men who say in so many words, " You
must be circumcised, or ye cannot be saved "; but there are men
who say, " Except ye be baptized your Christian position is at
least doubtful." There are Christian men in this country, but
still more in the United States of America, who would not allow
us as infant Baptists to sit down with them at the table of the
Lord ! That is true of a comparatively small community in this
country, but it is very broadly true of Christian coromunions in
Transatlantic lands. This is the answer, this is the reply, to
which there is no possible answer that can stand, " Having begun
in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect in the flesh .?" The ques
tion of baptism does not turn upon Greek terminations and Greek
conjugations, or pedantic references to Greek concordances — -
nothing vital can ever turn upon such mechanics. We need Paul
here ; the philosophic spirit, the prophet-mind, the piercing ge
nius, the inspired teacher. Paul says, " Having begun in the
Spirit, are ye now made perfect in the flesh ?" You are inverting
spiritual sequence ; you are changing violently and without right
the law of cause and effect ! We must remember that beginnings
are often reversed by processes, and that at the end they may be
turned upside down. Advancing according to God's method of
educating the world — namely, from the nattiral to the spiritual,
from the vulgar to the refined, from the broad to the typical, take
this very matter of circumcision. The rite was intended for chil
dren eight days old, but it did not begin with them ; circumcision
began upon a man who was ninety-nine years old ! Nothing,
therefore, can be argued from the mere point of origin. You
must begin somewhere, and it has pleased God often to begin with
a man when he meant, in the working out of the process, to get
hold of the child. Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he
was circumcised, but the rite was not meant for adults. Christ
said, " And be baptized " to adults, following exactiy the analogy
of Jewish history. But who dare say, with that analogy fully in
view, that he — the very God who ordered the circumcision of Abra
ham — did not mean in this second instance also to begin with the
children .? The suggestion is supported by analogy and is vindi
cated by history ; it therefore ought to be answered with some
thing better than contempt.

70 ACTS XV, 1-2,

Unquestionably, Christian baptism began with adults ; there is
no doubt whatever about that. But the Apostie would say to any
man who wished to add baptism to faith, as a necessity of salva
tion, ' ' Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by
the flesh .?" God moves by the contrary method ; first the nat
ural, then the spiritual ; first the water, then the Holy Ghost.
This is the line along which we, as pcedo-Baptists, proceed.
Speaking for myself, when the little child is brought to me it is
something more than a little child ; it is human life, than which
there is no greater term but one — it is human immortality. I do
not baptize the child a few weeks old ; I baptize the child that may
never die 1 I begin thus in the flesh ; the perfection is in the spirit.
I begin in the typical, knowing that the fulfilment of the thought
will come in God's due time. We can add nothing to faith without
insulting Christ. It is not enough to say that at the beginning the
relations were such and such ; so they were in the case of circumci
sion, but, apart either from the one view or the other, this is the
principle that settles everything — having " begun in the Spirit,"
we are not to be " made perfect in the flesh, ' ' This view
of the case, if limited to any one set of Christians, however
small, would not be worth discussing if the principle which is in
volved did not touch every point in the whole circumference of
Christian liberty and education. How glorious is this principle !
It drives off all door-keepers ; it kills the priest, thank God !
There are those who would love to keep the door of the Church,
and to say, ' ' !Fou may go in, but not you, ' ' There are some
who like to sit in guard- boxes, and watch-towers, and confession
als, and who like to be able to say, ' ' You may pass into the
Church, but that other man must on no account go in." This
principle of Paul's kills the damnable priest, whether he be dis
senter, or episcopalian, or baptist, or congregationalist, or presby-
terian, for the Pope is in every man, and this principle kills the
universal Pope, and therefore to my mind it is true and Divine.
The Pope may be in a Nonconformist pulpit ! We must never
allow that a minister is officially needed to admit people into
Christ's heart. I will not have anything to do with a religion that
only a minister can explain. My minister must be my other self
— a great-hearted, royal-souled man, who calls me brother, and
says, " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with US." I

EVIL INFLUENCE OF PRIESTHOOD. 71
will not have the Benediction that is pronounced upon me as
somebody out of the ministry ; the minister must say " US," and
then the communion will be complete. My fear is — and it makes
me cold with a deadly chill sometimes — that young men should
imagine that by going through certain processes of so-called, or
rightly called " education," they become qualified in some
magical sense to explain the heart, the love, the grace of Christ ;
then they will be pedants, tricksters, priests, self-appointed gate
keepers, and against the whole progeny of them, if making such
official claims, I launch a protest of fire. It is not the minister
who has any priestly rights in this matter ; you are all God's
clergy ; the Church is a sublime democracy. Certainly there are
men amongst us greater than their brethren — " chief men among
the brethren" is a phrase in this very chapter — but their great
ness is not a question of priestly quality, or magical qualification,
or official authority ; it is personal : a question of capacity, sym
pathy, devotedness ; a spiritual heroism, not an official elevation.
Let us drive the priest away from the Cross ! No priest can be
saved until he renounces his sacerdotalism. We should drive off
all ceremonialists. It pleases us to be a little ceremonial. It suits
human nature to go to heaven through one set of antics rather
than another. It looks very pretty in the eyes of idiotic infancy
of mind to go to heaven down one aisle of the church in prefer
ence to another. This is Paul' s answer to ritualism, ceremonial
ism, formalism, and all the other " isms." Some men are born
priests ; they are born ecclesiastics ; they seem, by some unac
countable mystery of Providence, to have been so shaped as
to wear clerical clothes. In any other clothes their nearest and
dearest friends would not know them 1 These are the men who
tell us that if we belong to this Church, we are all right, but if we
belong to some other Church, in the spirit of charity, they would
merely doubt whether we are right or not ! Away with their
notions ! — not themselves. The Lord burn their sophisms, but
spare their souls I With the immortal Robertson, of Brighton, I
would say with my whole heart, " If any man, or any body of
men, stand between us and the living God, saying, ' Only through
us — the Church — can you approach God ; only through my con
secrated touch can you receive grace ; only through my ordained
teaching can you hear God's voice ; and the voice which , speaks

72 ACTS XV. 1-2.

in your soul in the still moments of existence is no revelation
from God, but a delusion and a fanaticism, ' that man is a false
priest To bring the soul face to face with God, and supersede
ourselves, that is the work of the Christian ministry. ' '
In Scotland there were, long ago, two sects — one called the
" Lifters," and the other the " Anti-Lifters." The " Lifters"
were those who took up the bread on the Lord's table — who
"lifted" it, and brake it The "Anti-Lifters" were those
who let the bread lie on the Lord's table, and allowed people to
come and take it for themselves. These are the people who
would have torn up the seamless robe of Christ and sold it at so
much a square inch ! That Christ's dear Cross and sacred blood
should have been dragged down to so infamous uses is incredible.
Let us then ' ' stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath
made us free." We need no baptism after faith. What can
come after faith but love ? I wonder not that Paul should have
said, " I thank God that I baptized none of you but about as
many as I can count on my fingers ; for Christ sent me not to
baptize, but to preach the Gospel." I speak not about those who
do not make baptism essential to salvation ; they entirely escape
the purpose of my criticism. My remonstrance is addressed in
other directions, in which you will find that there are persons
unscrupulous and anti-Christian enough to tell you that " except
ye be circumcised [or, in modern language, ' baptized '], ye can
not be saved." Paul's answer is complete. It does not turn
upon litUe points of learning and exegesis, of declining Greek
nouns and conjugating Greek verbs, but this heaven-wide principle
¦ — Having begun in the Spirit, we are not to be made perfect in
the fiesh.
SELECTED NOTE.
" It is to this period that we assign the contest of Paul with Peter,
which is mentioned in the Epistle to the Galatians. Peter, it would
appear, went down from Jerusalem on a visit to the church of Antioch.
He had heard so much of its flourishing condition, that he wished to have
the pleasure of seeing it himself. He associated freely with the Gentile
converts, and his visit was hailed by all as a cause of joy. Some Judaistic
teachers, however, came down from Jerusalem. They were strict in their
notions of Jewish purity, and held it unlawful to eat with the Gentiles, as

PETER'S INCONSISTENCY, 73
by doing so they might be defiled. Peter, carried away for the time
being by the same feeling of timidity which induced him to deny his Lord,
withdrew from the Gentiles and manifested a sinful compliance with, the
prejudices of the Jews. His example was contagious. Other Jewish
Christians followed, and even Barnabas, one of the apostles of the uncir
cumcision, was carried away by the current. Again the peace of the
church of Antioch was disturbed, and here, unfortunately, by the per
nicious example of those who were regarded as the leaders of Christianity.
Then it was that Paul came boldly forward and rebuked Peter for his
inconsistency ; and no doubt the rebuke was well taken, and the fault
corrected. Peter, like most impulsive men, was ready to acknowledge the
error which he had committed. It is to be observed that no change of
opinion is attributed to Peter, but merely an inconsistency of conduct.
It was an inconsistency, however, which, if unchecked, might have led to
the gravest consequences. Nor is there any trace of a disagreement
between these great apostles. Their writings show that they taught the
same Gospel, viewing it in the light of their individual peculiarities ; and
in his last Epistle Peter speaks of the writings of his beloved brother
Paul."

XLVII.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, as thou hast called us unto love, may we not stop
short of the mark to which we are summoned. All the law is fulfilled in
one word, " Thou shalt love." Enable us by the grace that is in Christ
Jesus to grow up to that great obedience and enjoyment. Deliver us
from the littleness of the letter, and draw us, day by day, into the vast
ness and comfoit and liberty ot the Spirit. Thou hast sent a message to
our hearts ; may our hearts be open to receive it, and may they have
understanding to know the meaning ot every word and every tone, and
also grace to answer thy message with thankfulness and obedience. Give
us the hearing ear and the understanding heart whilst we tarry in thine
house. May the Spirit of Christ be in us, ruling us by its gracious
authority, and bringing us into subjection to the truth, that being no
longer self-satisfied, we may find our one contentment in the revelation of
thy kingdom. Prepare us to hear what God the Lord will say, and,
without questioning or disputing, may we receive the same with loving
hearts, and make the answer of an obedient lite. The kingdom of
Christ is not a kingdom of the letter, the hard rule, and the righteous law ;
it is a kingdom of spirit and feeling, of intelligence and sympathy, of
glowing love and all-surrendering sacrifice. May those of us who bear
the great name of Christ, and take our conduct from the spirit of the
Cross, show what his religion is by bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit ;
not by high controversy in the letter, but by such pureness, meekness,
simplicity, truthfulness, and charitableness which can only be wrought in
the human heart, and expressed in the human life, by the mighty energy
and the tender grace of God the Holy Ghost. Show us that it is devolved
upon us to prove the reality and the heavenliness of the Christian religion.
Having the evangelical word, may we have also the evangelical spirit ;
acknowledging the truth in terms, may we live it in obedience ; and what
is mysterious in our utterance, may it be made simple by the eloquence
of a beneficent life.
Send comfort, thou Holy One, to hearts that need it most. Make up
the vacancy at the fireside, fill the empty place at the table, supply the
necessity which is also an agony in the bewildered and desolate heart.
Let death be swallowed up in victory ; whatever that death may be,
whether loss of friend, or child, or money, or health, may the victory of
faith swallow up all the little death ot this little time. Guide us during
the rest of the road. Sometimes it looks high and difficult, and great

ANNOTATED TEXT. 75
rocks frown at the top of it ; sometimes it looks long and deep, with
abysses yawning at the foot ; but whatsoever the way may be, high or
low, over rocky heights or through rocky valleys, guide us, and our feet
shall get good hold, and, at last, our eyes shall see the city which our
hearts have long desired. We hope for the enlightenment of thy Spirit,
for the comfort of thy grace, for the sureness of thy pardon, and for the
confidence which comes of close communion with thy heart. We ask for
the pardon ot our sin ; day by day the black cloud comes, day by day the
violating hand is put forth into the very Holy of Holies, but the Cross ot
Christ is greater than all the sin of man, the blood of Jesus Christ thy Son
cleanseth from all sin, so we will find that the death of our sin is swal
lowed up in the victory of thy grace. Speak comfortably to us. Say from
heaven's high height, " Thy sins are pardoned ; thine iniquities are for
gotten." Make every good man stronger in his toil, make every bad
man weaker in his purpose ; make every trustful man enlarge his faith ;
and thus bring us, in thine own good time, the old and the young, with
every distinction of human personality and human relationship, into one
great family, marked with the blood ot the Lamb, clothed with the fine
linen of the saints, whose being established in thy presence is figured by
harping upon harps, and singing eternal anthems, and standing in eter
nal day. Amen.
Acts XV. 3-6.
3. They therefore, being brought on their way [sent, and accompanied
part of the way] by the church, passed through both Phoenicia and
Samaria, declaring the conversion ot the Gentiles : and they caused great
joy unto all the brethren.
4. And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received [for
mally, as messengers from the church at Antioch] of the church and the
apostles and the elders, and they rehearsed all things that God had done
with [xiv. 27] them.
5. But there rose up [in the church meeting] certain of the sect of the
Pharisees who believed, saying, It is needful to circumcise them [ver. l],
and to charge them to keep the law of Moses [this had been to subordi
nate Christ to Moses].
6. And the apostles and the elders were gathered together [vers. 22
and 25 show that this consultation took place in the church meeting.
Gal, ii. 2 refers to other private visits to them paid by Paul] to consider
of this matter.
WORKING ON THE ROAD.
FOR a littie time the noise of controversy ceases ; the dispu
tants determined to refer the question to a council to be
held in the metropolis. Paul and Barnabas might have taken a

76 ACTS XV. 3-6.

much shorter way to Jerusalem than the one which they adopted ;
but Paul was a man who, like the Master, always wished to do
some work on the way. When Jesus Christ was apparently hast
ening to a particular locality where His interposition was re
quested. He would often on the road stop a while to do some in
termediate miracle. Paul was not a man to waste time in travel
ling. He said, " We will preach as we go ; we will make this
journey to Jerusalem a missionary journey ; no doubt the ques
tion which is agitating us is an important one, but we will do
some work on the road, so that we may gather fresh evidence of
our calling, and add somewhat to the certitude of our faith"; so,
instead of taking the shortest course to Jerusalem, Paul and Bar
nabas passed through Phoenicia and Samaria. That was the dis
trict where Philip had done his wonderful works. We do not
meet Philip often by name, but we do meet him very frequentiy
in his actions. He founded churches, he prepared the way for
greater ambassadors than himself ; he was the pioneer of the
Apostles in Phoenicia and in Samaria (Gentile regions). Paul
and Barnabas would find many a trace of the man who had been
driven forth from quiet and comfortable quarters by pitiless per
secution. We should all leave footprints behind us ; people that
come afterward should know that we were there first By instruc
tion given, by stimulus imparted, by comfort breathed upon
withered and desolate hearts, they should know that we have
passed on before, and have left, it may be, an inadequate but a
most sincerely-intentioned testimony to the truth and reality of the
Christian kingdom.
Follow the Aposties imaginatively. They find a line of
Churches all the way, generally speaking, from Antioch to Jerusa
lem. There were houses of call on the road. The pioneer had
—not in words, but by sacred influence— said, " Other and
stronger men will be coming this road some day— be prepared for
them." So Paul and Barnabas find a road clear-cut through
deserts of heathenism to the great metropolis of Christianity. We,
too, walk on roads that have been well-trodden for us ; we do
not make our own paths. We take the roads of a country as a
matter of course, forgetting that without roads a country is a
prison, and the civilization of it is little better than a swamp.

DOMESTIC CHRISTIAN LIFE. 77
Who ever thinks of roads, or could suppose that a poet could wax
eloquent upon road-making .? Yet even so common a thing as a
road is essential to commerce, to progress, to the interchange of
opinion and good offices. Our roads have all been made for us ;
and Paul and Barnabas had not to take their spade and mattock,
and cut their own way from Antioch to Jerusalem — it had been
cut by other hands ; so the Aposties found it comparatively easy
to move from one metropolis to another. Brethren, we, too,
are debtors to the past ^Ve forget the road-makers — we think it
easy enough to make, yet in reality there is nothing much more
difficult to make than a path — wide, solid, and pleasant to go
upon ; not a path of a few yards long, but a road that runs
through cities and capitals, and makes the whole land but a net
work of populous and thriving streets.
Surely as they passed along, Paul and Barnabas would often
think of Philip, and would often hear of him in the homes where
they lodged. It is pleasant to see, in little wayside houses, the
pictures of Wesley and Whitefield, and pastors of humbler name,
who have lived in the locality, and done what lay within the com
pass of their power for its culture and progress. These pictures
are texts ; they are the starting-points of the most interesting con
versations ; to have such a picture is to have a sort of centre round
which a whole Church may gather, and about which the heart of
that littie Church may beat with thankfulness. Despise not your
forerunners ; they may not have been Pauls or Peters, men of
greatest force of character, but they had a work to do, and they
did it with diligence, so their names must not be held otherwise
than with reverence and thankfulness.
What peeps we get into the domestic life of the time ! The
two men coming into a house turned it at once into an historical
temple ; the house could never be the same afterward. There are
some visits that transfigure the localities in which they are paid.
There are some visitors that give a new sanctity to any house in
w-hich they eat, or sleep, or pray. What a sensation along all the
land through Phoenicia and Samaria I What wonderment about
the two travellers ! What special interest in one of them ! How
bright his conversation, how spiritual his remarks ! — every look
a picture, every speech a revelation, every prayer an opening of

78 ACTS XV. 3-6.

heaven. And the breaking of bread, and the littie common feast,
and the sort of talk which passes between men and unites men's
hearts ! Forget not the little idyls that help to make up the mas
sive poetry of great histories. There were little occasions, as well
as great ones, in the development of the Christian story. There
were meetings, as we .should say, at firesides, at little tables, not
spread with dainty feasts, but blessed with heavenly approbation.
Hand-grips, and special prayers, and peeps in the sick-chamber,
where the weak one lay, and where the tenderest of all supplica
tions were breathed, and still the men passed on, having to argue
a great question at Jerusalem, and to maintain a valiant and his
torical testimony in the face of the first council of the Christian
Church. As they went along the land, what did they talk about.? — " De
claring the conversion of the Gentiles." There ought to be great
joy when soldiers come from the field of war with the latest news.
It is true we care nothing for that news now ! We soon rough
down, by dumb applause, the stumbling missionary who tries to
tell us that the blood-red banner is floating higher than ever in the
wind ! It is true that he is nothing to us with our horses and
carts, and tradings, and progress, and capitals, and balances 1 In
the old time it was something to see the soldiers come home,
and to say to them, " What news, comrades.?" and to see the
soldiers stand up, and say, "The Gentiles are converted !" and
that is meat, drink, rest, reward. To have lived in those heroic
days would have been almost heroic ! The early Christians
were full of their subject ; we easily slip out of ours. They had
but one theme, only it included all other themes, as the firma
ment holds all the stars. They took pleasure in their work ; they
liked Sunday better than Monday — na}', they made Sunday seven
days long. They kept no black chalk, or white, or red, to mark
off the da}'s into ones and twos ; there was but one dav in the
week for the old soldiers ; they realized the whole typology of the
sun standing still, and the moon, and all the diurnal distinctions
were lost because the fight never ceased.
Look at the fourth verse. " And when they were come to Jeru-
•salem, they were received of the Church, and of the aposties and

EXPERIMENTAL PREACHING. 79
elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them."
Note here that the Church is spoken of in its unity. The Church
was in those days a well-defined body, the very Body of Christ,
the visible shrine of the invisible Spirit The Aposties were
received of the Church. Did the Church stand up to look at
them .? It may have done so. Did the Church put out its arms
in token of welcome and hospitality, fellowship and unity .? It
may have done so. The Church is one. We have made it into a
thousand, and therein may have grieved the heart of its Redeemer
and Founder, but we must endeavor, at least in the spirit, to
get back to the apostolic days when the Church was one. I do
not object to denominations any more than I object to different
regiments in the same army ; but as I expect all the regiments to
bow to one throne, and to honour one law, so I would expect all
denominations, whilst preserving their individual distinctions, to
have common ground upon which they can meet in common
prayer, and lo have a common altar, and a hymnology in which
there is no discordant note. Is it not even so to a large extent
now .? When we talk to God, we talk the common language of
Christianity ; it is only when we talk to one another that we begin
to dispute and to dissent. The moral of that fact is, that we
ought to talk less to one another, and more to our common
Father. Being received by the Church, the two new speakers
stood up to tell their tale. Have we no tale to tell .? If not, that
is the reason why we are dumb ! If a thief broke into your house,
you would tell everybody about it whom you met, and with whom
you were acquainted. If your house was on fire, all the neigh
bourhood would know it A man who has a tale to tell tells it ;
and he is right in doing so. The reason why we are dumb dogs
is that we have forgotten the story ; that we have no personal story
of conversion, inspiration, and enthusiasm. We are not unwill
ing to speak, but we have no story to relate. We cannot turn
blankness into eloquence ; having no history, we dare not awaken
imagination, and so the Church, in many of her sections, is
dumb. " Paul and Barnabas declared all things that God had
done with them." How marvellous the eloquence ; how realis
tic every sentence ; what home-thrusts they gave ! Keep to what
you know, not to what somebody told you about it, and you will
speak with clearness, simplicity, and emphasis.

ACTS XV. 3-6.

Look at the fifth verse. " But there rose up certain of the
sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, that it was needful to
circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses. "
Observe the nature of this contention. First : It was Pharisaic.
Not many of the Pharisees beheved, and those who did believe
caused some trouble. It was difficult to say whether they were
not greater opponents as believers than as unbelievers. There are
hinderers in the Church as well as outside the Church. This
position was not only Pharisaic, it was literary ; that is to say, it
was founded upon a narrow reading of the letter. There are per
sons who cannot get out of the four corners of any subject ; and
if the subject itself has not four corners, they will make four. If
Christianity is a Square with well-defined walls, there are men who
could stand in the middle of the square and defend it bravely ;
but if Christianity is a horizon which recedes as we advance, and
which has room enough within it for other universes tenfold larger
than our own, they become bewildered, the letter is of little use
to them, and there is a demand made upon religious imagination
and religious sympathy which they cannot meet, and so they
make four corners for themselves, and subside within the prison
of a creed. It is difficult for some men to see the bud in the
seed. It is impossible for some men to believe that the bud is the
same thing as the seed. They say you insult their reason by the
suggestion, and you throw suspicion upon their very sight by tell
ing them that the one is the other in a new form. Christianity has
its blossom as well as its root, its fruit as well as its blossom.
The fruit is the root, the root means the fruit ; the type only lives
by its littie self until the fulfilment comes, and then it passes
away — not because of contempt, but because of fulfilment and
fruition. Who were they who upheld the Law of Moses .? They
were Pharisees. How marvellous the providence that a Pharisee
of the Pharisees was sent to answer them I The pompous, cult
ured, refined Pharisees would have made short work of other
men, but there arose in the providence of God a man who was a
very prince of the blood, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, of the tribe
of Benjamin, circumcised the eighth day, concerning zeal persecut
ing the Church, and in his presence they met an unexpected and
successful check. A man who knows a smattering of a language
may astound the untravelled villagers who never heard of it ; but

CHOSEN VESSELS.

let a man arise who knows the language perfectiy, and then the
blatant pretender will fall away in shame from his temporary pre
eminence. It is thus that God grows his own men, so to say. It
is in such circumstances that we have an annotation upon the
words, " He is a chosen vessel unto me." God will always find
his own champions and his own preachers. He knows where the
men are ; he will bring them up from Asiatic capitals to the
Judaean metropolis. He who found water in the rock and honey
in the desert will find a minister for ^very post, a commander for
every army, a victory for every contest. Let us rest in the God
of truth ; he will find its best teachers and expositors ; and the
truth shall never be in want of a man of adequate capacity and
needful eloquence to show its grandeur and enforce its claims.

XLVIII.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, may Christ thy Son be born in our hearts to-day, the
hope of glory ! We remember his birth-time upon the earth, and our
prayer is that he may be born in our spirits the Child ot our love and our
delight, the beginning and the end, the seal and glory of our life.
Thou didst make our hearts for him ; thou didst intend us to receive him
day by day, and to live in him, and thou didst mean him to live in us.
As the branch abideth in the vine, so may our hearts abide in Christ ; he
is the root of all things, in him we have light and growth and hope ;
without him we can do nothing ; may he therefore be our Christ, and
may we be his saved ones ! He shed his blood for us ; may we in return
live our lite tor him. Oh, thou that sittest at the right hand ot God,
come lo us, for we, too, are God's children, made in his image and like
ness, made upright ; but we have sought out many inventions. We are
children who have run away from the Father's house ; in our hearts there
is a longing to return ; and this longing is the inspiration of God, and
the proof that it will be answered as God answers holy prayers. We
would now all return like wanderers to our home. We know we have
been far away, and have plucked the fruit from forbidden trees, and have
hewed out unto ourselves broken cisterns that can hold no water ; but
our yearning to return is greater than our shame at having left the house,
and this yearning is not of our creation, but of thine, thou who dost afflict
the heart with hunger which thou dost mean to satisfy. The years are
flying away from us, they are taking with them the delight of our eyes ;
the staff on which our right hand leaned with trust ; the life that made our
lite twice itself. May we improve the years as they come and go 1 Thou
dost send them to us as new opportunities ; may we not return them to
thee void of industry and faith and sacrifice I May we grow wiser with
the years ; may they leave behind them influences that shall give us
greater liberty, truer joy, and brighter hope ! Thou art making some of
us old ; thou art causing others ot us to see the first point of decline in
the setting of the sun. Thou art bringing forward others ot us from
youth to early manhood, with its passion, enthusiasm, and determination
to win ; and the little ones are always with us, keeping us from despair,
showing us some new light of God, plucking for us some new flower from
gardens which we thought had withered ; and the rich are here, and the
poor, touching one another, yet living at points immeasurably separated.
The strong man sits near the man who will die to-night. Thus are we

ANNOTATED TEXT. 83
related and mixed tor the time being ; yet in thy love we find community ;
in thy Cross we are bound logether in noble fellowship ; at the Cross we
forget all distinctions in the infinity of its love. May the spirit of the
Cross rule us I Whilst we are near it, may we know the enlargement of
soul which expresses itself in readiness to forgive ; and whilst we tarry
at the place called Calvary, may we see not only the cross, but the
crovvn ; not the Crucified only, but the angel of God, who shall liberate
the dead who die in Christ from every tomb ! Thus may great sights
make us great, thus may tender scenes melt our hearts, and may our lives
be great answers of obedience to all the will of thy love ! Make our
homes happy ; make the smallest ot them bright as a palace ; pour a
blessing upon the humblest dinner that shall make it a king's banquet.
May we all eat honest bread, and enjoy the sleep ot those who do good !
Enable us to see in all the way of thy providence openings into heaven,
opportunities of becoming more like thyself ; and as the similitude of
Christ grows upon us, may men take knowledge ot us, and at eventide,
in our coming and in our going, may there be a heart-warmth above all
the heat of the sun I Now if we may but touch the hem of thy garment,
we shall be made whole ! We dare not ask for visions that fill the sky,
or for radiance that would smite us with momentary blindness, but we do
ask that this day, if we may not touch the hem of the garment of the
Man, we may at least touch the swaddling clothes of the Child. Amen.
Acts XV. 7-11.
7. And when there had been much questioning [general conversational
debate], Peter rose up [in the meeting], and said unto them. Brethren,
ye know how that a good while ago [G. " in the old days'' — i,e,, in the
old days ot this new dispensation, see x. 11, For a similar reckoning of
time, see Gal. ii. i] God made choice [from] among you, that by my
mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.
8. And God, which knoweth the heart, bare them witness, giving them
the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us ;
g. and he made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their
hearts by faith.
10. Now, therefore, why tempt ye God [either to allow his witness to be
thus despised, or to punish /<?« his despisers], that ye should put a yoke
[comp. its weight. Gal. v. i, with Christ's easy yoke. Matt. xi. 29] upon
the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we wire able to
bear ?
II. But we believe that we [though lae also are unable to bear the yoke
of the law] shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in like
manner as they [note the inversion of the terms — " we as they," not
they as we. Peter has turned the tables upon the Pharisees. Here only
Peter uses Paul's common phrase, " the grace of the Lord Jesus," Gal.
ii. 11-16].

S4 ACTS XV. 7-1 1.

PETER'S SPEECH ON CIRCUMCISION.
LET us consider Peter's speech about the question of the cir
cumcision of the Gentiles. We have considered the ques
tion itself apart from Peter ; we have accompanied Paul and
Barnabas on their journey from Antioch to Jerusalem ; and in
the latter city there has been much disputing. Now we read :
"Peter rose up, and said unto them. Men ' and brethren, ye
know how that a good while ago God made choice among us,
that the Gentiles, by my mouth, should hear the word of the
Gospel, and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare
them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto
us ; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their
hearts by faith. Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke
upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we
were able to bear .? But we believe that through the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they. ' ' Mark the
//ot^ when Peter spoke. "And when there had been much dis
puting." That was the critical moment. Speeches acquire
force and value from the time at which they are delivered. Wise
men keep back as long as possible from delivering their judgment
upon hotly-contested questions. Thus their wisdom goes for
twice the value which it would be appraised at did they speak
earlier in the discussion. Many a man who is not of first-rate
ability acquires at least local and temporary influence by watching
his time ; he allows all the ready tongues to talk first, to relieve
their feelings, to show their weak ability, and to secure what
noise, mistakenly called applause, they can. Then when the as
sembly has fatigued itself, and would be only too thankful for a
deliverance from the wordy entanglement and confusion, he rises,
puts together, so far as he can patch them, the different opinions
which have been expressed, finds the middle line, and invites the
controversialists to join along that line of compromise. They
hail him as a Daniel, though Daniel he is none ! He came in at
the right time. Had he joined the fray earlier, he would have
been but one amongst many, but, observing how things were going,
he came forward at the critical moment, and therefore came with
double force, and with a sapience so much the more valued
because the people who listened to it were longing for a liberator.

A NEW LANGUAGE.

This is the way in all great assemblies. The principal speakers
will not deliver themselves between the hours ; they need not be
present to hear the little speeches that will be made, because they
knew them all by heart long before one of them was spoken ; they
will return towards midnight, and then settle the whole controversy,
because the people are waiting and willing to have it settled.
Peter, then, is growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus. There was a time when he would have been heard first.
We have not been accustomed to see Peter waiting ; we have been
accustomed to see him rising instantaneously and putting things in
order, as one who occupied a seat of unquestioned and unques
tionable authority. Now that he has waited until there has been
" much disputing," we begin to feel that Peter has grown in
grace, and that perhaps he will make the noblest speech he ever
did utter. Presently we shall see.
Peter kept to facts which were known to himself. Over some
ground we walk very daintily, because we are not quite sure of it ;
at an}' moment a foot may go down so that it cannot be taken up
again ; but Peter walks upon solid rock. " Men and brethren,
ye know," said he, " this is not a matter in discussion, nor is it a
question of a speculative kind ; I will ask you to walk with me
over a road macadamized with facts." As Christian men, we
might have gone farther upon our journey if we had not tried to
cut it short by crossing bogs and swamps. The longest way
about is often the shortest way home, according to the old proverb.
And so it is in spiritual thinking and in moral education. When
}'ou go, step from rock to rock ; and though your progress may
not seem to be rapid, it will prove itself to be sure. How does
Peter come to speak this new language .? There are tones in this
speech we have not detected before — subtle tones, resonant tones.
Where has Peter been .? He has been in conference with Paul.
Privately Paul has had interviews with them " which were of repu
tation' ' among the Apostles. There are private processes of edu
cation going on in every life and in every house. We feel that
Peter has touched somebody. He seems higher in stature ; there
is a purer light in his eye ; his very voice has new expression in it ;
and as for his talk, it is not the babble of his earlier discipleship,
but a broad philosophy. How is this ? He has touched the
man to whom we owe doctrinal Christianity ! He has been in

86 ACTS XV 7-11.

company with the founder of the theological Church ; he has
known the energy of the mightiest man that ever considered the
problems of Deity, Sin, and Redemption. He was an apt
scholar. Peter was always impressible ; you always knew where
he had just been because of the tone of his voice. We feel here
that he has been with a man greater than himself. Keep com
pany with the wise if }'ou would grow in wisdom. Always seek
to be in the clientele of a man who has yet more to do in life, and
who tells you from every mountain-top he climbs that he has not
yet begun to ascend. There is no finality in God.
In this little speech you have a whole system of divinity. I
know not that there is anything outside this deliverance — if we
may avail ourselves not of the letter only, but of the spirit, and of
its million-fold inference and suggestion. Here you have the
Trinity — God, his Son, and the Holy Ghost. A greater Trinity
than if it had been named in numbers. The Trinity must assert
itself ; it does not ask to ht proved. Jesus Christ did not attempt
topr(nje;ht accepted the facts of life, of being, and of thought
Jesus Christ did not attempt to prove the necessity of prayer. He
said, "When ye pray." Who attempts to show that we must,
as a matter of obligation, breathe ? The physiologist, the teacher
ofthe laws of life, says just what Jesus Christ said — "When ve
breathe." So with this great doctrine of the Godhead. The
Trinity comes upon us from apostolic eloquence at every gleam
ing point— God— his Son— the Holy Ghost. And again, "the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellow
ship of the Holy Ghost," and so on. In apostolic speech there
is a I'rinity declared ; there is no attempt to set up a Trinity that
can be argued a.nd proved.
And here is also Divine sovereignty. " God made choice."
And again, "God gave them the Holy Ghost" And again,
" God put no difference between us and them." It was thus with
bold and generous emphasis the Apostles used the name of God,
not apologetically, but as indicating sovereignty, dominion,
authority, final because complete \\\\\. And here not only have
we the Trinity and Divine sovereignty, we have the whole scheme
of Judaism— "A yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which

GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY. 87
neither our fathers nor we were able to bear." The last and com-
pletetest definition of Judaism ; a yoke which could not be borne,
but a yoke which was needful at the time. We must have chafing
liefore we can have rest God must show us what the law really
is in all its details and tyrannous demand, before we cry out for
mercy, pity, and grace. _ And here we have salvation by grace.
' ' But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
we shall be saved, even as they." We need not systematize these
points, and make a formal creed of them ; they are better left as
necessary parts of our thinking, to come into our speech by in
spiration. We had better not cut out the branches in order to
carve them into pillars and posts and standards. Do not cut
down the tree ! I can worship better under its shadow than I can
kneel before its polished and carven wood.
Observe, then, how Peter surpasses himself in the breadth of
his Christian philosophy. He must have in all his thinking as
its vital point Divine action. He calls us back to first principles.
He will not have GOD excluded from this reasoning. In fact, he
says, " Men and brethren, this is a question that involves the
Divine sovereignty, and the Divine mind in all its outgoing and
influence ; that being so, I start with this fact, that I went to the
Gentiles ; I went against my convictions — certainly against my
prejudice, and, more certainly still, against all my inclinations.
I did not want to go— I protested against going — but the law of
gravitation drew me ; it was GOD that inspired and directed
me. ' ' The reason why we have so many superficial theories of
life is that men exclude Divine action. A philosopher proposes
to you what he calls the theory of evolution, but in proposing it
he says we take for granted nature and life ! That is to say, he
takes the whole thing for granted. It is not evolution that per
plexes me, but creation; and I find no fuller answer— simpler,
deeper, grander— than " God created the heavens and the earth";
an answer I cannot explain. And so in the evolution of circum
stances, the development of spiritual and moral history, I cannot
consent to begin at some point indicated by a creature as limited
as myself. Here, as in the former case, I say, " My difficulty is
not with evolution, but with creation ; and to that difficulty I find
no answer so commanding, so gracious, as, ' Men and brethren,
ye know that a good while ago— GOD.' " This is the echo of

88 ACTS XV. 7-1 1.

the first verse in the Bible. From the first verse in the Bible I
cannot get away ; all the chapters of the Bible are hewed out of
the quarry of its first verse !
Then Peter gives us a doctrine which has become common
place to us ; as uttered from his mouth it was a miracle. These
are the words that ought to astound us if we were inspired by the
historical genius: "And put no difference between, or distinc
tion between, us and them." We ourselves being the Gentiles
received into the Great Abrahamic circle, do not feel the value of
the inclusion as we ought to do ; but the men who were inside
that enclosure, and thought they completed its circumference,
when they saw a rent made in the circle of the covenant, and
hordes of uncircumcised Gentiles coming in, were affrighted, ap
palled, and disgusted. What could you say to such men ? Could
you propose a theory of social evolution to them .? They would
have burned you with their angry glances I How will you ap-
proach'''excitement of the Jewish kind .? Just as Peter approached
it. He went right into the broken circle, and said, ' ' Ye know
that a good while ago — GOD !" There are times when we must
gather up our whole enthusiasm and reasoning and hope into the
Divine name, and hurl it, like an infinite thunderbolt, against all
the petty action and all the affronted conceit of a narrow-
minded age. Think of a Jew acknowledging that God put no
distinction between himself and a barbarian ! You do not won
der that Peter should afterward write : ' ' Grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ' ' When he wrote that sen
tence he did not inscribe upon his paper a passing sentiment ; he
drew at full length the portrait of his own development And
what expressions the man uses ! He says, ' ' Purify their hearts by
faith. ' ' That is a result of faith which some of us do not fully real
ize ! Faith refines the heart ; faith chains up the passions like so
many dogs that may be excellent sen'ants but bad masters ; and
says, " Walk behind ; I lead." The man of great faith cannot be
vulgar ; he who has sublime faith has sublime refinement I say
not that he is dressed in purple and fine linen, and that he fares
sumptuously every day ; I say not that his hands are white, and
that his appointments are technically correct I speak of another
kind of refinement— inward, spiritual, always seeking expression
worthy of its own dignity.

TRAINING PROCESSES, 89
And then how broad again his philosophy becomes when he
says, "Why tempt ye God?" This is not a little question of
personality- — this urging of the law beyond its intended province
and compass is a temptation of God, This is not obedience ; it
is temptation. This is not homage ; it is temptation. This is
not righteousness ; it is temptation. Even Divine ordinances are
not to be thrust beyond Divine boundaries. Let us take care lest
our pretended homage be but a veiled blasphemy. Paul himself
never made a grander speech. Peter in this eloquence is almost
Pauk. How singularly and wondrously God trains one man until
he is almost another ! So that when the other and greater man
comes he does not bring with him a sense of violence ; he rather
comes in by a line so graduated that we are scarcely aware of the
new sovereignty and the broader influence, because the other man
was so nearly of the same spiritual calibre and force. It is in
these directions I see the working of Divine providence. Men are
always being sent to school to learn the next lesson. In one
school we get through all our mistakes. What blunders we com
mitted in that first little dame's school ! The days were mistakes !
Every lesson was a new miracle in blundering ! Then we passed on,
and became a little better ; and we went to another school, and
became almost noted for a species of wisdom. Now when we look
back upon the whole process, we wonder that we were allowed to
live one day in any civilized community ! So we are, little by littie,
and day by day, educated, qualified, and refined ; so that when
this mortal shall put on immortality it shall be as in the twinkling
of an eye. So long has been the preparation, so long the disci
pline, so complete the purifying and the enlargement, that when
this corruptible shall put on incorruption it will seem as though
we had but just awaked out of a sleep to see the -Majesty Divine !

XLIX.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, to-day we bury the year on which we entered with
Christian hope. The year has run its course. As coming from thee,
and giving unto us opportunities of service and giowth and sacrifice, we
may say, " WeU done, good and faithful servant !" The year was thine,
thou didst give it unto us ; we have written across its face our daily
record. To-night the year goes back again to thee a blighted thing. The
judgment is thine ; we would the year might, in many a day, be utterly
forgotten, but thou dost claim the days ; thou dost turn over the leaves
of our time, and peruse the record, line by line, and thou dost write upon
our work the judgment that is righteousness. We will not hold up the
year to thee in a spirit ot defiance ; we will point to it with a trembling
finger because of a misgiving heart ; and over every page of the writing
we will say — so far as our tears will permit us — " God, be merciful to us
sinners !" We are a year nearer to thee ; mayhap we are a year farther
from thee. Thou dost make us old before we know it ; thou dost silently
scatter the snow of old age upon our head, and we awake to behold the
winter's white. Thou art carrying out thy purposes throughout all the
ages. Thou dost not live in days and moments, in years and centuries
— thou breathest eternity, thou dwellest in one perpetual noiu, thou
stretchest thy hand from everlasting to everlasting, and our duration is
but as a dying cloud in thy sight. We will remember the years of the
right hand of the Most High. Through Christ Jesus our living Lord, we
will ask to find rest in the pavilion of God's eternity. Spare us yet a
little while, that we may recover strength to say some better prayer, and
sing some sweeter hymn, before we are gathered to our fathers. Thou
dost not take away the race of men as with a flood ; but man by man,
one by one — here one, there one — so that the individual taken does not
seem to be so much ; yet when the year's death tale is told, behold how
many empty places there are, and how many answer not when the life.
roll is called over. Thus thou dost work silently in the night-time, and
in unexpected hours, so that we know not when the Lord will come : at
the cock-crowing, at the fuller dawn, in the shining mid-day, in the
deep night. Thou dost keep us in this ignorance, that we may be also
kept in keen watchfulness, so that when the Lord cometh we may be
ready to enter with him into his house. As for the year, the Lord pity it.
The work has been clumsily done ; our prayers have not all gone to
heaven, because they did not all come from (he heart. Some deep

UNS A TIS FA CTOR Y REP OR TING. 9 1
graves have been dug, and the stone work and the cunning masonry can
not prevent the certain corruption- of the flesh. Plant thou Gospel flowers
upon human graves, and they will delight and soothe us in the time ot
impatience and passion. Thou hast made some widows and some father
less, and some thou hast bereaved of all ; so that the year shall never be
mentioned but with it there will come the moan of a hollow wind. " Oh,
dreary year, worst ot all, blackest of all," some will say. Others bless
thee for it ; they never saw such flowers as it has grown. They never
knew the mountains were so high before ; they never saw the sea and the
river throb with so many millions of silvery spangles ; the whole year has
been a breath from heaven — business has been success, health has
become consolidated strength, and sleep has been as a renewal ot lite.
They will remember the year, and bless it. Now, Lord, if we may see
the dawn ot another year, may we this time try as we never tried before
to know thy will, and to do it all. We would enter upon it in the name of
Christ, Lord of all the years. Saviour ot all the ages. Priest ot all sinners.
Alpha, Omega, first, last — in him all things are gathered up in their
infinite total. We lay our hand on him, by him we are saved, through
him we pray, in him we live, for his sake we forgive as we would be for
given. Amen.
Acts XV. 12.
And all the multitude kept silence ; and they hearkened unto Barnabas
and Paul rehearsing what signs and wonders God had wrought among
the Gentiles by them.

APOSTOLIC TESTIMONY.
THAT is an unsatisfactory verse. When Paul speaks we
want to know what Paul says. But some men must be
their own reporters, for so unusual is their method and tone that
it baffles every scribe to catch the one and reproduce the other.
That Paul should have made a speech, and that it should be re
ferred to in one brief sentence such as this, considering the gravity
and dignity of the subject, cannot be satisfactory. Paul himself
goes into the matter ; we see, therefore, under Paul's own sign
manual, what he said and what he did. So we turn for the
moment from the Acts of the Apostles to the opening verses of
Paul's Epistle to the Galatians. Where Luke contents himself
with a summary, Paul passes into minute and instructive detail.
Some verses are too condensed ; some reports are simple varia
tions of injustice. We do not care for our life to be huddled up

92 ACTS XV. 12.

in one sentence. By-and-by the master of criticism and detail
will take our life to pieces by a just analysis, and will award to
every one according to his deeds. We briefly said, ' ' He called
and prayed." It seems from that report as if the man did little
or nothing. We do not say that he walked miles, and that when
he prayed his heart wept We deal too roughly with one another,
and too summarily. We dismiss life too briefly. Thanks be
unto Heaven that judgment will be a criticism of detail, and not
an off-hand pronouncement upon the tragedy of human life.
Paul says he went up to Jerusalem " by revelation." Then he
went up in high temper — he was greater than the Jerusalem to
which he went If he had gone up to Jerusalem awed by its
metropolitan position and fame, he would have hesitated in his
speech, and would have picked out right dainty words that could
offend no one, but, by subtle flattery, might win the ear of many.
In reality Paul went from heaven to Jerusalem, and, descending
upon it, it withered into contem ptibleness under the majesty of the
visions from which he had just turned his eyes. Paul lived in a
large world. It was no mere handful of dust upon which he set
his foot, and within which he performed the little miracles of his
power. In Paul's view the worlds all belonged to one another.
The Lord had not made a countless number of links ; the Lord
had made a chain of planets, a chain of worlds. Touching one
link, he sent a thrill through all the band of the constellations.
We have dropped the word ' ' revelation' ' except on the Sabbath
day, when we venture to say it sometimes. We have meaner
words — such as impression, conviction, feeling, unaccountable
desire. These are inoffensive terms ; an atheist might use such
mock jewelry. The Apostie had no impression, conviction,
transient feeling. He said : "I went up by revelation." God
said to him, " Go." The angels said, " We will go with thee."
It was a great day ! "I went up with angel convoys, with ban
ners unfuried by invisible hands, for I knew that the truth was with
me, and I was anxious only that Christ's Cross should be lifted
up above cloud and fog and dust, and be seen everywhere as the
one way of salvation. ' ' Was Paul then afraid of Jerusalem, and
"pillars," and "men of reputation," and who spoke ex cathe
dra ? He was twice anointed, yea, with a double unction of the
Spirit, so that Jerusalem became but a village to him, and men of

VALUE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 93
illustrious name became brethren and equals. Paul says he was
anxious to state the Gospel he had been preaching, so that the
leaders of the Church might know e.xactly what he had been
doing. Paul preached privately to them that were of reputation.
Could we have heard him then ! Speaking to a sympathetic
audience, to men who had seen the Lord ! They must have
thought they were almost looking upon Him again ; they had
never heard such a voice before. Paul was never so great in any
other instance. Speaking from the shrine of revelations, even the
mightiest men in the Church but ' ' seemed to be pillars. ' ' Paul
had no fear about his Gospel. He said, " I have been preach
ing to the Gentiles this and that, and I learned my lesson through
the Spirit. My one object has been to represent and incarnate
our common Master, and to show that he alone can justify the
unjust. I have seen that the Gospel is greater than the law, that
by superseding it the Gospel abrogates the law, that rites and
ceremonies are no longer of any account, but the one thing need
ful vs, faith in Christ I have been preaching salvation by Christ ;
now, brethren, what say you ?"
Coming to the point which was in controversy, Paul's attitude
is one which presents many aspects. In the first place he was
not ashamed of his Gentile converts. He took Titus with him.
The scene that comes before our imagination is that of a man
with a bright eye, a glowing face, a tongue eloquent — if not in
fluency, yet in passion — and pointing to a young man (Titus),
Paul said, " This is a Gentile convert He has begun in the
Spirit; is he to be made perfect in the flesh.?" What does he
want with your cuttings and ablutions and ceremonies .? Always
vindicate your arguments by your converts. If you can produce
converts, so that we can see them, they will do more for the Christian
cause than can be done upon many minds by the most elaborate
and cogent Christian reasoning. Some of us might have our unex
pressed wonder, amounting almost to an inexpressible doubt, as to
the needfulness and usefulness of Christian missions ; but when the
other evening I saw in this church — and conversed with — the gen
tlemen known as the Malagasy Envoys ; when I saw them, consid
ered their history, knew that their ancestry were a degraded and
debased people ; when I heard their gentle voices, and listened to
one of them speaking purely and pathetically our mother tongue j

94 ACTS XV, 12.

when I heard them say in their own speech that they could follow
the preacher whenever he mentioned the words Jesus Christ ;
when they knew nothing that I said but those two words, and
when their hearts throbbed under that music, I wanted no man to
argue with me about sending the Gospel to the Gentiles, to the
uncircumcised, and to the heathen away Out on the sea. The
missionary cause said, in effect, " This is the kind of work I want
to do the whole world over. ' ' The response to that appeal could
only be of one kind — instantaneous in its spontaneity, and gener
ous in its self-sacrifice. Upon this rock we stand ! We always
have our Titus with us ! There is he who has been converted.
Behold the breadth ! behold the length ! behold, there is in his
heart a spirit of confidence, forgiveness, and Christian hope I
Does that man need to be circumcised, baptized ; to have any
Christian magic performed over him .? No ! Having begun in
the Spirit, he is not to be made perfect in the flesh. Let him
stand there not as a proof of the antiquity and necessity of cir
cumcision, but as an illustration of the new creating and justify
ing power of Christian faith. There were men who wished to
have Titus circumcised. Paul, in giving an account . of the
matter, becomes almost incoherent in his speech ; the very ripest
scholars are at a loss to put together, in a manner absolutely satis
factory, the almost broken sentences which Paul writes in the
second chapter of the Galatians regarding this matter of Titus ;
in fact, there are not wanting men who have suggested that Titus
was actually circumcised. I do not base my opinion upon the
mere grammar of the text, which is so indistinct as to be dis
puted, but I base my conclusion upon Paul, — what we have seen
of his spirit, character, his whole tone of mind, — and it would
seem to me to contradict the man and the very purpose of his
mission to acknowledge that Titus was circumcised. Who wanted
to have the young man circumcised .? Paul answers that they
were false brethren. How did such men come to have any voice
in the matter .? Paul answers — they crept in privily, unawares.
What particular object could they have in insisting upon the
young man's circumcision? Paul answers — their object was to
spy out our Christian liberty, and to shut us up within the cold
iron of the letter. How were such men treated ? Paul sa}'S,
"To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour." "

PERSONAL TESTIMONY. 95
He never paltered with the enemy ; the spirit of compromise was
not in him when such questions were under consideration. He
could be pliant, accommodating, courteous ; he could speak other
people's language when they could not speak his. Such was the
inspiration that fell upon his spirit that he could eat with the Jew
as a Jew, and with the Gentile as a Gentile, plainly declaring that
his object was a concession to their want of Christian education.
But when this was the question, namely. Shall the Cross of Christ
have anything added to it by man's hands .? Shall anything follow
the chrism of blood .? his answer was the ' ' NO ' ' of all the thunders
that ever shook the firmament. He did not refer this case. He
did not say ' ' Let the elders and superiors of the nation consider
it, and decide for me." He said, "This is not a question of
expediency, but of essential life ; and if the Cross of Christ re
quires the cutting of a knife, or a drop of water, Christ is dead in
vain I" Such a man had a Gospel to preach. No wonder that
he preached it so as sometimes to be accounted mad.
In this instance Paul illustrates by anticipation a phrase which
has become a commonplace to us. We insist upon what we de
scribe as the right of private judgment. That was exactiy the
doctrine which Paul asserted on this occasion. He speaks of
men " who were of reputation"; he also speaks of men " who
seemed to be pillars"; he mentions by name men who were
in Christ whilst he himself was a persecutor and a blasphemer ; he
refers to persons in the Church who " seemed to be somewhat"
Was he awed by their authority? Did he say, "Hear the
Church' ' ? Did he wait for some other man, or number of men,
to give him the doctrine of Christ ? Speaking to the false
brethren, he says, " To whom we gave place by subjection, no,
not fot an hour. " And speaking of those " who seemed to be
somewhat," he said, " Whatsoever they were, it maketh no
matter to me : God accepteth no man's person." They " added
nothing to me." That was a brusque way of adding up and esti
mating the value of men I Paul said, " You have taught me
nothing ; you have given me no new light ; I see no unfamiliar
aspect of the truth in your speech ; I do not know that you are
more than others!" Where, then, was obedience? Where was
submission to the papal authority ? Where was the rebuke of in
dividual conscience ; and where was the setting aside of private

96 ACTS XV. 12.

judgment ? Here is one man wbo stands up in the Church, and
says, "This is the Gospel which I have received, which I will
preach, for which I will live, for which, and in which, I will die,"
" I am crucified with Christ ; nevertheless, I live ; yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me ; and the life which I now live in the flesh,
I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me." That was the true assertion of private judg
ment : not the expression of an individual will, but the expres
sion of a personal loyalty to a living Christ
Paul showed the true nature of real and enduring unity. In
effect, he said : We may be one without seeming to be united.
iUnion is a question of sympathy, and not of form. I will tell
you what can be done. There are in the world two distinct
classes of men, Jews and Gentiles, called the circumcision and
the uncircumcision. There are men to whom circumcision
is a king of hereditary rite and observance. There are others
to whom it would be an intolerable yoke. Now, let us go,
the one to the circumcision, and the other to the uncircum-
cision ; for I know that as this Gospel spreads it will be seen
at the last that neither circumcision availeth anything nor un
circumcision. Do not let a man boast of his uncircumcision
any more than the Jew should boast of his circumcision. Do
not boast that you have not been baptized, no more than any
man should boast that he has been plunged into the stream.
Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, neither baptism nor
non-baptism, availeth anything, but a new creature. In that sub
lime faith the Aposties went to their death. So would I say, If
your fathers are men who have been baptized, or unbaptized, or
who have been accustomed to attend to this ceremony or to that,
you may go on with your ministry to the circumcision — only be
true to the spirit of Christ ; and if I have been called to the
people of many languages, to odd men, eccentric thinkers, inde
pendent personalities, men who repudiate circumcision, and look
upon rite and ceremony with contempt, I will also carry out my
ministry. The truth will prosper, in the long run in proportion
as we are faithful to its statement and exposition.
But the counsel could not break up so. We must have some
thing to do that is visible, and that can be assumed by all minds.
"Well, then," said the council unanimously, "one thing shall

PRACTICAL SERVICE. 97
unite us — that we remember the poor." The poor have ye always
with you. So they all — the circumcision — remembered the poor,
and they of the uncircumcision also remembered the poor, and in
philanthropy they showed their union in the Lord, who live to
redeem the human race ! This has been my doctrine, for which
I have suffered not a littie. I have said to contending theologians
and controversialists : " Gentlemen, you will never speculatively
agree — the more talk the more division. But I will tell you what
you can do. You can unite in practical service ; you can re
member the poor ; you can join in carrying out moral and social
reformation amongst the people." Speculative theology divides
men ; practical philanthropy unites them. Let us unite where
we can. A union upon these matters may prepare the way for a
better understanding, for ultimate conciliation, and for enduring
fellowship. Never inquire into the creed of a needy man. The
man is hungry ; the creed must be bread. When he has eaten
his bread you may ask him questions. Again and again I would
say to Christian teachers and workers : Begin where you can ; do
not stand upon technicalities, or insist upon pedantic conces
sions ; but. wherever the heart-door is ajar, go in ; wherever op
portunity is offered, speak the living word or do the helpful deed.
Always seek for the centre of union, and always avoid the cause of
division or distrust. You would like theological or doctrinal
union, and so should I ; but where that is simply impossible, we
must go in other directions for an initial union ; and that we may
find in being a tongue for the dumb, eyes for the blind, and a
tower of refuge for those who have no friend. When the Church
is animated by this spirit, she will be surprised to find how many
hitherto unknown friends she has, and how many there are who
will respond to her philanthropy who cannot pronounce her Shib
boleth. Let us be wise in our times, and set high above all party
flags bearing mean names the blood-red banner of Calvary, the
symbol of reconciliation and security.

L.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, we thank thee that thou hast called us to stand still
awhile and talk with thee. This is thy day — oh that it might have no
night I We would make it a day of elevation of soul, enlargement of
faith, and drawing out of our best affections. This is no common time.
In the morning ot this day we see the Resurrection and the Life. We
come to a grave, and find it emptied of the dead. The angels meet us,
kind Heaven bows down its arch of light, and, behold, the earth is
touched with the subtle glory of the skies. This is the Lord's day — thou
didst make it ; upon it are the marks of thy fingers ; this is the day of
the opening of the gates of righteousness, and of high fellowship, of
liberty, and of hope. To-day we begin the 3'ear of Sabbaths ; may all
the year be one long summer day. Give us the Morning Star. Shine
upon us from between the Cherubim. Let the light of the sun be a dim
splendour compared with the infinite glory that shall shine upon our
i.nmost life. If thou dost inspire great prayers, it is because thou hast
prepared great replies. Our prayer can never be equal to thine answer ;
where our prayer abounds, thy response doth much more abound — so
that we forget our little words in the infiniteness of thy benefactions.
But have we not all things in Christ ? Have we not in him unsearchable
riches of wisdom, truth, grace, consolation, and hope ? The Sun of
Righteousness never sets ; there is no night in his love, there is no
slumber-time in all his watchfulness. The God of Israel neither slum-
bereth nor sleepeth ; and as for Christ, he ever liveth to make interces
sion for us. We are 'rich, and yet know it not. We have all things, and
yet is there a tone of reproach and discontent in our voices. Lord, in
crease our faith, Carry it onward to assurance, and from assurance to
triumph — yea, to victory upon victory, until we know not which is earth
and which is heaven, because of the gracious transport which excites and
thrills the soul. Grant us seasons of singular joy — yea, of great uplifting
and broadening of life — so that we shall look down from high and sacred
heights upon the day's duties and the day's mean trials and burdens. To
every work may we go up by revelation, and it shall be done ere we touch
it ; to every suffering may we advance in the spirit of the Cross ; then
shall we glory in tribulation also. The Lord's great comfort fill our
hearts as the summer light fills the whole sky ; may there be in us no
darkness at all ; may our hope be bright as the morning, and our gladness
high as the noontide. We would forget the past except as an inspiration ;

ANNOTATED TEXT. 99
we would not lay again foundations, but arise and build ; we would be
better men. We would have deeper holiness, tenderer sympathy, wiser
realization of truth and doctrine. Thou knowest our frame, thou remem-
berest that we are dust, and thou art always fashioning us out of the dust
that we may become men in Christ Jesus. He is the Son of man ; he is
the Saviour of man ; he shed his blood for man ; may we live through
him, in him, and for him, and then, death's cold shadow past, we shall
live with him. Grant to all the old men here a renewal of youth ; may
they forget their three-score years and more in the warmth of a New
Year's Sabbath morning. Take up all the little children that are here,
and kiss them into beauty. Speak to all the men of business who are
here, and show them that the bread unleavened with dishonesty makes
the best sustenance. Comfort the weak ; speak a word to him that is ill
at ease ; be the counsel of those who are entering upon new schemes,
undertaking strange adventures, or entering into unfamiliar enterprises.
Go with our loved ones on long journeys by land and sea ; keep them,
give them gladness of heart by the way, and a safe return to the love
that awaits them. Succor those who are so sick that we cannot help them.
Come thyself — Maker, Healer, Redeemer of Lite — and let thy blessing
make up the lack of our ability. Amen.

Acts XV. 13-29.
13. And after they had held their peace [G. became silent] James
answered [xii. 17, James, the brother of the Lord — not the son of
Alpheus — answers the messengers of Antioch as the president of the
meeting. Note how fatally conclusive this whole narrative is against the
primacy of Peter], saying. Brethren, hearken unto me :
14. Symeon [Luke xxiv. 34 — Hebrew form of Simon] hath rehearsed
how first God did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his
name. 15. And to this agree the words of the prophets, as it is written :
16. After these things I will return, and I will build again the taber
nacle of David, which is fallen ; and I will build again the ruins thereof.
17. and I will set it up : that the residue of men [Luke translates freely
from the Ixx. The Hebrew text has " residue of Edom," i.e., those
whom Amaziah (2 Kings xiv. 7) had left unsubdued. But the idea on
which James's argument rests is supplied by the next clause] may seek
after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith
the Lord,
18. who maketh these things known from the beginning of the world
["saith the Lord who doeth," j'.^., accomplishes " these things, " is the
Hebrew close of Amos ix. 11, 12. Either the Hebrew text James quoted
from memory, or the Ixx. text Luke translated from may have had the
addition "things known from the beginning of the world." Or, this

ICO ACTS XV. 13-29.

may be a remark of James or Luke. The idea is, that God is doing
nothing new or strange to him when he thus brings in the Gentiles].
19. Wherefore my judgment is, that we trouble [G. " burden"] not them
which from among the Gentiles turn to God ;
20. but that we write unto them, that they abstain from the pollutions
of idols [Ex. xxxiv. 15], and from fornication \_so common among Gentile
idolaters, that the abstaining therefrom would appear rather a ritual tiiaa
an ethical change], and from what is strangled, and from blood [{Gen. ix.
6). These regulations were not equivalent to the ' ' seven precepts of
Noah," observed by " devout" Gentiles, but simply avoidances of heathen
ritual Tendered necessary by the heathen of that time],
21. For Moses from generations of old hath in every city them that
preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath [and so the
Jews and devout persons attending these synagogues would be scandalized
if these four points were not strictly observed].
22. Then it seemed good to [v. 25 and 28. This commonest of Greek
phrases has been made into an ecclesiastical formula by the hierarchists]
the .apostles and the elders [G. has no comma], with the whole church, to
choose men [v. 25] out of their company [out of the church meeting], and
send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas : namely, Judas called
Barsabbas [mentioned only in this passage], and Silas [Silvanus, I Peter
V. 12], chief men [Luke x.xii. 26 ; lit. : leaders] among the brethren :
23. and they [those who chose, i.e., the meeting] wrote thus by them
[G. " by their hand," i.e., sent this letter with and by means of them].
The apostles and the elder [hierarchist copiers have omitted the following
words " and the" in many MSS. Sahidic 34 omits also " brethren ";
Tischendorf retains " and the brethren"; but our Revisers have followed
the hierarchists. Were this unprecedented Greek phrase possible at all,
the adjective would be very emphatic. " The Elder brethren." — Or, as
the Americans suggest, it may be imagined to mean, " the Elders :
brethren," i.e., the Apostles and the Elders in their capacity of brethren
(church members)— greet the Gentile brethren (the churches at Antioch,
etc.). The meaning given by the Revisers' reading (comp. v. 24) is that
the " subverters" having falsely alleged the authority of the Apostles and
the Elder brethren, the Antiochian Church sent the deputation to sift
this allegation, and now the Jerusalem Church sends back two of its own
members, sending with and by them a letter, in which the Apostles and
the Elder brethren explicitly deny the " subverters' " report concerning
themselves. Tischendorf is, however, right. Read harmoniously with
V. 22, " the Apostles and the Elders and the brethren," i.e., the church]
unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and
Cilicia, greeting [G. " Rejoice !"].
24. Forasmuch as we have heard that certain which went out from us
[Gal. ii. 4, Paul styles them "false brethren." Incontestably they were
not either apostles or elders, as the hierarchical gloss of the Revisers
implies, but Jerusalem Church members. "From us" is equivalent to

EARLY CHURCH LIFE.

" their company" of v. 22] have troubled you with words, subverting your
souls ; to whom we gave no commandment ;
25. it seemed good unto us [the event of v. 22 is being related here]
having come to one accord [vers. 7, 12], to choose out men and send
them unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,
26. men that hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. 27. We [v. 22] have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who themselves
also shall tell you the same things by word of mouth.
28. For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost [G. no comma], and to us
[note how similarly Paul, being sent on this errand by the Antiochian
Church, says he "" went up by revelation." For the question who were
the " us," see also v. 20, "that we write," etc., and the " brethren" of
V. 13], to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary \i.e., of
present necessity ; things rendered indispensable by the circumstances of
the heathen cities] things ;
2g. that ye abstain from things sacrificed to idols [" concerning" which
seel Cor. viii., and, for the general principle of these four temperance
pledges, the last verse], and from blood, and from things strangled, and
from fornication [put here separately last, with sense of the graver ethical
point involved]; from which if ye keep yourselves, it shall be well with
you. Fare ye well.

THE DECISION OF THE COUNCIL.
WE now come to the conclusion of the whole matter.
Some decision must be pronounced upon the vexed ques
tion which we have been considering, and that decision cannot
but be of vital historical importance. This was a crisis in the his
tory of the Church. The very greatest disasters might have be
fallen the Christian cause at this critical time. The man who,
humanly speaking, saved the Church was Paul. From a human
standpoint I have no doubt whatever that the Christian cause
would have been lost in that furious debate but for this chosen vessel
of the Lord. There was in him a fine spirit of conciliation as to
manners and methods and usages ; but when it came to the liberty
of Christ, and the independence of the Church, he stiffened into in
flexibility, and he "gave place by subjection, no, not for an
hour." He was no circumcisionist, no baptist no ritualist; he
would let nothing stand between the soul and Christ, or between
Christ and the soul ; and the soul having begun in the faith, was
not allowed to conclude in the letter — having begun in the

ACTS XV. 13-29.

Spirit, it must not conclude in the flesh. The maxim of Paul
was Upward, higher still from one attainment to another, without
coming back to do anything that could minister to the desire of
the flesh or the vanity of the eye.
The little picture that is before us enables us to look a littie
into the detail of early Church hfe. We have seen how high the
controversy ran ; there was no small dissension and disputing ;
every man thought he saw the truth and knew it, and sometimes
the dust was so vast and thick that we could scarcely tell how the
fight was going. In the fact that there was full discussion of
the question, let us recognize the place of human thought and
human independence in the consideration of Christian problems.
We may all speak ; no man is to be put down who speaks upon a
question sincerely : every man who is not speaking intelligentiy
or sincerely will put himself down. I know of nothing in the
record which would justify us in supposing that men were hooted
down on whatever side they were speaking. In modem Christian
controversy we have all seen lamentable spectacles in relation to
this very matter of putting men down. I have never been
ashamed of the Christian cause more deeply and insufferably than
when I have heard an orthodox man employ a heterdox tone for the
purpose of putting down an opponent I have listened to the op
ponent and' disagreed with nearly every sentence he uttered, and if
the man who interrupted him had spoken, I might probably
have agreed with every proposition he was seeking to establish ;
but, in my soul, having heard the tone of the one man and the
tone of the other, I have said the heretic may have the heterodox
doctrine, but he has the orthodox soul, and this man has called
" time" in a tone which proves him to be a heretic in his heart
Take care hctw you maintain a good cause. I have seen an
infidel display a nobler spirit than has been shown by his nomi
nally Christian antagonist We stand not in the word only, but
in the spirit : the Gospel must be preached in its own key. We
may spoil the music of heaven by the harshness of a poor and
selfish tone. So far as I can gather from the narrative, then, the
discussion was full, impartial, and thorough. In the midst of all
this due deference was paid to the apostles and elders, and the de
cision was pronounced by the President or Bishop. All things
were done decentiy and in order. Decency and order are not ac-

THE PAULINE SPIRIT. 103
cidents in chronology — they belong to the fixed calendar of prog
ress, and are always in date, and when they are wanting the
sanctuary is turned into a common place of assembly. Through
out all this intellectual and spiritual tumult there was a line of
order, a spirit of decency ; every man was heard, and when every
man had expressed himself, the proceedings were summed up,
and sentence was delivered — not in the terms of the Bishop's own
choosing, but in words which seemed to gather up into them
selves the common sentiment of the excited and earnest assembly.
That is our notion of the Christian Church.
This littie picture marks the beginning of Christian liberty. A
wrong step here, and Christian liberty would have been lost
Paul was raised up at the very moment of time. He who made
havoc of the Church kept it together; it was an arm terrific, —
whether to strike or to build its energy was superhuman. Paul
enlightened the whole Church — even James himself became
almost a poet under the , inspiration of this new voice. James
quoted prophecies with a new tone and emphasis ; under the
teaching and illumination of Paul's ministry the horizon of
James widened, until he dwelt no longer in the ecclesiastical cage,
but ranged the whole liberty of God's boundless firmament !
Sometimes the Church needs inspiration more than information.
When the grate is full of fuel, what is wanting is not more fuel,
but a light James began to see that Christian liberty was founded
on prophecy, "and to this," said he, "agree the words of the
prophets." How did James become so great a man all of a sud
den ? Because he had touched the Pauline spirit Great men
make great men. He who walketh with the wise becomes wise.
No man could become less who held fellowship with Paul. The
Apostle always saw some higher height, and always urged the soul
on to some nobler liberty. Whilst many wanted to remain
behind, cutting themselves with circumcision, washing and plung
ing and sprinkling themselves in baptism, he seemed to take hold
of them, and say, "Haiti" "Why, yes," said he, parentheti
cally, " there were one, or two, or three whom I baptized, but
the circumstance was so transient that I paid no attention to it,
for I have been sent to preach the Gospel. ' ' When our leading
men become entangled in alphabets, conjugations, tenses, and

I04 ACTS XV. 13-29.

declinings ; when they begin to betake themselves to ' ' standing
orders" and "by-laws," I know not in what terms to describe
the disaster. Christian liberty was also attested by facts, as well as
founded on prophecy. There was n.o novelty in it ; what we
think is novelty has been in the Bible all the time. As we have
often said, we do not need a new Bible ; we need new readers.
Inspired books prove their inspiration by always revealing some
new aspect of truth, some new phase of beauty. It was actually
found that in the Old Testament this very question had been set
tled. In every synagogue Moses was read, and nobody under
stood him. Paul did not add one single line to the revelation ;
he only said, " Brethren read it so." And after he read it, the
Bishop of Jerusalem said, "Why, the question has been settled
from immemorial time — I see it now. " This man has caused the
Bishop of the letter to burn with the fire and presence of the spirit
There are no new liberties. Even your Acts of Parliament in so
far as they are good, are only transcripts of the Bible. We may
have references in the readings, and marginal notes, but here in
God's Volume is the great stream of thought, doctrine, liberty,
out of which all that is good in collateral directions flows.
This littie picture not only shows us early Church life, and not
only shows us the beginning of Christian liberty, it also shows us
the right way of treating new converts. Here we do need instruc
tion. The Apostles taught new converts the doctrine of absten
tion ; according to the teaching of the Aposties, new converts
were to begin by not doing things. The trouble with our new
converts in some instances is, that they are converted on Monday,
and that on Tuesday they are promoted to eminences compared
with which the elevation of Paul was a very small advancement
The Apostle said, " Brethren Gentiles, you will do well to begin
by not doing certain things. ' ' For example, in every Gentile's
house, other things being equal, there were figures of idols, fig
ures of gods, castings of deities. When the Gentile entered into
his house, and passed in, he uncovered his head, or he made
obeisance — in some way he acknowledged the stone god that -was
in his house ; he may have held his food before the god prior to
eating it himself. The aposties and elders, and the whole
Church at Jerusalem, said to the Gentiles, " We do not want you
to grind your stone idols to powder, but we want you to abstain

"THOU SHALT NOT" 105
from paying any religious attention to them. Regard them as
works of art ; but let there be no religious distance between them
and you — except the distance that ought to intervene between an
immortal man and a stony figure." The Gentiles were accus
tomed to have many wives ; the Apostles laid their interdict upon
polygamy. The Gentiles were accustomed to follow certain
savage rites and customs ; the Apostles desired that these arrange
ments might be abandoned. Therefore, I say, they began with
the new converts by imposing a discipline of abstention. That
is where we ought to begin. I do not say to a young heart,
"Are you perfect?" I should thereby discourage the modest,
self-distrustful soul. Rather would I say, "Do you want to be
better?" And if the answer is a healthy " Yes ; please God, I
should like to be better," that will do to begin with. Let no
man vex you with words, seeking to subvert your souls by making
metaphysical problems of the redeeming blood of Christ and love
of God. The Apostles were content if men began by doing that
which is well ; that is all they said in their letter, which concludes
with these words : ' ' from which if ye keep yourselves ye shall do
well. ' ' We might have lived in the apostolic days, say some of us ;
we would have felt warmer in soul if we had lived under apostolic
rays than under modern criticism. The Aposties would have said
to some of us, ' ' You shall abstain from strong drink' ' ; to otiiers
of us, "You shall keep away from exciting — we will not say
demorahzing — amusements." The Aposties would have said to
others of us, " You shall go regularly to church. " If this were
called legalism, the Aposties were accustomed to be stoned,
and they thought nothing of it. If this were called morality,
legality, the doctrine of merits, and of self -righteousness, the
Aposties would not have been afraid to go to their duty, even
though they had to go to it through the dangers of a hail-storm.
The men who were accustomed to walk out under tempests of
thunderbolts made but small account of hailstones of unintelligent
. and narrow criticism.
Thus would I speak this New Year Sabbath morning, to some
who feel as if they needed a word of encouragement, because they
could not go to the inner places of the sanctuary. Will you make
me your teacher and drill-master in the sanctuary for one littie
day ? Then I accept the appointment, and I begin in your case

io6 ACTS XV. 13-29.

by telling you what you are not to do. Come now ; I am not a
hard task-master, am I ? You said you wanted to be better ;
you supplied the initial ground. I only stand upon it, and
instead of burdening you with great weights, and chafing you
with unfamiliar yokes, and perplexing you by high intellectual
exercises, I begin by saying to you, "Thou shalt not." Come
to me at the end of a month, and tell me that you have kept the
law, and I shall say, " You have done well." Next month I may
appoint you something to do. We must grow ; we cannot shoot
up into men in one short Sabbath day. Some of us must be fed
with milk as babes, because we are children and not men. Do
not expect too much of new-born souls. I would rather suspect
the new-born souls that are precocious — especially if they turn their
precocity into the criticism of their seniors. Men who are newly
born into Christ's kingdom must be treated as little children are ;
and the first lesson to the child is — " Thou shalt not"
This little picture shows some of the happier aspects of controversy.
But for this controversy, who knows when Paul and James might
have been brought together ? And after the controversy was
over, the Bishop writes these words : " Our beloved Barnabas
and Paul." That was a happy ending of controversy. James
wrote more than that. James looked at the question partly from
the characters of the men who had sustained one side of it, and
he called them " men that have hazarded their lives for our Lord
Jesus Christ." So judge in every controversy. I have never known
an infidel who was worthy to be spoken of in the same moment
with the Apostie Paul. Against him were men sincere but unin
formed, and also false brethren who crept in privily unawares.
From them he separates himself by the infinite diameter of self-
sacrifice and a heroic devotion to a cause so much greater than
himself. In all such cases ask who the men are ? What have they
done ? What have they suffered ? On the other side you will
find ' ' men who have hazarded their lives. ' ' This proof of devo
tion must go for something in the exciting controversy. It is not
enough to be clever ; we must be true. It is not suflScient to
imagine speculative difficulties ; we must live a life of unselfish
devotion. The man who does most to enlighten human dark
ness, mitigate human distress, and comfort human hearts, is more

A SUBLIME EPITAPH. 107
likely to be true and sound in spiritual philosophy and doctrine
than the man who is only critical and not self-sacrificing. The
Bible heroes of this kind claim the confidence beyond all other
men that have lived — their doctrine, their testimon}', brought
them martyrdom ; they shrank not from the fire which sealed
their sincerity and proved their conscientiousness. What have
we done for the Lord Jesus ? Come now, we will put it down on
paper and look at it. I will be scribe, you dictate. I am waiting
— what, not one line ? Have we not begrudged every penny we
ever gave him ? Have we not begun our economies by pinching
the bread of Christ ? Have we not kept Him waiting at the door
past midnight when the dews were falling thickly upon him ?
Have we not neglected his house on the smallest pretexts ? We who
have stood for hours in the rain to see a man perform a trick and
deliver the poetry of another man — have we not neglected Christ's
house because of the weather ? We in whose cellars are dozens of
choice wine — have we not neglected Christ's poor? Could we
choose an epitaph, what would be so sublime as this : " A man
who hazarded his life for the Lord Jesus"? Heaven might be
condemned as too short of beauty and light for such a tenant.
Methinks God's omnipotence would be moved to make some
nobler heaven for heroism so sublime 1

LI.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, we are thine in Christ Jesus by an everlasting
covenant. The law is dead, and has no charge against us in Christ Jesus
thy Son. We do not live under the law, for all the law is fulfilled in one
word — the sacred word love. Show us how great is thy mercy in Christ.
We do not bear burdens, or carry heavy yokes ; we are not dragged back
as by bit and bridle ; nor hast thou set over us a watch, as if we were
hirelings in thy field ; we are saved by grace ; we are redeemed by blood ;
we live no longer in the letter only, but in the life and breadth and
liberty of the spirit. We are crucified with Christ, nevertheless we live ;
yet not we, but Christ liveth in us. Lo, now we walk before God as
children of his love, called by his grace, sanctified by his Spirit ; bearing
upon our hearts the circumcision of adoption, we are free men, made free
by the truth, and therefore made free indeed. May we not use our liberty
as a cloak of licentiousness. May we know the meaning of liberty in
Christ, that it is the liberty for the branch to abide in the Vine, and tor
all the lesser lights to revolve around the central Flame. May we know
that we are the slaves of Christ, bondmen to him, having a joyous sense
of bondage, a realization of captivity of mind, which amounts to thank
fulness and rapture. Show us the wonders of the Gospel. We have
tarried too long outside, beholding the wondrous provision as related in
letters and books. In it we would, by the right of a common life, crowd
all thyself, and in tender, loving sympathy with Christ would enter into
the sanctuary of the Gospel, into the very Holy of Holies, and by the
spirit of a new man would see and realize in happy consciousness and
experience the infinite grace and tender love of God. Call us every day
to some higher heights, where the dew is fresher, where the light is
purer, where the air is healthier, and may our life be a continual ascen
sion, so that, in the last moment, there may be no sense of violent sepa
ration, but a passing, as one hour melts into another, until the meridian
shine in cloudless light. Few and evil are our days, full of sin and
tumult, troubled with strange wonders, vexed by a thousand plans and
schemes. We torture ourselves by day, and by night we spoil the sleep
that should call back our youth, because of anxiety and fear. And our
breath is in our nostrils, we hold everything but for the one moment.
Lord, our prayer is, that we might count our days, one by one, with
thoughtful economy, knowing the number and the measure, and wonder
ing even to religiousness what the end can be, and what will happen

ANNOTATED TEXT. 109
when we open our eyes after the sleep of death. Comfort us every one
with sweet words, bring back all that is tenderest and brightest in the
summers of the past, and make us feel to-day as if walking in the garden
of the Lord. Enlighten our minds with a, great light, and before our
eyes unveil the vision which we know by the tender name of heaven.
The Lord enter our houses by right of proprietorship ; the Lord make
our bed in our afiliction, and save our health in decay ; the Lord find for
us bread when we can find none for ourselves ; when the wells are dry
and the fields are bare, create for us pools in the desert, and find for us
bread that is hidden away. The Lord go with those who must leave us
for a time, and bring them back in safety and thankfulness ; the presence
of the Lord make glad those who remain. The Lord speak comfortably
to the old and inspiringly to the young, and may all heaven be so near us
to-day, in Christ Jesus our Lord, that we shall forget the gray, cold,
troubled earth ; and may we, waiting at the Cross, feeling the warm
blood of Christ's own heart falling upon our shattered lives, be filled
with peace and thankfulness and joy ; and may our spirits long for the
City where the light of the moon is as the sun, and the sun is sevenfold
in brightness. Amen.
Acts XV. 30-35.
30. So they, when they were dismissed, came down to Antioch ; and
having gathered the multitude [the church, v. 22] together, they delivered
the epistle.
31. And when they had read it, they rejoiced for the consolation [G.,
" comfort ": contrast with the " trouble" of vers. 2 and 19].
32. And Judas and Silas, being themselves also [G., "also them
selves"] prophets \i,e,, speakers as well as letter carriers], exhorted [G.,
" comforted" by speech, as the letter had] the brethren with many words,
and confirmed them.
33. And after they had spent some time there, they were dismissed in
peace [16, 36, usual formula of farewell] from the brethren unto those
\sci,, those brethren ; back again from the one church to the other. The
A. V. has here the hierarchist gloss " apostles"] that had sent them forth.
35. But Paul and Barnabas tarried in Antioch, teaching and preaching
the word of the Lord, with many others also [Peter's visit, Gal. ii. 11,
being subsumed here, has led many critics to dispute the authenticity of
this whole narrative, see v. i].

THE TRUE LAW OF ABOLITION.
I DO not wonder that when the letter, sent from Jerusalem,
was read at Antioch, the people "rejoiced for the conso
lation. ' ' It was an historical day. Never brighter had shone

ACTS XV. 30-3S,

upon the young Church than when the Gentiles were told that,
without any cuUing of the flesh or any ceremonial processes,
they were by faith in Christ Jesus sons of God and free men of
heaven. We can hardly understand their ecstasy ; but if we do
not make some attempt in that direction, we shall lose one of the
broadest opportunities we ever had of understanding the philos
ophy of the Divine education of the human race, and we shall
fall out of the rhythm of Christian progress and advancement
The question was one of circumcision. It is a term which we can
only know historically ; but there is history enough before us to
enable the intelligent mind to grasp the question in all its clearest
and most particular bearings. We must think ourselves back a
while : let us do so in a body. We must remember that circum
cision was not a human invention, and therefore was not to be set
aside by human authority. If you miss that point, all that may
be said will be without coherence and pith. Circumcision was
established by the Almighty himself, as is explained in the seven
teenth chapter of Genesis ; the doctrinal verse is the tenth, and
reads thus : " This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between
me and you and thy seed after thee ; every man child among you
shall be circumcised." Language cannot be clearer; no excep
tion was made for infirmity, mishap, or peculiarity of any kind.
The language is inclusive, authoritative, final. We wonder how
such an institution can ever be set aside, especially as the word
"¦' everlasting" occurs in its establishment once and again. That
word everlasting needs to be explained. It is not a mere question
of time ; " eternal," " everlasting," are no arithmetical terms, or
numeral quantities ; they are expressive of quality. The words
are clear : ' ' My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting
covenant"; but what of the poor child that had not been circum
cised for some reason? "That soul shall be cut off from his
people ; he hath broken my covenant". We cannot but become
extremely excited as to how such an institution can be not only
modified but abolished. The sanctity of the Sabbath was not
violated by the performance of this rite. Christ Jesus himself
founds an argument upon that point In the seventh chapter of
John the Jews are told by Jesus Christ, ' ' Ye on the Sabbath day
circumcise a man. If a man on the Sabbath day receive circum
cision . . . are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every

THE RITE OF CIRCUMCISION. in
whit whole on the Sabbath day?" You have branded him with
a token of the covenant, and I have completed in his flesh God's
purpose of health and strength and typical immortality. The
eating of the Passover was a great institution in Israel ; no man
might eat it except he had been circumcised. The law is laid
down in Exodus, the twelfth chapter and forty-eighth verse :
" And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the
Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised, and then
let him come near and keep it ; and he shall be as one that is
born in the land ; for no uncircumcised person shall eat there
of." So even strangers were to be circumcised. This was the
very argument of the Judaizing teachers in the Christian Church.
They said : "In the olden time strangers were not admitted to
the Passover except they were circumcised ; so these Gentile con
verts cannot be admitted to the liberties and privileges of the
Church, unless they have been circumcised too." And the men
who reasoned thus seemed to have history and right on their side.
Circumcision was not observed during the forty years' wandering
in the wilderness. God was pitiful to his people then, for he
knew their circumstances and allowed for them ; but after the
wilderness was past, Joshua was commanded to "make him sharp
knives. ' ' The people that had been born in the wilderness were
not circumcised, but now that process was to be undergone ; and
when it was accomplished the Lord said unto Joshua, " This day
have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you." And
in the evening, as the sun was slowly westering, dying like a king
upon a couch of gold, on the fourteenth day of the month, the
whole circumcised host of Israel kept the Passover in the plains of
Jericho. We wonder how such an institution, so solemnly organized and
so repeatedly introduced, can be possibly set aside. We turn a
page in the New Testament, and find John the Baptist was cir
cumcised on the eighth day. We go on a few lines further, and
we find that Jesus Christ himself was on the eighth day circum
cised. There can therefore be no d9ubt about the Divine author
ity of the institution. You will see why I am so importunate
about this presentiy. The mind must fasten itself with intelligent
tenacity upon this initial point, — that circumcision was not a
human invention, but a Di\-ine institution. Stephen recognized

ACTS XV. 30-35.

it as such in his great apology. In his Epistie to the Romans
Paul also recognized it : " What advantage then hath the Jew ? or
what profit is there of circumcision ? Much every way ; chiefly
because that unto them were committed the oracles of God."
How to escape from this I know not It is not in us to invent a
plan of liberation ; there is nothing for it but the knife ! How
can deliverance arise ? The first streak of light is in the second
chapter of the Romans and the twenty-fifth verse : " For what
profit is there in keeping the law ? for if thou be a breaker of the
law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision." So there is a
moral meaning, there is a spiritual suggestion in this. If my
flesh is cut, is it not cut once for all ? and will not the brand ad
mit me to heaven ? Paul says. No ; what is done in the flesh is
only a sign of what is expected in the spirit — obedience, keeping
the law, doing it every whit, and if you fail in obedience, you
might as well never have been circumcised at all.
We begin now to see light. In the fifteenth chapter of the
Acts, to which we have come, we have what amounts to a formal
abolition of circumcision as a condition of entrance into Christian
communion and fellowship. The tone of the New Testament is
infinitely different from the tone of the Old Testament. A few
passages will show this. Take Paul in first Corinthians and
seventh chapter : "Is any man called being circumcised ? let
him not become uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircum
cision ? let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing,
and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the command
ments of God." How different from what is written in the
seventeenth chapter of the book of Genesis, where circumcision
is called "my covenant," "an everlasting covenant" I And
now Paul rises and says " circumcision is nothing and uncircum
cision is nothing"! If one man is not to boast that he has been
circumcised, neither is another to boast that he has not been cir
cumcised. If you say you have been baptized, and begin to re
joice in it, you do wrong ; and he also does wrong who boasts
that he has not been baptized. Circumcision (baptism) is noth
ing, and uncircumcision (unbaptism) is nothing ; the real thing,
vital and unchangeable, is keeping the commandments of God.
In his Epistie to the Galatians Paul says, " If ye be circumcised,
Christ shall profit you nothing ... in Christ Jesus neither cir-

THE SABBA TIC SPIRIT. 1 1 3
cumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision ; but faith which
worketh by love." And rebuking a certain sect of mistaken
teachers, he said, " As many as desire to make a fair show in the
flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised. ' '
We now begin to see that circumcision, like every typical rite,
had a spiritual signification, and that the moment the spiritual
purpose was realized, the mere type or symbol was done away ;
not done away in the sense of violent abolition, but abohshed as
the noontide abolishes the dawn, or as summer abolishes spring,
or as your manhood has abolished your infanc}'. There is nothing
violent in the dispensations of God. The ages, like the planets,
move calmly onward, melting into one another. The days do not
contradict the ages that are gone, but ripen them and present
them to us in noble maturity.
Here, then, is the law. Now I have the key, I can do many
things. If I had not studied the subject of circumcision so
closely and so long, I should have been lost at many other points.
We have not studied this one question of circumcision for its
own sake, but because here we have the key to many a door, and
the solution of many a mystery. Take the question of the Sab
bath. There can be no doubt of the Divine institution of the
Sabbath day. In the Christian Church there can be no debate
about this. ' ' The Lord rested on the seventh day and blessed
it," and afterward he embodied his purpose concerning it in a
formal commandment The hand of God has been upon the
Sabbath day as certainly as it was upon the ordinance of circum
cision. But circumcision is abolished, and so is the Sabbath
day. But why is circumcision abolished ? Because we have
entered into the consecration which it implied. Now we do not
cut the flesh, we give the life ; and now we do not keep the Sab
bath day in the Judaic sense of the term, we keep it in the spirit
There are not now twenty-four hours in the Sabbath day ; the Sab
bath day is seven days long. We do not give up the Sabbath day
in the sense of not observing it, but in the sense of enjoying, in
happy realization, the Sabbatic spirit all the week long. If cir
cumcision had been violently disannulled as an inconvenience, or
an inexpedient thing, the question would have been different, but
it was kept long enough before the ages within whose compass it
operated to show that God's meaning was circumcision of the

114 ACTS XV. 30-35.

heart — obedience, love, sympathy, identification with the Divine
purpose. So the Sabbath day is not a square piece, cut out of
the week, but a spirit animating the whole time ; not discarding
the day, but glorifying every hour of human life. The man who
enters into this spirit will not have one Sunday in the week, but
seven. He will not honour the day itself, as a mere fraction of
time, with less honour, but with the more, that he does it, not ac
cording to the narrowness and bondage of the letter, but according
to the liberty, the joyousness, and the resurrectional triumph of
the spirit
Take the matter of giving. There can be no doubt that God
himself recognized this great institution of giving to himself.
There are those who tell us that we ought to give one-tenth of our
income to the Church, to charity, or to Christ (put the phrase as
you please). There are those amongst ourselves who do this, or
I see not how the Church could be maintained, amid the crowd of
those who sneer at the Jewish practice. There are others of a still
more advanced class who say the very least we ought to give is
one-tenth of our income. For myself, I believe that no arithmet
ical proportion is mentioned in the New Testament ; but how to
set aside tithes was at all events endorsed by the Almighty under
the old covenant
Here we come back to our lesson. We do not give less if we
be in Christ, we give more. We are not circumcised in the fore
skin, we are circumcised in the heart We do not keep the Sab
bath day because we are compelled to keep it, but because we
love to keep it, and could not live without it And we do not
g^ve a tenth as an arithmetical calculation, but as an oblation of
love and an expression of sacrifice. Thus you have the upward
way marked out most clearly. Show me where Christianity asks
us to do less than circumcision ; to keep less than one day in the
week ; to give less than one-tenth of our income. Christianity
has not abolished the old law in any violent sense of befooling it
and contradicting it, but in the sense of maturing it, carrying it
up to its highest significations, so that those who once served in
the bondage of the letter now serve in the liberty of the spirit
" The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ" We
needed all the discipline of formal submission and obedience to
break down our rebellious hearts. Having been broken down

HUMAN NEEDS. 1 1 5

and saturated by the grace of God, and instructed in principles of
the Divine kingdom^ we now do not need to read the regulation-
bill to see what we have to do next ; the Spirit is in us ; we are in
sympathy with God ; we know it without being told. The law
of Christ is written, not on tables of stone, but on the fleshly
tablets of the heart The Holy Ghost dwelleth in us, and to be
circumcised makes us impatient ; we want to give the whole life.
To be bound down to keep one day holy — we would give all the
days in one grand offering to the Master's service. And to give a
tenth would make us feel that we had fallen below the royalty of
our calling, for we have nothing that we have not received, and
all we have is God's.
So, you see, our study of the matter of circumcision was not a
narrow study ; it led us up to a principle which explains all
things. Shall I dare to apply this principle to the literal revela
tion itself which we call the Bible ? I can imagine the time
coming when we shall not need a book, a Church, a ministry I
I have but to be faithful to the philosophy we have now traced in
the Biblical history to see how the time may come when we shall
have no need of candle, or moon, or sun, or written book, or
preaching voice ! Yea, the time will come when he who is our
Mediator shall rise, and God shall be All in All I We shall not
need them to read a book, for the Spirit will be within us ; then
our Christianity will not be a question of ' ' chapter and verse, ' ' but
of inward conviction, spiritual sympathy, or actual life ; we shall
be swallowed up of love.
So far we have gotten away from circumcision and baptism and
the bondage of a merely literal Sabbath which begins at a certain
hour, and ends at another ascertained and declared point of time.
We are going forward, and the time will come when we ourselves
will be revelations, and when we shall not need the dear old Book
itself any more ; when in us will be the Word, which is as a well
of water springing up into everlasting life, and we shall have an
unction from the Holy One, and know all things. But that time
has not yet come ; that time is far off in the experience and con
sciousness of many of us. The age itself will close before that
end is accomplished. Meanwhile, I need the sacramental bread
and wine to help my poor reluctant memory. Meanwhile, I need
the dear old church to fix my thoughts, and give a centre around

ii6 ACTS XV. 30-35.

which my best affections may revolve. Meanwhile, I need the
friendly preacher, bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, who
has wrestied with the same temptations, and flung in mighty con
flict the same great devils ! I need his human voice to say some
thing to me in God's name, in the darkness and in a strange
land. Meanwhile, I need all the Book, every page of it, from
Genesis to Revelation, to comfort me, warn me, reprove me, and
build me up in sacred doctrine and in noble wisdom. The time
will come when there shall be no need of the sun, nor of the moon,
nor of the stars. I saw the heavenly Jerusalem, and in it was no
temple, no sun, nor light of the moon, for the Lamb is the light
thereof. Let God himself say when we shall do away with the lamps we
now need, with the helps which are now essential to our progress ;
it is not for us to put out a violent hand, and say, ' ' This is the
end." Let us obey. Law is never abolished by license. We
go forward by the power of the Spirit, until hand -washing becomes
heart-cleansing, until obedience becomes grateful acquiescence,
until slavery becomes sonship, and until all the law is fulfiUed in
one word — love ; for God is Love. Then shall come to pass the
saying that is written, He who is our Intercessor shall close his
mediatorial priesthood, shall rise from his seat and deliver up the
Kingdom to God and his Father, and God shall be All in All !
But we can only understand and enjoy the end by patient sub
mission to every point of the process.

LII.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, thy river is full of water ; we are consumed with thirst.
If we drink of thy living water, we shall never thirst again. It shall be
in us a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Lord, give us
this water. We have tried all wells and streams, and, behold, they can
not quench the thirst of the soul. They mock our thirst ; they do but
make the fire burn the more intensely. We turn away with disappoint
ment and sorrow and bitter self-reproach, and ask that vie may drink of
the river which flows fast by the throne of God. There is a river of life,
clear as crystal, holding in its depths all beauteous things, and throwing
them back in splendid reflection, and so doubling the very heaven of
God. The world is full of sin and sorrow, the earth is ripped up with
graves, and the green things that live upon it wither whilst they grow.
The air is full -of death. Our friendship is broken by sad good-byes.
Our joys will not bear drinking to the dregs. Our life is a sharp and fatal
pain ; but when we turn to thyself, behold, all things are new. Even
death is swallowed up in victory. The winter is preparing for the spring,
and all the pain of this mortal lite is turned into stimulus towards a nobler
existence. In Christ we see things as they really are ; in Christ we
triumph daily. He is the key which opens every door ; he is the answer
to every question that troubles the soul ; he is the Saviour ot the world.
In his Cross we trust, to his Cross we look, for his blood we wait — there
is cleansing in that fountain and in none other.
Help us to grow in knowledge, in love of truth, in devotion to the
interests of thy kingdom, and may our latter end be more fruitful than
our beginning, and as the years add themselves may they take away
nothing from the youthtulness ot our souls.
We give thee humble and hearty thanks for all the blessings of this'life.
We have bread for ourselves, and a portion for him that is hungry. We
have houses that are homes, warm with love, and filled with the riches of
mutual trust. Upon our business thy sun has shone so that our one talent
has become two, and we have ten at the end where we had five at the
beginning. Our basket and our store thou hast blessed, as if they were
living things, and could love thee for thy smile. What shall we render
unto the Lord for all his benefits towards us ? We will render our whole
unbroken daily love, and always urge ourselves to do some better thing
than we have yet attempted. Show us what we may see profitably of the
future, and keep back from our eyes sights that would make them blind.

Ii8 ACTS XV. 36-41.

Let the future come to us a day at a time, and with it send daily force
equal to the stress of the occasion. Comfort us when none other may
speak to our dejected souls. Open gates for which we have no key ; and
when the hill is high and bleak, rising far above the summer line, and
setting up a testimony of winter all the year long, help us over the rugged
summit, and help us on the very top to build an altar unto God.
Remember our dear ones who are not here. Some are on the sea ; some
are far away in other lands ; some are preaching the Gospel to the
heathen; some are on beds of pain ; some are wandering into aland
where there is nothing to eat but stones, where there is nothing but a
great wilderness. We call them prodigals, straying ones. Our short
prayer cannot reach them, but thy grace is greater than their sin, and
may become a Gospel to them without the help of the words of man.
God save the Queen ; establish her throne in righteousness, and pro
long her reign in personal and imperial comfort. Upon all her house
send a plentiful rain of blessing. Guide our legislators, our highest
thinkers, our noblest spirits, and baptize all who need a daily baptism and
a double portion of thy Spirit, so that the land may prosper and become
a blessing to other empires.
We now wait for the touch we cannot mistake, for the warm breath of
heaven, for the outlooking from behind the cloud of the eye of Christ.
If we might have one glance of that eye, fixed upon our waiting hearts,
we would forget time and space, earth and death, sin and fear, and be
lost in an infinite joy. Amen.

Acts XV. 36-41.
36. And after some [G. " certain"] days, Paul said unto Barnabas, Let
us return now and visit the brethren in every city wherein we proclaimed
the word ot the Lord, and see how they fare [Paul's js-wwrf missionary
journey thus began as a simple visitation of the new churches],
37. And Barnabas was minded [wished] to take with them John also,
who was called Mark.
38. But Paul thought not good [G. "right"] to take with them him
who withdrew from [G. "apostatized for them"] them [xiii. 13] from
Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work [Mark may have vacil
lated in doctrine also at this juncture, as did Peter].
39. And there arose a sharp contention [" an embittered feeling," Jer.
xxxii. 37], so that they parted asunder one from the other, and Barnabas
took Mark [Col. iv. 10] with him, and sailed away unto Cyprus ;
40. but Paul chose Silas [who had again returned when he had fulfilled
his commission of v. 33], and went forth, being commended by the
brethren to the grace of the,Lord [see also Philem. 26 and 2 Tim. iv. 11].
41. And he went through Syria and Cilicia [each went towards his
native home, i Cor. ix. 9] confirming the churches.

APOSTOLIC HER OISM, 1 19
THE SEPARATION OF PAUL AND BARNABAS.
WE are now out in the open air again. For some days we
have been in a stifling atmosphere, listening to great men
debating and determining the vexed question of circumcision.
Now we come into another and quieter region. Surely we now
feel more at home than in the council of the Apostles listening to
contradictory and irreconcilable voices. We feel our need of rest,
after the passionate excitement through which we have gone.
We will now live amongst friends, and be quiet and trustful, and
will grow silently but surely in our apprehension of Divine mys
teries and purposes. Yet this is not to be. We come out of one
contention into another. This is life all through and through —
namely, a series of conflicts. The ground changes, the combat
ants change their personnel, but the undertone of life is a tone of
controversy, disputation, conflict ; and a superficial view of life
would seem to confirm the suspicion that we do not advance in
righteousness, but in mutual distrust and social alienation.
Now, Paul and Barnabas come before us in an undesirable light
Observe Paul's love of work — " Let us go again." Into that
"again" what quiet and throbbing earnestness he threw! It
has been well said that Paul was bitten again with mission
hunger. He was no stay-at-home ; he could hardly be kept
within doors ; he must go out, either to fight or to build. They
only are in the Apostolic succession who are in the Apostolic
spirit Hereditary descent is not to be reckoned with Apostolic
succession, in the sense of entering into the very spirit and pur
pose of Apostolic heroes. He will not have any one with him
who has broken down. He says he will take a staff, but it will be
a staff that is sound at the core. Paul could not trust a staff that
had once snapped in his hands. He himself was earnest ; there
fore he could not tolerate insincerity. There was no breach in his
all but infinite integrity, and therefore a flaw to him was not an
accident but a crime in other men.
In his criticism of Mark, Paul gave a criticism of himself. His
judgments uf other men were revelations of his own spirit Paul
meant his work to be solid and enduring. This was the very
purpose he had in view — namely, to consolidate young believers
and immature thinkers and students ; and to take with him, on

I20 ACTS XV. 36-41.

such a mission, a man who himself had turned back from the
plough, was an irony which vexed his soul. If he had been
going out to make experiments, he might have taken with him
such instruments as lay ready to his hands ; but his purpose was
to " confirm the Churches," to make them stronger and stronger ;
and to be working with an instrument which had already broken
down in his hands was not only a contradiction in terms, but a
moral irony, from which his very spirit recoiled. Everything de
pends upon the kind of work you are going to do. For some
kinds of work fickle men may serve a useful end. There is a
place in the Church for every one, and that is the problem which
many Christian communions have not solved. The Papacy has
solved it ; but the Papacy is, from a statesman's point of view, the
grandest and mightiest organization on the face cf the earth.
The Papacy can use all sorts of men ; Protestantism can use only
one or two kinds. We must learn to employ men in proper de
partments who do not come up to the Pauline standard of excel
lence. We may be good men, and yet broken here and there.
Do not throw away any man for the sake of one fault, or even
two. There may be a great deal of soundness in the apple that
has upon it one patch of rottenness. We may be working for
Christ without being counted worthy to rank with the ' ' first
three." Barnabas comes out in a new light ; he is willing to give a man
another chance in life. By so much he was a great man. I love
this aspect of his nature. In this respect I love Barnabas more
than Paul. From the point of righteous discipline. Spartan stern
ness, there can be no doubt of the grandeur of Paul ; but a man
who would give a youth another chance seems to me to have in
him the true spirit of the Cross, and to represent the charity of
Christ Some of you are too stern ; the sternness may not be
righteousness, but selfishness. Take heed how you administer
discipline. You turn off your young men because they may in
jure your business, or jeopardize some of your commercial rela
tions, or hinder you in some purpose in life. Commercially,
that is right ; but we are not all commercial travellers. We pro
fess to use the balances of the sanctuary, and to imbibe daily the
spirit of Christ, and reflect constantly the lovingness of the Gos
pel. Barnabas may have said in effect, " What }'0u say about

NO INFALLIBILITY.

my nephew is literally correct, but give him another chance."
Thank God for the few men here and there who are willing to
try us again I We owe them our lives : we ought to live for
them. Could any man say a word against them, we ought to
spring instantly with the weight of our whole energy to their pro
tection and vindication. They are, in the truest sense of the
word, our helpers and friends and best philosophers. Barnabas
was invincible. We have hitherto considered him only a kind,
well-disposed, loving man, who would sit down anywhere, or
stand up, or go or come, just as some superior nature might
suggest or require. Such are often amongst the sternest
men. Barnabas said to Paul, "No!" and even Paul could
not change that No into a Yes. Afterwards the judgment
of Barnabas was vindicated. Barnabas was in this respect
a farther-sighted man than Paul. Thank God, Paul was not
infallible ! We must not preach an infallible Paul. There
is only one infallible person in the Church, and he is its
Lord ; and it is well to find out the failings of even Pauline
heroes, that they may sit down in the presence of the One Im
maculate Righteousness and Infallible Wisdom. Paul was but a
man at the best ; he himself said so. " Who then is Paul and
who is Apollos," said he, " but ministers, servants, and slaves of
Christ ?" In this respect Barnabas was a greater man than Paul.
He is the great man who penetrates character, and he is not neces
sarily a great man at all who only judges by facts which he can
not dispute. He is the true intellectual reader who says about a
young man, before the young man does one stroke of work,
" He has the Spirit of God in him, and the indestructible seed of
the kingdom." And he who, twenty years after, simply gives in
to facts is not a man of penetration at all. He simply affirms
what he cannot deny. " He was my friend " (the old man may
say) " who spoke kindly and hopefully to me before I began my
M'ork. Looking at me altogether — for a man is not all head, or
hand, or foot — but taking in stature, colors, shape, force, unc
tion, look, voice, he said, ' This man will do wonders for Christ' "
Another observer says : " We must wait and look and carefully
adapt such evidence as the passing days may contribute towards
the formation of a judgment" Twenty years after, the second
maasaid, " 7\iter all this long service, I am bound to say that he

122 ACTS XV. 36-41.

is a better man than I first supposed. ' ' That is not a judge of
character, nor is that a eulogium, nor is that praise worth having.
The man that read the soul was the man of prescience, and the
man to whom intellectual honour and moral homage must be paid.
Young man, live in the warm sunshine of those who hope the
best about you. You owe nothing to the men who affirm your
excellence when they cannot deny it Some men found their
judgments on what they call proofs. Barnabas founded his esti
mate of his nephew upon what he believed to be the inner qual
ity and character of the young man's soul. I am thus at some
pains to strip the Apostle Paul of his imagined infallibihty. I
repeat, there is only One who judgeth righteous judgment, and
that is Christ ; and the highest archbishop amongst us, if he
know himself, will acknowledge that he is a fallible, sinful, erring
creature. There are mitigating circumstances in this controversy — both
men were honest It is something to have to deal with honest
men, even when they oppose you. I respect an honest opponent
infinitely more than an insincere friend — nay, he cannot be a
friend who is capable of insincerity. Another mitigating circum
stance is, that the contention was not about the Master. Paul
and Barnabas did not take two different views of Christ They
are not going to found separate theological sects. Another miti
gating circumstance is, that the work was not abandoned, but was
doubled. Instead of one missionary excursion, there were two.
Barnabas went to his native land, and the leonine Paul struck out
for regions at once unfamiliar and unknown. The destinations
they selected were revelations of the spirit of the men. Barnabas
goes into obscurity, Paul rises like a sun into a broader firma
ment We have already said good-bye to Peter, so far as the acts
of the Aposties are concerned, except incidentally ; so now we
must say good-bye to Barnabas and Mark. At this point they
both retire from the Acts of the Apostles. The withdrawment is
in a kind of thunderstorm. Surely this cannot be all ; surely the
night does not settle so suddenly on Christian friendship and
Apostolic brotherhood. Barnabas and Saul played together in the
streets of Tarsus as boys : Barnabas was a friend, when Christian
friends Saul had none. Barnabas took him by the hand when
every one entertained concerning him the most inveterate suspi-

MORAL COURAGE. 123
cion. They cannot part in this way ! The paroxysm was intense ;
but men like Barnabas and Paul, lifelong friends, must not be
rent asunder, the one from the other, by a comparatively trivial
incident like this. Is it so that our choicest friendships may die ?
May love be lost in anger ? May comrades part as foes, hot with
mutual displeasure ? We must know more about this. In first
Corinthians, ninth chapter and sixth verse, Paul says, " Or I only
and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working ?' ' There Paul
acknowledges that Barnabas, with himself, had acted a noble part
in reference to the Churches, because, whilst they had the right
to all the Churches could do for them; in the way of temporal
support, they declined to accept the legitimate patronage, and
resolved to work for their bread with their own hands. And
Mark — what became of him ? After he had worked with Barna
bas in Cyprus, he returned to Peter, his spiritual father ; and in
his first Epistle, the fifth chapter and thirteenth verse, Peter
writes these words : " The Church that is at Babylon . . .
saluteth you ; and so doth Marcus my son." He was not lost,
then. But did Paul know about his restoration ? Read Colos
sians, the fourth chapter and tenth verse, where Paul says,
" Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, saluteth you. If he come
unto you, receive him." This is a touch of love Divine. In
writing his short letter to Philemon, Paul says, in what we have
marked as the twenty-fourth verse, ' ' Marcus, my fellow-laborer.
They had come together again in service. Now Paul becomes an
old man, a grand old warrior ; and, writing his second letter to
Timothy, he says, in the fourth chapter and the eleventh verse,
" Take Mark, and bring him with thee ; for he is profitable to
me for the ministry." Well done, Mark I Well done, Paul I
The position of the Apostle was not an easy one ; for he confess
ed that in the first instance he had at least acted impulsively,
though honestly. Few men have moral courage to correct them
selves openly, to acknowledge that they were wrong in judgment
and to repair wrongs which, however unconsciously, they once
inflicted. Now Paul becomes almost infallible ; our whole love
goes back to him without stint or grudge. Truly, he is now a
great man. Once he said to Mark, in effect, "You shall not
go, because you are a bruised reed, or a broken staff ; having
put your hand to the plough, you turned back and showed your-

124 ACTS XV. 36-41

self to be not fit for the kingdom of God." But Mark worked
on under gentie auspices, recovered himself, and became, for
him, quite a littie hero in his own way. Paul said, "This is
brave, this is good, this is noble"; and he called Mark his
" fellow-labourer," told the Colossians to receive him, and bade
Timothy bring Mark with him, because he was profitable to Paul
in the ministry.
Acknowledge your faults. If you have done wrong to any
young man, or if you were right at the time, and that young man
has lived to contradict your judgment, say so frankly to him. Do
not take refuge in the mean vanity, the petty and detestable
fraud, which will not acknowledge a fault. A young man, then,
may redeem his character. I speak to many young men now,
and in Christ's spirit as well as in Christ's name, I offer them,
where they need it, a new chance in life. You did act basely
once, but that is no reason why you should continue to act basely
to the end of your days. Why not stand up, and frankly ac
knowledge the baseness, and ask to be forgiven ? There is joy in
the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.
You once spoke a harsh word, and said you would do no more
work for the Church, and give no more money or help to it in any
way. Even Apostles have before this spoken in paroxysms and
excitement, and then, when they came to their true selves, they
did their best to obliterate the unworthy past. What say you ?
You once told a lie ; you need not therefore always be a liar.
Here is a new day— the Lord's day— full of sunlight, and this is
God's house, built within the shadow of Christ's cross ; and here
is the Son of God, and he says to each of us, ' ' Try again, do
not despair ; in my strength pluck up courage and do better next
time." V/hy, I hope that all young men will spring to the noble
challenge, and say, " By the help of God, we will rub out the
past and live in Christ's grace and strength ; so that at last we will
be called his fellow-labourers, and be received, not by Aposties
into a temporary home, but by the ' general assembly and the
Church of the first-born ' into our Father's house."

LIII.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, our heart is full of praise, and our tongues would
bless thee in thine own house, in the morning ligbt of thine own day.
This is our joy in Christ thy Son ; in him alone have we liberty, because
in him alone we have pardon and purity. We would that our liberty
might grow into our highest joy, so that, though standing in the decrees
of God, we might feel upon us the warm sunshine of infinite love. We
would be thine, and therefore truly our own. We would derive our pro
prietorship from God, and hold ourselves at thy gracious bidding ; thou
art Sovereign, but thou art also Father, the God and Father ot our Lord
Jesus Christ, whom he revealed and represented, and to whom he called
us by the words of his teaching and by the pathos of his death. By thy
good Spirit we have accepted and obeyed the call, and now we are all
here before God to acknowledge our sin, to mention our mercies bj'
name, and to praise the Lord with a loud and unanimous hymn for all his
tender compassions. Thou hast kept our house about us, our table has
been spread, the birds have sung in our roof-tree, and the fire has gone
up to heaven whence it came, as if consciously obedient ; in our bed we
have found sleep, and our tired eyes have been brightened again by rest ;
the stafif is not broken, there is still meal in the barrel, and oil in the
cruse ; thou hast blessed us, and we will bless thee, yea, our whole lite
shall be a doxology never ceasing, always increasing. We are the guests
of God, we eat at his table, we sleep in his arms, we awake within the
circle of his love, and we go in and out because of his almightiness.
Break our hearts where they are hard I Destroy our will where it is not
thine own ; put thy sword through every evil desire, and cut in two
every purpose that is not rooted in wisdom and in love. May the weak
man or woman become strong ; to the perplexed give an unexpected
answer of grace ; to the heavy-laden give strength that shall carry the
burden as a plaything ; to those who are out of the way, burdened with
darkness that has no limits, cold with winter wind blowing from all
points of inclement heaven, send warmth from thine own hidden fire ; to
those who cannot pray in words send the spirit of supplication. Thou
knowest us altogether, and in that fact we find our rest. We are here
but for a little time. To-morrow we shall be gone, and the place that
knoweth us now shall know us no more for ever ; the air is full of fare
wells ; the earth opens itself to offer the hospitality of death, and we are
hastening like a post, flying like a shuttle, vanishing like a cloud ; there

126 ACTS XVI 1-5.

is no figure in all thy universe to represent the instability of our present
lite ! We now take hold of hands, and take hold ot hearts, and as one
man, standing at the Cross, invoking the name that is above every name,
we give ourselves to thee I Seal us, give us the spirit of adoption, help
us to say with the heart. Father I let the last cruel link of Satan's iron
chain fall away from our lite, and give us liberty ! Amen.

Acts xvi. 1-5.
1. And he came also to Derbe [reversing his former progress along the
same road, which he now entered upon through the " Cilician Gates," a
huge fissure in Taurus, 80 miles long] and to Lystra . and behold, a cer
tain disciple was there [at Lystra, see xiv. 19], named Timothy, the son
of a Jewess [Eunice, 2 Tim. i. 5], which believed [G. a " female Jewish
believer"], but his father was a Greek [G, " Greek"].
2. The same was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra
and Iconium.
3. Him would Paul have to go forth with him [Silas for Barnabas and
Timothy for young John Mark]; and he took and circumcised him [did it
himself, as every Jew might, Luke i. 59], because of the Jews [the illiberal
party among the Jews forbad Jewesses as well as Jews to marry Gentiles,
and accounted the offspring of such as did illegitimate. They had there
fore not circumcised Timothy, while those of their party who had joined
the Jerusalem Church insisted upon the circumcision of the Gentile Titus.
The liberal Jews, on the contrary, allowed Jewesses to marry Gentile
husbands, and circumcised their male offspring on the principle "partus
scquitur ventrem." These would be the kind of persons Paul hoped to
convert. So far from being inconsistent, Paul was AS emphatically
opposed to fudaistic bigotry When he circumcised the Jewish youth Timothy
as he was when he refused to circumcise the Gentile youth Titus (GaL ii.
3)] that were in those parts [see xv. 21]: for they all [both parties of the
Jews] knew that his father was a Greek.
4. And as they went on their way through the cities, they delivered
them the decrees [Luke ii. 1] tor to keep, which had been ordained of the
apostles and elders [cf. xv. i and 2, with xv. 24] that were at Jerusalem.
5. So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and increased in
number daily.

INCIDENTAL ASPECTS OF APOSTOLIC LIFE.
PAUL took Silas with him, but still there was a sense in
which he must have been alone. He could not give up a
man like Barnabas and think no more about him ; we cannot
shake off our old associations and pay no heed to the sweet and

HEART-WOUNDING QUESTIONS. 127
tender memories of the time that is gone. He who can forget
old friends is no Apostie of Jesus Christ Besides, Paul was
going, as he himself phrased it, "again" unto churches where
he had ministered, and into churches which he himself had
founded. The people would ask questions whatever he himself
might resolve to do ; they would wonder who the stranger was ;
they would ask about Barnabas. Here is a side of life that we
may but indicate, and dare not attempt to reveal or exhaust
Awkward questions are asked about old friends, old service, and
old associations. A man suddenly asks you how you like your
church life now, and you have to say, perhaps, that you have
given it up. The man is then sorry that he asked the questiori,
nevertheless it cut you in your ver}' soul like a sword with two
edges, so that the drawing out of it was as cruel as the putting of
it in. We ask questions that open graves and heart-wounds and
memories we wish to seal up and leave until the fuller light shall
come which shall bring warmth and comfort as well as revelation.
The man who has not seen you for years asks you how that sweet
little boy of yours is, and it seems to you incredible that a grief
that filled your house with darkness had not made itself known to
him who was your friend. You say he has passed through the
gate into the city. Your friend is sorry that he touched your
wound almost ruthlessly, but he meant it in love, and you ex
cuse him. Paul could not go over the old ground without the
Churches saying — "And Barnabas?" What must Paul's answer
have been ? He was a faithful man, true as steel, pure as gold
refined : he knew not the genius of equivocation and the fine art
of telling lies. In such questions and such answers he might find
the chastening and correction needed by his fervid temper. We
have to account for old associations being ruptured, we have to
explain new faces and new relationships. Happy would Paul
have been if he had said : ' ' We have agreed to part, we thought
it better for the interests of our common cause. Barnabas has
gone in one way, and I have gone in another, and when we meet,
will not the day be Sabbath day, and our conversation warm as
the love of heaven ?"
Paul came to Derbe and Lystra. "And behold, a certain
disciple was there named Timotheus." Loflg ago we read in
these pages that the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet

128 ACTS XVI, 1-5.

of a young man whose name was Saul. Thus we begin. We
begin in obscurity, we are pointed at as hardly to be identified,
to be seen rather as men in the shape of clouds, than really living
figures. A tree does not show its roots. If the foolish tree
could be taking itself up in order to show its antecedents, it
would soon be killed. Our root life must be hidden, and all that
we have to do is so to lift ourselves up in God's light and rain,
as to bring forth leaf and bud and blossom and luscious strength
ening fruit ' ' Herein is my father glorified, that ye bring forth
much fruit" We may be now nothing more than " certain dis
ciples" named without a name, revealing an unknown name to
show that it was a name unknown. But we may still be disciples,
scholars, learners, students, inquirers, eagerly waiting for more
light, and sometimes almost irrationally impatient with the sun for
not shining more brightly upon the page we are anxiously perus
ing. We can never be more than "disciples"; the saints are
disciples, so are the angels, yea, the archangels that by Divine
sovereignty were permitted to break up Divine solitude are still
disciples ! The point can never stretch itself across the whole
line, the finite must ever be position without magnitude, sustain
ing no appreciable relation as to magnitude to the Infinite ! We
shall always be obscure in the universe. Timotheus attains to
great fame in the little place that gave him birth, and becomes
quite a well-known man in larger spaces ; but in relation to the
universe, the empire of stars and planets, the kingdom of con
stellations and of sky upon sky full of radiant cities of God, why,
Paul himself is an unknown name ! We find our joy in disciple
ship. It is enough for us to have the Book, to be reading it ; and
whenever we turn over a page we celebrate a birthday. Read on,
poor old pilgrim ; trim thy glasses, dull with the dew of tears,
and look again ; thou shalt have young eyes by-and-by, and begin
to read quite freshly ; there is no old age in heaven !
' ' The son of a certain woman which was a Jewess . . . but
his father was a Greek." Happy man, to stand between two
civilizations 1 This was an honour which in his early years
Timotheus could not appreciate ; but could any relationship be
sublimer ? Greek for a father, and Jewess for a mother ! What
must the boy have been ? Two such fires meeting in his blood ;

UNEQUAL MARRIAGES, 129
two such histories recounting themselves in articulate eloquence in
his memory ! What his inward ear must have heard ! What
stirrings there must have been in his soul ! How able to look
well round him and to understand, distantiy and somewhat indis-
tinctiy, it may be, the mystery of Law and the mystery of Beauty !
His religion might go up into superstition, his philosophy might
develop into scepticism and sneering ; if he touched Christ, he
touched One who to the Jew was a stumbling-block and to the
Greek fooHshness, but to the believing Timothy the power of God
and the wisdom of God. We ourselves know somewhat of this
double relationship in life. Your mother prayed — your father
never prayed ; or your father was a believer and your mother had
no faith. You are a child of the night and of the day, and you
feel it, and sometimes you are plunged in the darkness of the one
parentage, and sometimes you are away on the bright broad
wings of the other into the light. To the world, not understand
ing that your mother was Jewish and your father Greek, you are
a contradiction and a mystery. But is it possible that a Jewess
could marry a Greek ? I should have said. No, but for what j'oa
have done ; you make it possible to believe that a Jewess may have
married a Greek. I have know a religious man marry a woman
who never prayed ; that is a greater miracle than a Jewess marry
ing a Greek. I have known a Christian woman marry an alien who
had sung her hymns in hypocrisy that he might impose upon her
credulity. There is, therefore, no difl5culty whatever, after Eng
lish experience, in believing that long centuries since a woman
who was a Jewess married a man who was a Greek.
Timothy " was well reported of by the brethren that -were at
Lystra and Iconium. ' ' Character is very subtie. Timothy never
asked any man to speak well of him, and yet no man could speak
ill of the youth. We must not ask for characters, we must so
live as to be indisputably trusted and honoured. Do not appeal
to one another' s charitable judgment for a character, but so live
that character will come. Character grows ; character has its own
seed in itself ; character is not put on ; it develops, increases,
shows itself without ostentation, and throws a subtie claim upon
confidence without ever pandering for patronage. Young man,
you who are as young as Timothy was at the time of the text.

I30 ACTS XVL 1-5.

your character is known. Do not suppose you are living in dark
ness ; men say of you, ' ' We cannot account for it, but that
young man excites suspicion ; we cannot lay our finger upon one
thing he ever did, to our knowledge, that is wrong, but — - — " and
then come the indications which cannot easily be put into words,
but which are so expressive as to leave no doubt of the speaker's
deepest meaning. On the other hand, thank God, every hill has
a sunny side. Men are regarding other youths one by one, say
ing, "He is true," "He is honest," "He is to.be trusted,"
" He is energetic," " He is persevering"; " We cannot give
you dates and facts, but our whole feeling about him is that he is
sound as an oak." Live your character; do not be painted as
good men, but paint your o-n'n character in your own blood.
The true man cannot be hidden though he be in a bush ; he will
burn through it and attract the notice of wandering men and
speak to them the Divine mysteries.
" Him would Paul have to go forth with him." Paul could
not do without youth. Had not Paul Silas along with him ?
Yes ; but he said, I must have a young voice near me ; I like
the ring of young speech. I wanted to bring Mark, who was
young enough, but I could not bring myself to accept his asso
ciation, any more than I could persuade myself to bring a staff
that was broken in the middle ; but I love youth. A young man
can run, a young man is not burdened with a sense of his own
respectability ; a young man is here, and there, and yonder, and
back again before we know well what instructions we have given to
him. God bless the young life ! Paul must have a boy with him, a
disciple, one who was spelling out letters and words of one sylla
ble, but whose young blood was aflame with sacred and sacrifi
cial enthusiasm. He proved himself to be an Apostie by his love
of the young. There are those who would snub the youthful
soul, who would not permit him to be seen or to be heard.
Paul loved the young, took them with him, and would never give
them up so long as they were true ; but if ever they began to
shake in his hands and prove themselves fickle, he would give
them up and their uncle Barnabas with them. He must have stead
fastness, faithfulness, resoluteness ; a soldier could not do with
a coward ; only be true, and Paul would be }'our lifelong friend.

EDIFICA TION AND E VANG ELIZA TION. 1 3 1
He took and circumcised Timothy. This from Paul, who
would not circumcise Titus I But the reason is given : ' ' because
of the Jews which were in those quarters : for they knew all that
his father was a Greek. ' ' Timotheus was partially of Jewish de
scent ; it was therefore no breach ofthe Apostle's stern policy
that, under circumstances so peculiar, he should respect a tem
porary prejudice. Now they start, Paul, and Silas, and Timo
theus. ' ' And as they went through the cities they delivered
them the decrees for to keep that were ordained of the aposties
and elders which were at Jerusalem." Do not be afraid of the
word " Decrees" in this connection. We have seen what those
decrees were ; they were decrees of liberty. What they signed
was the Magna Charta of the Church ; not a set of opinions, dog
mas, superstitious, and decrees which were to bind down the
human mind and fetter and overweight men's aspirations, but
they were decisions pointing in the direction of ever-widening
liberty and light. It was freedom centred in God and in the
Cross of Christ Christ's followers are not lawless ; they have
decrees to keep. The spirit of authority is the spirit of rest when
it brings with it the assurance that the authority is not arbitrary
but rational, not local but universal, not imperfect but Divine.
" So were the Churches established in the faith, and increased
in number daily." These are the true results which must ac
company every true mission. The results are two in number —
edification first, and evangelization second. The word was estab
lished, the numbers increased. That is a true report of true
work. Men must go from church saying. That is right ; this
Gospel is better than was at first imagined ; this truth is larger,
warmer, fuller than our awakened fancy had conceived it possi
ble. Every Sabbath day must find us at its close a Sabbath
day's journey nearer home. "The number was increased."
In every Christian discourse there, should be some word of wel
come to outsiders. The guest table is not yet filled ; David's
place is empty. There is a chair for you ; why do you not come
to the King's table? Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to
the waters. Why spend your strength for that which is not
bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not ? Why try
to feed upon the wind ? Why sow seed upon the wide sea as if

132 ACTS XVI. 1-5.

you could turn the troubled waters into a harvest-bearing field ?
Why attempt to do the impossible ? Hear Christ' s great and
sweet word, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest" Thus when the sun sets to-day
and stars come trooping out one by one — an assembly of light —
we shall be able to say, speaking to our reigning Lord in the
high heavens, Thy saints are established, and their number is in
creased !

LIV.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, for the Sabbath day we bless thee. It is quiet,
solemn ; always lifting itself towards the heaven whence it came. May
our spirits be lifted up and see the Lord with the vision of their love.
This is the day the Lord hath made ; thy finger-prints are upon it ; thy
smile is its light, thy love its seal and warranty of peace. This is the day
of resurrection ; to-day we think of death despoiled, of opened graves, of
life and immortaUty, incorruption and heavenly triumph. To-day all
mean thought is out of place. In such a light as this our souls would put
on their beauty, and with the holiness given by Christ would shine out
with a radiance above the brightness of the sun. Show us that this is
Christ's day. Gospel day, triumph day ; time that might be envied of all
other time. May we enter into the spirit of the golden day, and be our
selves full of light and grace and truth and love. Standing before God,
near the Cross, by which alone we are saved, worshipping the Three-in-
One, the One-in-Three, not to be understood, but to be loved with all the
passion of the heart, sanctify the day again, and sanctify us to be worthy
of its memories, and fill us with the Holy Spirit. May this house be
unlike all others. May the speech we hear in this place have nothing in
it of the accent of earth, or time or meaisurable things. May the music of
the Spirit steal upon the listening soul, that we may be glad with seven
fold Sabbath — the deepest peace of God himself. If we have brought
with us any of the stain of the week, if we are travel-worn, it even upon
our sandals or our staff there be signs of earth, take away such debase
ment and make our feet clean as our head and our heart are pure. Read
thy book to us. Father of all thought and spirit ; we cannot read it except
as we read common books ; come thou and read it, even thou who didst
write the eternal page, and let our souls hear thy reading and they shall
never be grief-stricken any more. Regard us as burden-bearers, travellers,
hard workers, suffering many things every day, to whom life is often only
a pain, sometimes a weight we cannot carry, and occasionally a very
ecstasy of Christian joy. Command thy blessing to rest upon us in every
relation which we sustain. May the house be happy, yea, quite a home,
sacred because of thy triune presence. Send light into every window,
wherever it may look. Keep thou every door of the house, and let no
enemy enter therein, and no friend go away. Make our bed in our
affliction, and when human voices grate and jar upon our wounded hear
ing speak with thine own voice, thine own tender speech. Let the hus-

134 ACTS XVL 6-12.

band work harder than ever. Let the wife be filled with a new gladness.
Let the little child sing song upon song, as if its very life were music, and
may all the household, from the eldest to the youngest, from the highest
to the lowest, be as a gathered Church singing doxologies and receiving
benedictions. Go out with us when we go to business — hard, mocking,
weary trade, full ot lies and hypocrisy so often, sometimes nearly honest,
rarely a thing that may be spoken of without shame. Help us to win
what bread we want with an honest hand, and to eat it with the appetite
ot thankfulness, and enjoy it because it has passed through thy hands.
Heal our sick ones ; the poor child that is withering away, and to whom
the parents tell lies of love every morning. The Lord give the physician
wisdom and tenderness, that he may treat the case wisely and sympathet
ically. The Lord turn the mourning of the bereaved into the joy of the
expectant ; may they look across the little river which separates the
spaces of thy universe, and see what is to be the Sabbath of immortality.
Bless our friends every one, here and there, with us to-day, or not with
us because ot sickness, or travel, or divers arrangements of thine own
providence. Bless the stranger within our gates. Look upon our
friends from Madagascar who are worshipping with us. We thank thee
for their Christian character and Christian steadfastness, and though they
may not follow us in the unknown language of this prayer, behold their
lifting up of heart, and let the turning of their eyes unto heaven be unto
thee as a prayer. Prosper their good cause. In due time take them
home again ; and may England often be enabled to point to Madagascar
as a miracle of the Cross of Christ. Regard all who are missionaries
abroad — men who have hazarded their lives for the Lord Jesus. Make
every land their home, and in every man may they find a Christian
brother. God save the Queen, the best of her race and line ! Estabhsh
her throne, and make her life begin again to-morrow, and continue it
long and happily. Disappoint all her enemies ; prosper all her coun
sellors that are inspired of God, and bring to naught the machinations
and selfishness of corrupt and miserable men.
The Lord be with us this holy day, and at night may we be filled with
a strange wonder, a singular joy, a gladdening of heart which will make
us think ot heaven more than of earth. Amen.

Acts xvi. 6-12.
6. And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia [although
Paul travels in the same direction, these names are introverted in xviii.
23. Hence Galatia is the political, Phrygia an et/mographical term. The
local n3.me of this part of the region was Lycaonia (ch. xiv.); of the next,
Pisidia (Antioch) : the common people still spoke a Phrygian dialect (xiv.
11). Paul called these people Galatians when he wrote to them from a
distance, Galatia being their province], having been forbidden of the Holy
Ghost to speak the word in Asia [ii. 9, vi. 9, and xx, 16. The laest coast

MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT, 135
of Asia Minor. At Antioch the road branched off leading to Ephesus and
South-western Asia. Farther on another road branched off to North
western Asia (Mysia). All Asia being forbidden, Paul and Silas were for
keeping on to Bithynia] ;
7. and when they were come over against Mysia, they assayed to go
into Bithynia ; and the Spirit of Jesus [ver. 6, Rom. viii. g] suffered
them not ;
8. And passing by [G. " along the side of"] Mysia, they came down to
Troas. 9. And a vision [ix. 10, x. 3, xviii. 9 ; not a dream] appeared to Paul
in the night. There was a man of Macedonia standing beseeching him,
and saying. Come over into Macedonia, and help us.
10. And when he had seen the vision, straightway we [Luke joined
Paul here at Troas, probably a circumstance of which Theophilus was
well aware] sought to go forth into [looked out a vessel sailing for]
Macedonia, concluding that God had called us for to preach the Gospel
unto them [and so "help"].
II. Setting sail, therefore, from Troas, we made a straight course
[xxi. i] to Samothrace [xxvii. 4, 7], and the day following to Neapohs
[then ,a Thracian town] ;
12. And from thence to Philippi, which [was their destination, as it] is
a city of Macedonia, the first [in rank] of the district [.^milius Paulus had
divided Macedonia into four districts], a Roman colony ; and we were in
this city tarrying certain days.

THE SUPERNATURAL ELEMENT IN
LABOUR.
HERE is the direct action of the Holy Ghost 'In early
Christian times men spoke with reverent familiarity of the
ministry of the Spirit There ' is nothing roundabout in their
speech. The Spirit is mentioned by name, his action is de
scribed, responsibility is charged upon him, his inspiration and
direction are familiarly and continually invoked. The Aposties
and early Christians realized that they were living in the age of
the Holy Spirit Why should there be any difficulty in believing
that spirit may affect spirit? We believe that matter affects
matter. Is there no higher law, or no higher application of the
same law, or no religious use of actual affairs, or parabolic sug
gestions ? Let a child understand me here, for the theme is great,
and the charm of it upon my own mind has for years amounted
to a fascination and a spell — namely, this wondrous action of the

136 ACTS XVI 6-12.

Holy Ghost upon the individual mind. Here is a piece of metal
lying quite at rest I would ask the child who is following me to
fix his eyes upon that metal. Is it stirring ? ' ' No. ' ' You are sure
of that ? ' ' Perfectly sure. ' ' Now watch the action of my right hand.
I will bring the piece of metal which I am holding nearer to the
metal you are looking at as lying quite still. See ! I think the
metal that you said was lying quite still is now moving ? ' ' Yes. ' '
Am I touching it ? " No." Are you touching it ? " No." See
how it trembles, palpitates — it will presentiy leap up and be, as it
were, part of the magnet I am holding over it I am told that it is
quite a matter of science to believe that ; yet to believe that mind
can affect mind, that spirit can touch spirit, is fanaticism ! I have
not so learned life. Shutting out all merely technical theolo
gies, with their various definitions, it is easy for me, having seen
the action of metal upon metal, to believe that there may be a
kindred action of soul upon soul, mind upon mind, God upon
man. There is a spiritual magnetism. Let all scientific and
mechanical operations be so many ladders, whose foot is on the
earth, whose head is in the clouds. " If men, being evil, know
how to give good gifts unto their children, how much more shall
your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit unto them that ask
him?" Ask, and ye shall receive. Discoveries of material rela
tions and operations are themselves a kind of outside Bible,
which helps me to read the inner book inscribed by invisible fin
gers. The action of the Spirit is as morally mysterious as it is per
sonally direct Why should the Holy Ghost forbid the Apostles
to preach the word anywhere ? That we cannot explain ; but
then you cannot explain yourself, your own nature, mind,
thought, force, purpose. When you have settled the mysteries of
selfhood, you may begin to consider the enigmas of Providence
and grace. We are forbidden to do certain things. The things
themselves are good, but the time is wrong, or the place is ill-
chosen, or another opportunity is greater and ought to be absorb
ent It is not enough that your are in a good place, doing a
good work ; your object should be to live and move and have
your being in the very Spirit of God, so that wherever he may
point, your very heart may outrun your feet in attaining the ap
pointed and sacred destination. The Holy Spirit is always to be

NEARNESS TO GOD. - 17,7
consulted. Pray without ceasing ; walk with God. Be so near
him that a whisper will reach his heart Be the friend of God ;
have no self ; be sanctified wholly — bod}', soul, and spirit Be
quick all over, answering instantaneously with eagerest love every
commandment of the Divine will. Do not be your own idol.
Have no judgment, preference, prejudice, that you cannot take
up and cut in two with a double-edged knife, if God should so
will it " Not my will, but Thine, be done." I will work here
or there, on this side the sea or yonder side — both sides are
thine. " Lead, kindly Light" Where that is the spirit, the life
can never go wrong. Where life is bounded by programmes and
outlines and purposes merely human, life will be a succession of
mistakes and stinging disappointments. " O rest in the Lord,
and wait patientiy for him, and he will give thee thine heart's
desire." The Apostles thus lived in the Holy Spirit ; they walked
in the very company of God ; they knew no will but his ; therefore
their very breathing was a religion, their unuttered word was a
conquest, and the lifting of their hand was a battle half won. It
is, to our degenerate piety, quite difficult to believe that the early
Apostles — yea, the prophets ages before them — could live so
familiarly in the presence of the supernatural. They were not
afraid when a door opened at midnight — they expected it I
When a white figure dawned upon the darkness of night they did
not cringe and shiver in great fear, as if God had forsaken them
— they expected messages. We run to meet the letter-carrier
now. In the olden time they seemed to expect letters, messages,
from heaven to be brought by angels ; yea, to be fetched by God !
We cannot understand this ; we muse about it, and find fault
with it, and point out flaws in the crude philosophy which as
serts it Everything depends upon the level of your life. It is
possible to live so high up in intellectual and spiritual compan
ionship as to receive with grateful ease and friendly recognition
appearances and communications which at one time would have
aflflicted us with the surprise of a miracle. We must ourselves be
miracles ; then every opening of Providence, how bright soever or
startling, will be accepted as one of the assured blessings of daily
life. Shall we so live ? The stupendous rocks, ten thousand feet
high, look infinite to the man who gazes at them from a low level.
Could we be lifted up as on the wings of eagles, the rock so

138 ACTS XVL 6-12.

towering, so sublime, would be but a speck of dust in the dim
distance ! If we eat and drink until our very souls are buried
within us, then the miracles of nature, the gracious surprises of the
sky, will be lost upon us ; there will be no apocalypse in the
clouds and no special writing or message in the summer. But
if we keep down the lower and exalt the higher, we shall come to
know what is meant by Divine companionship, walking with
God, having friendly intercourse with the Divine heart, and
having only to ask that we may receive. To the blind, dumb,
dead soul, to ask and receive is impossible ; to the man almost in
heaven it is the glad commonplace of a lofty experience.
What did Paul see, then, in his vision ? It was quite a typical
vision. He saw a man. Was that a common sight ? Only to
those' who look upon it with a common eye. We do not always
see one another ; sometimes we see the man within the man — the
inner man with piarks of God upon him ; the fallen king, the un
crowned, dethroned prince, in one flash of the eye we saw him,
and he went back into depths we cannot penetrate ! We should
pray that we may see one another as we really are. He who
truly sees a man must ever be moved by the pathetic sight. We
do not see one another whilst we are in the crowd, jostling in the
great multitude, passing from side to side, doing the day's busi
ness, performing the day's jugglery. We do not see the man,
but having once seen him under favouring lights, we must feel that
man is a name high up in the register of life. Paul saw a man in
earnest prayer, praying to a fellow-man. It was all, perhaps, the
Macedonian suppliant could then do. We are allowed to pray at
such altars as we can find. God does not say, ' ' Build the altar
seventy feet high and then begin to pray." If }-ou fell down
before the least flower, it would be altar enough. If you could
bend before your mother's old arm-chair, it would be shrine
enough. And by-and-by you will want a whole heaven for a church
and altar because of the unutterableness of your ecstatic joy ! Begin
where you can. Paul saw a man in earnest, and a man seeking
help. The man said, " Come over into Macedonia and help us."
There are cowards that run away when poor, ill-used people call
for " help." There are men, women, and children calling all over
the land to-day for ' ' help, ' ' and we put our fingers in our ears,
and go home and say, ' ' Behold, we knew it not. " "If thou

THE HEATHENS CRY FOR LIGHT. 139
forbear to deliver him that is drawn unto death, and say. Behold,
I knew it not, doth not he that knoweth the heart understand,
and will not he make inquisition for blood ?" Christianity is
"help" or it is nothing — active service, co-operation, sympathy,
a common sacrifice for a common good. This is a typical
instance. If the Church could have its eyes opened to-day, it
would see every unevangelized country and every land in sore
strait or difficulty typified in this Macedonian man. From every
land "they call us to deliver their souls from error's chain."
The Macedonian man represents a large population. Let us
regard him as a man who has heard of Christianity, or who is dis
satisfied with Pagan teaching, or who feels the pain of a great void
which the firmament itself could not fill with all its wealth of light
— he cries for something more ; that man is not far from the king
dom of God. Do not believe that Pagans who are struggling' after
virtue and calling for " Light, more light ! Light, more light !"
are far from the kingdom of heaven. " Other sheep I have
which are not of this fold ; them also must I bring." " In every
nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted
with Him." But that is a reason why those who beheve they
have the true light should hasten with it, that they may scatter the
shadows and establish the day.
" And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured
Luke here joins the company. Up to this time the nar

rative has been written in the third person ; it will now be written
in the first Luke himself has joined the missionary band, and
he will speak of things which he personally saw. We hasten to
say that the missionaries came "to Philippi, which is the chief
city of that part of Macedonia," and a colonial or military sta
tion. There is a city plan of evangelization ; the Apostles fol
lowed that plan. They did not hide themselves in obscure places ;
we find great names in their record. What is the justification of
these metropolitan names ? This — and higher there is none —
' ' Beginning at Jerusalem. " So we shall find in these mis
sionary records Jerusalem, Antioch, Corinth, Philippi, Athens,
Ephesus, name upon name of local eminence and dignity, yet all
the names put together are not equal to London J Give us Lon
don, and we have the key of the world. Converted London

I40 ACTS XVL 6-12.

would seem to mean converted England ; and converted England
— empress of nations ! — converted England ! — lady of the seas,
majestic, all but omnipotent, with millions a!nd hundreds of mill
ions under her proud banner ! — converted England ; it would be
almost equal to a converted world I Far be it from any of us
to say a word that would be even apparently contemptuous of
villages and hamlets and rural spots ; they all belong to the great
house. London is not our city, speaking as residents in the capi
tal ; it is the Imperial city ; it belongs to every shepherd on the
mountain-side, to every ploughman ripping up his fields for the
seed, to every one on the sea ; it is the Mother City — the metrop
olis. Give us London Christianized — London praying — four
millions of souls concurring in one appeal to Heaven, and surely
there would dawn upon the whole world the day of jubilee and
Christian festival.

LV.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, wilt thou fill us with thy Spirit ? We would not be
filled with wine, wherein is excess, but with the Spirit of the Living God.
We seek not to be exhilarated, but to be inspired. In thy Spirit is life,
and in thy Spirit is rest. Baptize us, in the name of Jesus Christ our
Lord, with the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Show us that we are indeed
not our own, but that being bought with a price, we are thine — body,
soul, and spirit ; and may we glorify thee at every point of our life,
shedding light and fire along the whole course through -which we move.
May the Spirit of our Master, Christ, be in us, chastening and softening
our whole nature, lifting it up to the level of his own, and causing it to
bring forth all heavenly fruit, and to enrich itself with all heavenly
beauty. Thou didst make us out ot the dust, but the breath that is in us
came from thyself ; a special gift, a pledge that we are not wholly of the
earth, but have in us desires after God and capacities which time cannot
fill. Being thine, we would live for thee. With the coming light of every
day we would ask to know thy will, and with the growing day we would
grow in strength to do it all cheerfully, lovingly, with patient industry,
with tender and immortal hope. Show us the littleness of all things that
are under our feet, and all things that can be measured by our hand and
skill. Lead our inner nature forward from day to day, to that noble
issue which finds its rest in God. May we, by the power of an endless
life, triumph over the dying day. When we speak, or think, or act,
may our immortality assume its rightful dominion. Then shall we not
listen to the utterances of time, to the policies of the earth, or yield to the
cunning of selfishness ; but with noble faith and triumphing love vie will
weigh the world and find it wanting, and will seek a city out of sight.
For all these religious aspirations we bless thee. They bring gracious
tears to our eyes ; they soften the natural stubbornness of the heart ;
they lift us up into new regions ; they fill us with unutterable gladness ;
under their gracious dominion we see new heavens and a new earth, and
great golden doors opening into infinite opportunities. May we encour
age such aspirations, and do thou sustain them by the inspiring ministry
in which they originated. Then shall thy Book be a new Book every
day ; thy Word shall be the word of all time— the first and the last-
bringing with it all history and all prophecy, the Word of the Lord which
abideth for ever ; speaking every language ; taking upon itself every
colour j going into every land, claiming every heart ; under its gracious

142 ACTS XVL 13-1S.

and infinite sovereignty the whole world from age to age shall find light_
and progress, and peace. Give us more light. Deepen our confidence
in things not seen. May we cultivate the inner and imperishable man.
Grant unto us the very spirit of the Cross of Christ, world-redeeming, self-
sacrificing, rising eternally to God with uplifting and love not to be
uttered, of soul, and thought, and force of purpose.
We bless thee for the Sabbath day ; for the place where prayer is wont
to be made ; tor every opportunity of Christian fellowship and deepest
communion. These are thy gifts in Christ, the Priest and Sacrifice. We
would now take them with both hands and with warm, loving hearts, and
find in them new pledges of heaven and higher service. Destroy our sin ;
take away, by mighty blood of atonement, infinite in purity and grace,
all our guilt. Bring forth the best robe and put it upon us ; put a ring
on our fingers and shoes on our feet ; and make thy heavens glad and
all thine angels joyful, because thy prodigals have returned. Amen.
Acts xvi. 13-15.
13. And on the Sabbath day we went forth without the gate by a river
side [some affluent of the Strymon which is distant a day's journey],
where we supposed there was a place of prayer [the proseuchae were
sometimes mere open-air meeting-places, near water, where the hands
could be washed before prayer]; and we sat down and spake unto the
women [ver. i, fetaesses, who had married Greeks, were found in such
cities much more frequently than Jews] which were come together. And
a certain woman named Lydia [a common female name ; she was also a
Lydian], a seller of purple, ot the city of Thyatira, one that worshipped
God [proselyte, xiii, 16, 43], heard us : whose heart the Lord [the exalted
Christ extending his kingdom] opened, to give heed unto the things
which were spoken by Paul [" God's opening her heart is one thing;
Lydia's attending another ; so her salvation had both its Divine and its
human side." — Chiysi\.
15. And when she was baptized, and her household [ver. 33, xviii. 8,
and I Cor. i. 16 ; also the facts that Jews circumcised infants and Gentiles
baptized them render it improbable the Apostles forbad infant baptism],
she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord,
come into my house [ver. 34] and abide there. And she constrained us
[Luke xxiv. 29. This word denotes Lydia's vehement urgency, not the
Apostles' unwillingness].

THE MANY AND THE ONE.
IN verse 1 2 we read of ' ' certain days. ' ' They were days
which needed not to be named ; they could be huddled
together and spoken of in general terms. A rough and summary

THE SABBATH FOR MAN. 143
reference was all that was needed, for they were but days coming
and going unmarked, without specialty of tone or colour — the or
dinary process of time. In verse 13 we read of " the Sabbath."
The day that has a name ; the one day into which all other days
flow as streamlets and rivers flow into the sea. The Sabbath is
never referred to as one of a number of days. It creates a space
for itself. It builds its tent amid all the camp-field ; there is none
like it Its banner is higher and redder, its lettering is more
golden and distinct, and the silver trumpet which sounds from it
makes all other music rough and earth-born. You need not bol
ster up the Sabbath by argument and theological preference or
prejudice. You need not seek for proofs of the Divine authority
and sanction and purity of the Sabbath day. All that is written in
the heart, in the indestructible book of Iiuman consciousness and
human love, and we shall see it to be so when once awakened
and inspired by the Holy, Ghost Any institution that requires to
be kept up by skilful argument is a bad institution. Institutions
must rest on the original logic of human necessity, human appre
ciation, and human sympathy. This is true also of Christian
doctrine. If it needs to be supported by evidences, and defined
and defended by cunning words of skilful tongues, it is not of
God, whose name is Love, and whose heaven is as infinite as His
own being. Christianity must be its own defence. The Sabbath
must be its own argument The benediction is higher than logic,
and no controversial tumult can flutter or disturb its infinite
calm. ' ' And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by the riverside.
Church-hunting I A journey that was allowed. A walk that was
constrained. To leave home thus on Sunday is to seek the
greater home. You cannot stop at home on the Sabbath day.
That were insult to the very home you profess to love. You do
not know what home is if you think you are " staying at home"
on the Sabbath day. To leave it is to seek it ; to go from it is to
get at it. Your house is the letter ; the public sanctuary, a great,
broad, common, warm home, is the spirit — the ideal meaning,
the poetic completion of that which at the local fireside we have
in mere typology. We must go out on the Sabbath day, if the
Spirit of Christ be in us, in order to help to complete the family-

144 ACTS XVL 13-15-
gathering. Who would eat his festival alone ? Who would have
his littie piece of bread cut out of the loaf, and hasten to some
sequestered corner that he might eat his crumbs in the fellowship
of himself ? Festival means eagerness of spirit, hastening of feet
communion of heart, marching together with common unanimous
consent to a common centre and a common table. Let us not be
led away by the foolish fantasy which seeks to teach that a man
can read the Bible at home, or have a Church at home, in some
sense which dispenses with the festival-reading and the festival-
music, and the common joy of kindred sympathy and soul.
Christianity is a fellowship because Christianity is a feeling of com
mon humanity. Christianity does not isolate men and set them
up one by one as if they had no relationships. Christianity
brings men together in sacred, sympathetic brotherhood, and car
ries up the feeling, passion, and rapture of the soul to " dancing,
and music," and tumult of joy ! " On such a theme 'twere im
pious to be calm. Passion is reason ; transport, temper here."
We know what it is in strange places to seek the particular Church
we know and love on the Sabbath day. We rise a littie earlier ;
we inquire of passers-by. We know our own home when we see
it, by its position, or form, or surroundings. We seek the well-
trodden way. When we find it, a sense of homelike familiarity
makes us quiet and glad. We know .sympathetically the hymn,
the tune, the whole way ; escaping from local vexations and dis
appointments, we hold communion one with another, and the
whole life becomes an organ of love.
" Where prayer was wont to be made." How singular is the
cause of reputation or fame 1 There are famous battle-fields to
which men make pilgrimages. How can a man be in Belgium's
capital without feeling some constraint towards famed Waterloo ?
He knows there is not much to see. He has heard of the flatness
of the land. He knows, too, that kind, all-healing Nature has
grown her greensward over the blood-pools, and over all the
marks of hurrying and battiing soldiers. Still, he says he would
like to see the place. That is natural. That desire can be Chris
tianized. There are men who would make long pilgrimages to
see where John Bunyan was born. He is not there measurably,
yet he is spiritually there for ever. There are those who love to
see famous churches, and to walk stealthily and lovingly up the

WOMEN THE SUPPORT OF THE CHURCH. 145
steps of famous pulpits, which have been towers of the Lord
in the day of evil doings and corrupt counsels. The land through
which the Aposties passed was not destitute of historic interest, but
they cared but little for the histories which have beginnings and
endings ; they lived in the nobler history which began in eternity
and which continues through the everlasting duration. They
sought the place "where prayer was wont to be made"; where
soul-batties had been fought ; where the very wine of the heart of
God's love had been drunk ; where angels came to take swift
prayers swiftiy up to heaven. A sacred place, with the invisible
altar, with the Shechinah which shone only upon the vision of the
pure heart, with the ever-present God. You might have known
whither the men were moving ; they were praying as they were
going ; wherever they were was a place " where prayer was wont
to be made " ; for they lived in it and had their being in it
" Prayer is the Christian's vital breath.
The Christian's native air ;
His watchword at the gate of death.
He enters heaven by prayer."
We must keep up the spiritual fame. Hirelings enough will
sound the brazen trumpet, that can proclaim but momentary
notoriety. It is for blood-redeemed and spiritually-enlightened
men to keep for ever ' ' a place called Calvary, ' ' and the mount of
triumph, called by the sweet name of Olivet
" The women which resorted thither." Were they all women ?
Probably so. Have men forsaken religion and left the women to
keep it up ? To some extent Is it not the mocker's taunt that
" women keep up the Church "? It may be ; but it is a fool's
gibe ! The woman does keep up the Church — God bless her !
But she keeps up more. Oh, thou blatant, mocking fool, to
taunt the very saviour of society ! Sweet, beauteous, noble
woman ! Thou unclean tongue ! She does keep up the Church,
but she also keeps up the love of the world ; the patience of
the world ; the home that covers your unworthy head, mocker,
fool, hard of heart ! Yes, she keeps it all up. There be
those who, with self-inflation that would be damnable if it
were not contemptible, say that women fill our churches now ;

146 ACTS XVI 13-15.

the 7nen have given them all up. Yes, but only in the same
proportion in which they have given up love, purity, patience,
home ! I hardly forgive myself for the momentary anger which
I spent on the contemptible mocker. If I gave way to vehe
ment scorning of the evil giber, I had forgotten that I was de
fending the pureness and the self-sacrifice of womanhood, which
need no apology. They are not my friends who despise world-
saving women. I would hate them if I had time to think about
them. Woman keeps the roof over your head, you late-comer,
you truant wanderer, you world-worshipper. Woman keeps the
fire alight for you ; she touches with tender hand your wound and
pain ; she cries bitter tears, long after your shallow waters of grief
are exhausted ; she denies slumber to her eyelids, long after your
tired eyes have taken upon them the sleep of oblivion. -She does
keep up the Church, and God will in turn keep up her dear,
great heart.
" And a certain woman named Lydia  " This is like the
reading we have just perused about the " days." The days were
spoken of, in verse 12, in general terms ; and in the thirteenth
verse the Sabbath was particularized as the one da}'. Now we
read of the women generally, and of a certain and particular
woman named L}'dia. What subtie littie harmonies there are in
this inspired Book ! How part balances part 1 As there are days
that may be mentioned in the plural number, so there are men
and women who may be mentioned in their plurality ; but as there
is one day which is always named alone, so there are individuals
who do not, so to say, mix with the common list, but which
head, gleamingly and significantly, every catalogue ; names which
have whole lines to themselves. Look at the case of Lydia. She
was first of all a business woman — "a seller of purple." So,
then, women of business may be women of prayer. Women who
sell purple one day may go to church to pray the next .We
ought to have more women of business. It is a foolish conceit
which forbids, in any degree, women to engage in honourable
business. Such business enlarges and educates the mind, gives
happy distraction to thought which would often turn to vexation
if fixed upon unworthy centres. It is one thing for a woman to
be a slave, and another for a woman to work and to love her

THE RELIGIOUS INSTINCT. 147
work. The reason ¦\^'hy your work appears to you to be slavery
is that you do not like it. He, or she, who loves work, makes
all the week a kind of introductory Sabbath to the great religious
rest I would that all women were Lydias in this respect of hav
ing something definite to do every day and doing it, and finding
in industry a balance to piet}'. A piety that sells no purple will
come to live upon itself, and eating its own vitals, it may end in
religious melancholy and madness. L}'dia was also a religious
woman ; she " worshipped God. " There are many religious per
sons who are not Christians. It is one thing to be religious and
another to be Christianized. Some people are born, so to say,
with religious veneration. They ?;^a,r/ worship. They will turn a
stone into a god ; or they will imagine a god folded within the
garments of the sun's blazing light ; it is easy for them to pray.
Other people seem to be born destitute of the religious instinct ;
they are earthly, servants of time, grubbers, heapers together of
dust that has no binding in itself, and must eventually be dried by
the sun and fall away into the meanest particles, that have in them
no self-cohesion and no abiding masonry. The fear is that the
religious man may allow himself to be cooled by those natural
atheists. It is so easy to cool a fire. It is so easy to discourage
souls, that sometimes the hereditary atheist — ^born with a hollow
place in his head where there ought to have been a mountain of
veneration — it is so easy, I say, for such people to chill and dis
courage the ardent piety of others.
Lydia was not only industrious and religious, she became
Christianized. Religion is a general term ; Christianity is a
specific form of religion. Beginning in sacrifice, in self-crucifix
ion, in suffering for Christ, in pardon through the mystery of
sacrificial blood, it grows up into absolute sympathy with the
Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost It is not enough for
you and me to be religious, we must take upon us by the mighty
ministry of the Holy Ghost a particular form, and that particular
form is Christianity. The Spirit of Christ makes us Christians, as
the blood of Christ makes us saints or holy ones. In this re
spect Christianity is a heart-opening ; a heart enlargement ; a
fire set to love ; a marvellous transformation of being. When
Lydia became thus the subject of Christian influence, what course

ACTS XVL 13-15.

did her thought take ? At once she would have a Church in the
house — " If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come
into my house and abide there. ' ' In that suggestion there is a
whole philosophy. That was impulse Divine. When the two
travellers felt their hearts burn within them, by reason of the
converse of the third Man, they said, " Abide with us." These
are the impulses that are underlaid by whole rocks of logic and
philosophy. Lydia would have a fellowship at once. Souls that
are kindred must never leave one another. If any have gone out
from us, it is because they were not of us. They were using us
for their own convenience ; it suited them for a while to play the
false part, and to assume a kind of interest in our society and
actions. But when they go out from us we know that they were
never of us, in the true and deep sense of the term. Christians
must abide together. In the olden time they that feared God
met often one with another, and spake soul to soul, and the
music entranced the attention of God, and the listening Father
wrote their names in his book, and called them ' ' Jewels. ' '

LVI.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, thou hast shown us that there is an open way from
earth to heaven, from darkness to light, from death to life. We find all
this liberty and advancement in Christ Jesus, Son of God, God the Son.
Once our foundations were in the dust, but now we see heavenly places
and heavenly liberties beyond, so that all things are ours, and all spaces,
and our souls have come into a great inheritance, and are rich with an
infinite estate. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our
eyes. Thou hast touched our souls with the pain of n, deep discontent
ment. We are now dissatisfied with time, and earth, and sense, and all
things that can be held in the hand ; and we yearn tor an inheritance that
is incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, bright with thine
own glory and imperishable as thine own duration. This also cometh
forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel and excellent
in working. " These are thy glorious works. Parent of good." These
are thy new creations, thy continual resurrections, thy triumphings over
death and night, and thy setting up of life and light and glory infinite.
So, then, we stand in the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and
we stand as on a rock that cannot be broken or overthrown, and that will
never crumble away. This is our Father's house. This is the strong
foundation. This is a place found for souls that scorn the temptations of
time, and long with wordless, painful, joyous yearning for whole heavens
of liberty and service. We know that we have passed from death unto
life by these new impulses of the soul. These are not the inspirations of
earth, for thorns cannot bring forth grapes, neither can the dust grow the
fruits of heaven. So, then, we know that we have an unction from the
Holy One, and are free men, and are standing upon the right of a new
charter, written and signed with blood. We are the sons of God —
astounding love ! amazing grace ! condescension Divine I that we who
once wandered from God are brought back again amid the welcomings of
angels and the trumpets of heaven ! This is the Lord's doing, and it is
marvellous in our eyes. We have left the ground of the dead ; we are
no longer in the churchyard, but in the living sanctuary of the living God,
and our mouth is opened every day with new hymn and psalm and shout
of joy. The Lord continue his daily favor according to our daily need
and pain, until the last little grey day of time shall vanish, and our souls
shall pass, in the purity of infinite whiteness, into the inner places.
Bless our daily bread, and it will do us good. Breathe upon us when we

150 ACTS XVI 16-24.

lie down to sleep, and we shall forget our sorrow for a while— and our
weariness shall become young strength. Pity us when we think we see
and yet are blind of soul. Save us from the embarrassments which vex
and entangle every lite. May ours be the spirit ot righteousness, lofty
honour, and noble fidelity and constancy to things commanded of God.
Then shall we have no perplexing questions vexirig the conscience with
many a doubt, and clouding the life with many a fear ; but ours shall be
the path of the just, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
Remember our dear ones at home, so sick, so weak ; longing to go, yet
willing to stay ; filled with wonder about the future, and pained with dis
tress about the past. The Lord send comforting angels into chambers
where human voices are lowered into whispers. The Lord himself be
the Physician of those who need him most, and give them hope of soul
where there cannot be recovery of body. Sit down beside the weary one
and talk a while, and in listening to the voice Divine may human weari
ness be forgotten. Guide the young along the perilous road, where the
tempters lie, where the mockers laugh, where the pits are deeply dug and
well concealed. The Lord guide them, protect them, save them, and in
old age give them a pure song. Be with us at home and abroad, in
privacy, in public, everywhere a conscious, living, loving presence. So
then our sins shall be forgiven in thy grace, and at the Cross of pain and
blood and death we shall seal the covenant that saved us, and our hearts
shall enter into a new joy. Hear thy people when they say from their
hearts and with their voices, Amen and Amen.
Acts xvi. 16-24.
t6. And it came to pass, as we were going to the place ot prayer, that a
certain maid having a spirit of divination [G. a spirit, a Python. Python
denotes (i) the Delphic dragon ; (2) as here, any such soothsaying
demon ; (3) any ventriloquist. See LXX., Lev. xix. 31 ; Isa. viii. ig,
etc.] met us, which brought her masters [the Philippian Divination Com
pany ; a. common and most lucrative speculation in that sceptical and
superstitious age, viii. 9 ; xiii. 6 ; xix. 19] much gain by soothsaying.
17. The same following after Paul and us cried out, saying. These men
are servants [slaves] of the Most High God [Luke iv. 41 and Mark v. 7],
which proclaim unto you [the spurious " us" of theA.V. included the
demon] the [G. " a"] way of salvation.
18. And this she did for many days. But Paul, being sore troubled
[G. " worn out"], turned and said to the spirit, I charge thee in the name
of Jesus Christ to come out of her [i Cor. x. 20]. And it came out that
very hour.
ig. But when her masters saw that the hope of their gain was gone
[note the motive ot this the first Gentile persecution, I Thess. ii. 2. The
Greek has " come out" for " gone." The " hope of their gain" and the
demon parted together], they laid hold on Paul and Silas, and dragged

FALLEN SPIRITS, 151

them into the market-place [where were the civil courts and the city (civil
judges'^ before the rulers,
20. and when they had brought them unto the magistrates [G.
" praetors." Those having Roman military authority, as Pilate, would
be more properly styled " rulers," and the Greek city judges the " magis
trates"], they said. These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our
city [G. "our city, though they are Jews." The one subject race de
spises the other, and then is basely proud to call itself Roman],
21. and set forth customs which it is not lawful for us to receive, or to
observe, being Romans.
22. And the multitude rose up together [with the masters and the city
judges] against them : and the magistrates [the praetors, seeing this] rent
their garments off them, and commanded to beat them with rods [2 Cor.
xi. 25].
23. And when they \i,e., the llctors at their command] had laid many
stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep
them safely [the use ot the imperfect tense in the Greek not only indicates
Luke's presence, but also the designed publicity of these proceedings,
whereby the angry mob was appeased. See ver. 35]:
24. who, having received such a charge, cast them into the inner
prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks [his zeal exceeded his
orders] .

VIOLENT TRANSITIONS OP EXPERIENCE.
NONE can bear such testimony to the real nature of good
ness as bad spirits. How the fallen angels could preach I
How eloquent upon goodness and purity could Satan himself be I
I speak not now of those who have never been in the sanctuary
and have never known what a vision of purity really is ; I am
speaking of fallen souls ; spirits that have left their communion
with God and taken up with other fellowships. Such souls could
tell much of the real nature of goodness. They see it from
another standpoint. They did not know how bright the light was
until they felt the burden of the darkness. They could speak
with all the vividness which comes of conscious contrast. Could
not he say much of friendship who has lost it and gone over to
the ranks of the alien ? Could not he speak tenderly of home
who has abandoned it and wandered in the wilderness where there
is no way ? Memory would become a source of inspiration.
Reflection would open whole heavens for a moment, and show
their concealed but wondrous light So with the spirit that has

152 ACTS XVL 16-24.

known God and wandered away from him ; it could speak with a
barren and mocking eloquence — not without soul-touching
pathos — of salvation, redemption, pardon, and coming heaven.
But Christianity will not have such service. The poor damsel
cried truly and rightly, " These men are the servants of the Most
High God, which show unto us the way of salvation"; but her
co-operation was declined. The devil can have no part or lot in
Christian service. He is not in it ! Though his word be true,
his tone is wrong : yea, though he reads God's own Bible word
by v/ord, his spirit stains whatever it touches ; and the very pure
ness of the Divine truth might run risks of attaintment if touched
by diabolic powers. What Paul could have done with this aid !
How he could have been master of the situation ! How he could
have turned upon all those who held in captivity the infatuated
girl, and said to them, " She is our ally; she knows the truth,
and is not afraid to proclaim it, nor is she ashamed of its repre
sentatives and servants ; she is our co-minister, and we are thank
ful for her aid ' ' ! These temptations are not without force ; tney
operate upon human attention and confidence to-day. We say :
' ' The thing spoken is true, therefore the men speaking it may
also be true." The logic is bad; all history condemns it
That is one of the instances of reasoning that ought to be true ;
but such is the subtlety of the human heart, and such its incon
ceivable depravity, that it is possible for the devil to speak truly
regarding God and Christ, but the truth being devil-spoken, is not
to be received upon such authority. Why not ? — Because the
authority would not stop there. Take one draught at the devil's
well, and you shall have another ; and he is so cunning of wrist
and finger, he can twist the vessel so as to be decei-ving your eye
and be drawing bitterness when you thought he was drawing
sweetness — poison in vessels thought to be full of life. Have
nothing to do with him. " Resist the devil, and he will flee
from you." Apostolic character was beautifully developed
under such temptations as these. We see from such incidents
better than we could do from merely doctrinal statement the pure
ness and nobility of the apostolic mind and the magnificent in
dependence of truth. In the hands of the Aposties the truth did
not go a-begging for patronage. When the Aposties handled this
mighty theme, they did not ask any one to bear a part of the

UNCONSECRATED GIFTS, 153
burden whose hands were not as clean as the new-fallen and un
trodden snow. When will the Church refuse the bad man's
money? When will God's Church say. No ! to patronage that is
not inspired by prayer ? The Church is craven. She will take
money from men who are damning the worid six days out of
seven to the utmost of their ability. She will lay the foundations
of her tabernacles and temples upon money which is devil-won
and devil-rusted. She is not grand. She is afraid of being poor.
The Apostles many a time might have received aid, such as that
which is described in the text. The very same kind of aid was
offered to Jesus Christ himself ; but he would never accept it
What could be more helpful than to have a spirit as from another
world saying day after da}-, " These men are the servants of the
Most High God, which show unto us the way of salvation"? It
would then seem as if the world had joined in chorus to attest the
identity and authority of the men. But in apostolic days the
Church was heroic in poverty and invincible in weakness. We
have come to totally false ideas about the Church, its station and
influence, and its relation to worldly helps and props, and such
co-operation as comes from questionable quarters. No Church
can be poor, nor can any Church be weak. If it is a Church, it
has Christ's presence ; therefore poverty and weakness are impos
sible in its history. Now, what whining we have about our
"poor" churches and our "weak" churches! There are no
such things ! You must get rid of that sophism, or you will be
mere church-mongers and church-mechanicians, having lost the
spirit of Divine pride, the heavenly, lofty haughtiness that dis
dains ill-gotten and ill-offered wealth or patronage.
" And when her masters saw  " They made a profit out of
her. They were " her masters." One wonders that deluded
people do not learn good lessons from the very language which is
employed in describing them. One wonders that the poor drunk
ard does not learn wisdom from the mocking laugh that follows
him when he totters out of the den where he lost his manhood.
It is possible that some of ourselves may be under the influence
of evil " masters." There are many kinds of intoxication ; there
is an intoxication of vanity, as well as of blood ; there is a titilla-
tion of selflshness, as well as a gratification of the palate. We

154 ACTS XVL 16-24.

may be profitably used by crafty ' ' masters' ' ; we ma}' be made a
convenience of only, and we must protest against this. The sel
fish man would make slaves of us all. It is in the nature of sel
fishness to make slaves. Why do we not see these things and
stand upon eternal principles ? Sometimes this young man, or
that, may be put forward to ask questions or make impertinent
statements, or, as it is called, " break the ice." Older and
craftier men may be making experiments upon your green youth-
fulness. What is your position in society ? Are you dupes or are
you dupers ? Tyrants in the sense of the text, or slaves, as was
this poor soothsaying damsel ? Christ would have us all free.
" If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free in
deed." Christ offers liberty. He has a yoke, but it is easy ; He
has a burden, but it is light He is Master, but by the right of
purity and by the claim of redeeming grace. Christ's is not the
mastery of strength that cannot be resisted, but of almightiness so
complete that it can be gracious. " Come unto me, all ye that
labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest ' ' The appeal
of Christ is an appeal to reason ; to the highest thought ; to the
noblest confidence ; to the most unselfish impulses. Yes, a mas
tery ; but by its completeness a benediction ; a sovereignty
Divine ; not in strength only, but in tenderness.
' ' And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was
gone  " The bad man has a larger sphere in which to make
money than the good man has. The good man is hmited ; the
bad man is unlimited. Think what they were doing ! Living
upon this brain-bewildered damsel ; making merchandise of her ;
always there to take the money she made. These men would
sell the altar ! Such men would sell the very Church of God.
Such men would defile the dead for money ; yea, they would sell
their fathers' bones for gold. Do not imagine that this is an an
cient instance with a haze of romance about it, belonging to im
memorial time ; it is the work of to-day ; the damnation of the
present hour. There is no stopping-place in selfishness short of
the very destruction of the universe. For selfish interests you
cannot stop and say, "Enough." This horse-leech was ever
sated with blood. Begin, therefore, early to resist the devil.
" It is not all gold that glitters." There are some sovereigns that

HYPOCRLTLCAL REFORMERS, 155
cannot be changed, and that burn the holder's hand. There
are some coins that honest fingers dare not touch. You may not
have great wealth, but every penny is honest copper, and every
sovereign honest gold, and it goes quite a long way in buying
and selling. It has a peculiar power of multiplying itself under
the touch of honest hands. Do not call yourself /ocr if you have
to-day's honestiy gotten dinner waiting for you. That is a proof
that you shall also dine to-morrow. No good thing shall be with
held from them that walk uprightly. ' ' Seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added
unto you." " I have been young and now am old ; yet have I
not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread."
Crafty masters, dealers in superstition and quackery, may have
their gain-bringing damsels taken away from them, but they who
bank in heaven have effects inexhaustible.
Look at the spirit of the damsel's masters. When Paul and
Silas were brought into the market-place unto the rulers, the mas
ters said, " These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our
city, and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive,
neither to observe, being Romans." What liars they were I
Not a word did they say about the ' ' gains. ' ' They were con
cerned for the ' ' city' ' ; they were honestly excited about the
morals of the community ! Not for the world would they have
old traditions touched or old harmonies thrown into discord.
What liars they were ! Here is the crime of to-day, the miser
able crime of working from one motive and trying to get credit for
another. That is a contemporaneous offence. It is not a gray,
historic, antiquated trick, but part and parcel of our own individ
ual experience. It was practised yesterday ; it is being practised
to-day, and to-morrow the practice will be continued. The real
motive of the masters was— they were angry with the Apostles who
had taken away their "gains." The pretended motive of the
masters was — " customs" were being taught which it was not
lawful for Romans to observe. Do we not sometimes hate in our
hearts a man, and oppose him, and do all manner of evil to him,
and then say that we have no personal envy or jealousy, but are
concerned about some great question or public good ? How pro
fessing Christians can tell lies I They can hunt a man to death,
and over his cold bones can say they never had any personal ill-

156 ACTS XVL 16-24.

will to him, but they were concerned for customs and manners
and traditions quite apart from all personal bearing and colour.
This is human nature ; and yet there are persons who quite dis
dain the idea of the doctrine of original sin or original depravity !
They clasp their littie babes in their arms and hug them and kiss
them with the kisses of love and say, " No I No ! Original de
pravity ! Bless thee, no ! No !" " The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked." We must not judge by ac
tion, as the magistrates in this case judged ; but by motive, by
inner thought, by spiritual intent — may we so judge ourselves.
A man wants to leave your service, or a particular neighbourhood,
or a particular church, or a particular club, society, or fellowship.
He will not tell the real reason, but he scourges his ingenuity to
find some plausible reason for his action. Being so minded, he
will find one ; and he will speak it so loudly as to drown the
inner voice, which is saying to him all the time, " Liar 1 liar !"
The Gospel will have truth in the inward parts. The Gos
pel will have no pretence, mental reservation, or moral oWiq-
uity. It says, " Let your Yea be yea, and your Nay, nay, for
whatsovever is more than these cometh of evil." This is a
square Gospel ; it will have all things at right angles. It will in
sist upon trying all our work by the square and plummet of
heaven. It would revolutionize the work. Why do not men
receive it as the mightiest moral disinfectant, the only spiritual
emancipation, because the only Divine redemption ? Search your
hearts and see whether the tongue has not often been subpoenaed
to tell many lies. See to it whether you have not been acting
from one motive whilst trying to get credit for another. " Search
me, O God, and try me, and see if there be any wicked way in
me, and lead me in the way everlasting." "Create in me a
clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." " Thy
word is keen and sharp, keener than a two-edged sword, piercing
to the dividing asunder of the joints and marrow." I would live
a life that asks to be tested and searched by the just criticism of
Heaven. But this is impossible. So come to me, God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, and take up
thine abode with me, and make me more than conqueror in life's
daily fight Thou, Triune God, knowest that I can look a lie.
Make me so true of heart that the face and the voice may also be

HARD DOCTRINE.

157

true. Why do not men receive this doctrine ? It is because it is
very hard ; because it, first of all, breaks down selfishness, cor
ruptness of will, perversity of imagination ; because this doctrine
will not only be our theologian, but our moralist ; will not only
talk to us on Sunday, but keep our books on Monday ; will not
only tempt the theological imagination to high metaphysical dis
cussion, but test weights, scales, balances, measures ; and have
truth at home, in the shop, in the Church — everywhere. What
wonder that its founder was torn limb from limb, and left a
blasted thing upon a Roman cross !

LVII.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, we are still in the land of the living because of thy
great mercy and most tender lovingkindness towards us. There is no
death in God. Thou wouldst that we should be like thee altogether,
living in thine own endless Evermore, Breathe into our souls the breath
of life. Keep us near thee in Christ thy Son, our Saviour, and let death
have no more dominion over us. We know that our flesh is delivered up
to the jailer ; we cannot release the body from his hard grip ; the con
demnation of death is written upon every bone, and all our blood must
be dried up in the dust. But tor our souls we pray ; we would that they
might be hidden with Christ in God ; that they might never die. Hast
thou not cried unto us from thine home in heaven — " Why will ye die?"
We would now, in the power ot the Spirit, and by the grace of Christ,
return unto the Lord, that he may have mercy upon us ; and to our God.
that he may abundantly pardon. If we could hear that sweet word in our
souls, uttered by thine own voice, we should now while on earth be in
the very heaven of eternal light. Speak comfortably unto us. Let our
bruised and wounded condition of heart be its own plea ; and let our
hiding under the shadow of the Cross be its own argument, and cry unto
us that our iniquity is pardoned, though our warfare is not yet accom
plished. If thou wilt say this word " pardon," we shall spring up again,
forgetting old age and gray hair ; we shall reclaim our youth, and with
the energy of morning hope and strength will lift still higher our hymn of
Sabbatic praise. Fill us with thy love, thou loving One. Make us know
in our hearts the tender mystery ot the Cross. Maj' the Cross ot Christ
show itself in new forms and bearings every day. May it lie over the
whole length and stretch across the whole breadth of our life ; and thus
may we live in the Cross and rise from it to the crowns that are kept in
heaven. We would speak of our sin, were not our memory flooded with
the recollections of thy grace. Where sin abounds, grace doth much
more abound; and we forget our sin as we forget the darkness of the
past night in the lustre of the present day. Few and evil are our days — a
child's handful ; like in their swiftness to a post, yea, even to a vreaver's
shuttle — coming, shining, dying — yesterday, to-day, to-morrow — here
now, gone whilst we are speaking. Weare as grass that is cut down and
that withereth in the noontide that was to have crowned our pride. Oh
spare us, pity us, let us recover strength that we may pray some bolder
prayer, and give us courage that we may weep some manlier tears. The

ANNOTATED TEXT. 159

Lord have mercy upon us ; surround us with mercy ; crown us with
mercy ; give us to feel the day and the night are filled with mercy. We
can only live in mercy, we have no standing in the law ; we dare not
appeal to righteousness. We come before the Lord, whom we have
offended, crying for mercy — free, boundless, unmerited mercy. Show
us that in Christ Jesus thy Son, thy mercy endureth for ever. Give unto
us this day according to our need. Thou knowest the heart that is too
sore to be touched ; thou knowest the ear that is pained by listening ;
thou knowest the weakness that would feel the dew ot the morning to be
a burden. Thou knowest those who are crying in the spirit, and weeping
bitter tears which the eyes conceal ; thou knowest the grave that is in the
garden ; thou knowest the worm that is gnawing the root — yea, thou
knowest us altogether. Wilt thou not pity us, and cause thy Spirit to
dwell in us, ruling us wholly, until there be no disobedient thought, until
our whole heart be a very temple seven times cleansed and beautified for
the indwelling of God the Holy Ghost ? We put ourselves into thy
keeping, and pray for one another. When the road is slippery, take hold
of both our bands ; when the road is hard and long, find us a place where
we may sit down a while, and when danger thickens, may Divine
securities abound. The Lord take care of our friends — at home, abroad,
on the great sea, in the far-away city ; the mother, the father, the aching
heart, the repentant prodigal. The Lord's Sabbath day enclose as within
arms ot infinite love all, from the highest to the lowest, for whom it is our
duty and our delight to pray. Amen.
Acts xvi. 25-32.
25. But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying [G. " worship
ping"] and singing hymns unto God [Psalm cvii. 10-16. Although in
evil case, they might reasonably be thankful for life jtreserved], and the
prisoners were listening to them ;
26. and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations
of the prison house were shaken and immediately all the doors were
opened ; and every one's bands were loosed.
27. And the jailer being roused out of sleep, and seeing the prison
doors open, drew his sword, and was about to kill himself [xii. ig, and
xxvii. 42. Note also the suicides, here at Philippi, of Cassius, Titinius,
and of Brutus, who " fled not with feet but with hands"].
28. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying. Do thyself no harm : for
we are all here [this word, so calm and kind, touched the jailer's heart.
Renan entirely ignores it, and accounts for the jailer's changed behaviour
by imagining that the Aposties "declared to him their quality" as
Roman citizens !].
29. And he called tor lights, and sprang in, and, trembling for fear [of
God now, not of man, vers. 27 and 28],
30. fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said,

i6o ACTS XVL 25-32.

Sirs [G. " my lords"], what must I do to be [in order that I may be]
saved (ver. 17) ?
31. And they said. Believe on the Lord Jesus [they are not lords, but
Jesus is Lord : they are not the Way of Salvation, but the Lord Jesus is
that Way. Cf. John i. 36, 37. The jailer's faith is turned away/rowz
their persons to the Person of the Lord Jesus. This Exalted One is the
only object of faith. They added not his Jewish title Christ (Messiah),
which would have been misleading here, would have suggested Judaistic
error to this Gentile. The word "Christ" and the Judaistic idea (the
historic Christ) have been added by ecclesiastics], and thou shalt be
saved, thou and thy house [viii. 25, an additional clause probably sug
gested by members of the household crowding around].
32. And they spake the word of the Lord unto him, with all that were
in his house.
DISADVANTAGES MADE USEFUL.
THIS (ver. 25) is an instance of turning strange places into
churches. If, in many cases, desecration has taken place,
we are bound to admit as just critics and reviewers of history that
many surprising instances of consecration have also occurred.
Think of the prison at Philippi being turned into a church I
Think of midnight being turned into mid-day ! And think of an
unexpected congregation gathering together at a moment's notice !
We might turn every place into praying-ground. There ought
to be no difficulty in praying in the market-place. It ought to
be quite an easy Christian miracle to turn the thoroughfares of the
city into aisles of the church, through which we pass with reverent
step and with expectant and solicitous hearts. Thus we might
build churches by the thousand, and inexpensively and imme
diately, so that we need not take long and weary pilgrimages to
special places upon urgent need, but might turn the enemy's
masonry into sacred fabrics and common places into consecrated
sanctuaries. Every place should be holy unto the Lord. The
outputting of a hand should be the finding of an altar ; the uplift
ing of an eye should be the discovery of God. Pray»without
ceasing. Let your common meal in the house be a holy sacra
ment, and the drinking of your water be as the imbibing of the
blood that vitalizes and saves. Paul and Silas could not be
driven from church ; they were, on the contrary, always, taken to
church. As unusual places can be turned into religious temples.

THE BLESSING OF PERSECUTION. i6i
so unusual circumstances can be turned into Christian sanctuaries.
In all probability we shall never be in the merely stone prison,
but is there a man amongst us who is not in a still stronger and
darker prison every day ? The stone prison may be a palace ;
but what of the soul's despair, the heart's necessity, the life's
keen hunger, the cold, so bitter that it chills our inmost life ?
Do not — let me say again and again — imagine that Holy Scripture
records ancient instances of imprisonment, or necessity, or diffi
culty. By many a type, more or less historical and literal, it sets
forth our own condition and experience. The teaching of this
immediate lesson is, that as unfamiliar and unconsecrated places
may be turned into sanctuaries, so may unique, distressing,
harmful, and threatening circumstances be turned into ladders up
to heaven. What are you doing in your unusual circumstances
— moaning, groaning, complaining? Paul and Silas "sang
praises." Such men, therefore, never could be in prison. Prison
it might be called, but prison it was none in reality. It was only a
valley on a highland journey — a valley very deep, and yet not deep
at all, because only relatively deep to the infinite heights up which
their souls often climbed to hold Divine communion in the purer
light Christians ought never to be in prison ; Christians ought
never to be in any circumstances which they cannot turn into
sacramental occasions. "This is my body, this is my blood."
I may take two views of the body and blood — the murderer's view
or the Saviour's. The murderer says, "I have killed him";
the Saviour says, " I lay down my life ; no man taketh it from
me." Do not let us take the enemy's view of our imprisonment,
whatever that imprisonment may accidentally be ; let us take
God's view of it, and then the stones, seven feet thick and more,
shall vibrate under the resonance of an unaccustomed and start
ling song.
Here is an instance in which Christian thinkers and workers
and worshippers may have unexpected observers and listeners. The
text says, " and the prisoners heard them" ; the Revised Version
says, " and the prisoners were listening." It is always exactiy
so. You do not speak without being listened to ; you do not go
to church without being observed ; you do not sing your hymn to
yourself alone ; the hymn has a beginning, but who can tell its

i62 ACTS XVL 25-32.

end ? It warms your own soul as it passes up to the hearing ear of
God ; but who can tell what it is doing on the way ? Sometimes
the hymn of the church is overheard by the passers-by, and they
who go out to spend the Sabbath in some unknown way carry the
hymn with them, and it hums in their memory and calls up recol
lections of other days, and sometimes brings the wanderer to the
evening service. You cannot tell what you are doing. The
preacher speaks to his immediate congregation, but he knows not
who is listening in the vestibule. " And the prisoners were listen
ing." They never heard such music before ! They had been
accustomed to profane language ; to cursing and denunciation ;
to violent and complaining exclamations and reproaches ; but
here is a new spirit in the house — hark how the music rises,
falls, plashes like a gracious rain upon dry ground ! It is so at
home. Passing the room door, we pause a moment to hear some
sweet voice in prayer or praise. We say nothing, but receive it in
sweet confidence and think about it, and it works wonders in the
soul ; it follows the life like a pleading angel. We cannot tell all
we do. What is true on the one side is true on the other. The
fierce word you spoke was heard. The unjust judgment you
passed was listened to by your children, and they will grow up to
repeat wilh broader, darker emphasis your sneering and your
cynicism. Did you think the children were not listening when
you used harsh words and passed unjust — not to say ungenerous
— judgments, and when you ridiculed things that ought to be
held sacred ? The children heard every word and responded to
every tone, and when they grow up to curse the altar you neg
lected, their blood will be required at your hands. Study this
matter of indirect and unconscious influence. Let us remember
as those that must give account that whatever we do has an im
mediate effect upon self, and also a relative and immeasurable in
fluence. This incident shows us how possible it is quietiy and even
thankfully to actept all the circumstances of life. Nothing must
interfere with the religious sacrifice. Are we in prison ? We may
have to alter the hour of worship, but not the worship itself. Are
we in an uncongenial atmosphere ? We may have to wait untfl
the company has broken up before we have our little quiet psalm
and our deep and earnest communion with the Father ; but it is

PREACHING BY SINGING. 163
only waiting ; it is a mere change of time ; there is no change in
the substance, the reality, the sovereign purpose. That does not
admit of change. You cannot injure the men who proceed as
Paul and Silas proceeded. You cannot get in front of them.
You cannot disappoint them. There is something about their
whole spirit and force which rude hands cannot touch. If they do
not pray in one place, they will pray in another ; and if they do
not pray at mid-day, they will have their prayer at midnight, and
be all the better heard by human listeners for the silence which
they considered was concealing their worship. What a lesson is
this to us I Show me a Christian who does not complain. It
would seem as if in some cases Christianity had done little for us
but teach us the art of reproach. Where are the joyous Chris
tians ? the midnight-singing Christians ? the Christians who turn
night into day, who read the Bible by candle-light, and who wear
out the paper by their eagerness of perusal of the Sacred Word ?
In old times Christians used to be irrepressibly glad ; it was part
of their very charter to be always joyous — not after a flippant
and transient sort, but to have that deep joy which gathers to itself
the tender shading of melancholy, that ineffable gladness which
must of necessity be solemn. We are disputatious Christians ;
combative believers ; great in argument, in hair-splitting, and in
cunning use of words. Where is the ancient joy, the old delight,
the Sabbath seven days long, the Church that spread its golden
roof over all the hills and valleys of changing life ? May the old
days come again ! When they come Christians will accept pov
erty or wealth, life or death, bleak March or warm June, with
resignation, thankfulness, sweet and holy content, saying : ' ' This
is the best for me ; here I stand in the midst of barns enlarged and
harvests multiplied ;" or, " Here I stand without a robe to cover
my nakedness, without bread enough for the passing hunger,
with nothing that I could lay my hands upon and turn to imme
diate use ; yet, though the fig-tree shall not blossom, though there
be no fruit in the vines, no herd in the stalls, yet I must not for
get my prayer, my hymn, my worship ; my circumstances must
give accent and immediate expressiveness to my oblation of
praise and dedication to God ; I live, not in circumstance but in
faith." This is a religious service of prayer and praise. "But
there was no preaching, ' ' you say. Yes, there was, for we may

i64 ACTS XVL 25-32.

preach by singing. There would be no harm, but oftentimes
great good, if there were no formal preaching ; if the whole .ser
vice were one of prayer and praise. Could we some morning sing
twenty hymns straight off, connected only by brief invocation, we
should most surely have preached the Word. ' ' The prisoners were
listening." So there was a congregation. But even in amore
direct and literal sense preaching was added to prayer and praise.
The earthquake took place, the foundations of the prison were
shaken, all the doors were opened, every one's bands were loosed,
and the keeper of the prison, awaking out of his sleep (which he
ought not to have indulged, and the penalty for which was capi
tal punishment), seeing the prison door open, drew out his sword
and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had
been fled ; and he, with his house, became a congregation to
which Paul and Silas did, in the literal sense of the term, preach.
So that night they had a full service — prayer, praise, preaching,
and conversion. How did the jailer know this word "saved"?
We must call to memory the speech of the divining damsel, v/ho
followed Paul and Silas. She cried, saying, " These men are the
servants of the Most High God, which show unto us the way of
salvation." The soothsayer had made the sacred word salvation
familiar in the speech of Philippi. " Salvation" was not an un
known term, but a term well known. As the hymn of the Apos
tles was heard by those whom they did not know were listening,
so this word " salvation" rung out in the clear, silvery tones of the
divining damsel was heard by others beside Paul and Silas and
Luke. We cannot tell how we pick up our words ; we do not
always know so as to be able to explain the origin and authority
of our information. There is a process of unconscious acquisi
tion. Look at this conversion of the jailer. It took place under
circumstances which may well be described as " exciting." Have
we not been unjust to what is called "religious excitement"?
Surely nothing could possibly have been more sensational than
the circumstances we are now considering. They would shock
us. But are the circumstances to blame or ourselves ? We like
quietness— deadness ; we do not like to be " excited," disturbed,
unsettied ; because the devil has got both his arms around us and
has chloroformed us into a state of insensibility. Jesus Christ
did not rebuke the excitement which followed his ministr}' ;

HARMFUL RE VL VALS. 165
when others would have had him lebuke them he said, " I tell
you that if these held their peace, the very stones would cry out"
I do not object to religious excitement, but I do object to relig
ious cynicism and religious death. Happily the incident does
not end here. To excitement was added the necessary element
of instruction. In the thirty-second verse we read : " And they
spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his
house. ' ' Excitement must be followed by instruction, if it is to
be turned to highest and most enduring usefulness. We must
know what we believe ; the Word of God must dwell in us richly.
Religion is not an excitement only, but a conviction, as deep as
life, as lasting as the duration of the being which it has trans
formed. Religious emotion not followed by religious instruction
becomes a harmful agent in human life. Tears in the eyes that
are not followed by activities in the hand harden the very heart
which for the moment they softened. We shall be the worse for
every revival that ends in itself. That is to say, times of revival
must be followed by times of study, with Bible-reading, compar
ing spiritual things with spiritual and getting into our hearts the
very pith and marrow of the Divine revelation. We might get up
such services as these almost every day in the week. If we prayed
and praised in every prison into which our life is thrust, we should
be heard by strange listeners, we should be interrogated by
strange inquirers, and doors of usefulness would be opened in the
very granite which apparently shut us in. There is a releasing
power in life. Do not ask yourselves puzzling questions about
earthquakes, the shaking of stony foundations and the loosing of
iron bands, or you will fritter away the opportunity in a useless
inquest into accidents that belong but to a moment. The great
truth — all-including, everlasting, all-comforting— is that in the
providence of life there is a releasing power against which nothing
of human machination or malignity can stand. God will bring
you forth. The Lord will shake the foundations of every prison
for your sake. You have seen great and bitter afflictions, yet the
Lord has delivered you out of six troubles ; will the seventh be
too much for him ? Can omnipotence be weary ? Can almighti
ness need sleep ? Doth the Lord slumber because his eyelids are
heavy ? The Lord reigneth ; let the earth rejoice. You are shut
up in the prison of ill-health ; and you are enclosed in the

i66 ACTS XVL 25-32.

prison of poverty ; and you are bound round with chains of
circumstances which you cannot overcome, and you are thrust
into the innermost dungeon, and your feet are made fast in the
stocks, and you say, It is midnight upon midnight, and in the
darkness there is no star. Recalling all Divine history, and all
Divine promises, recalling the covenant and the oath of God, I
have to say to you and to myself, ' ' No weapon that is formed
against thee shall prosper. For a small moment have I forsaken
thee, but with everlasting mercy will I gather thee. When the
poor and the needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue
faileth for thirst, I, the Lord, will hear them ; I, the Goi of
Jacob, will not forsake them." Let God be true and every man
a liar. Against all transient accidents and all momentary appear
ances I set up the oath of the Triune God.

LVIII.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, our mouth is full of hymns and psalms and spiritual
songs, for thou hast done great things for us, whereof we are glad. Thou
hast done all these things in Christ Jesus thy Son. He is the Head over
all, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, without whom
there is nothing that is good and beautiful and strong. Bring us all into
Christ as the branches are in the vine. May we know that we have no
life in ourselves, but only in Christ the Living One ! He is come that we
might have life, and that we might have it more abundantly ; yea, like
wave upon wave of life, until we are no longer in the little stream of
time, but in the infinite ocean of his own eternity. His grace is our
hope. To Moses we dare not speak, for the law is in his right hand
and in his left, in two tables of hard stone ; but to the Lamb we may
come. He died for us : he tasted death for every man ; he came to take
away the sin of the world ; Jesus Christ is the great burden-bearer ; he
bore our sins in his own body on the tree. We repent and cry out aloud
for mercy, and we flee away from justice and the flaming sword, to find
in the compassion of God our forgiveness and our rest. We love to think
of the cross, because of what it is and because of what it will be. It will
be a tree more beautiful than any oak in Bashan, or any cedar in Lebanon ;
the leaves of it shall be for the healing of the nations, and the fruit of it
shall take away the world's hunger for ever. Hallelujah ! Glory and
honour and majesty and dominion and all riches be unto the Lamb that
was slain ! Enable us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ. May we drink into his Spirit ; for if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. May we be filled with his Spirit, and
show it by our love of purity, truth, nobleness, and charity ! May we be
so filled with the love of Christ that night shall bring no darkness, wintf r
no storm, and the Cross itself no hopeless death I We would triumph in
Christ. By the power of the Spirit of Christ we would set our foot upon
the whole earth, and keep it there in sign of spiritual mastery over all its
temptations. Wilt thou not come to us through the gate ot our necessity,
and leave great riches behind thee, so that we shall forget our poverty,
and be glad as those who enter into the joy of Christian festival ? We
are in great sorrow, but thou canst dry our tears, and make the giave the
beginning of new joys, and find in our hearts new springs of sacred
strength and joy. Hear thy servants who say, "The Lord's hand has
been heavy upon us," and " The Lord hath passed by the house and left

ACTS XVL 33-40.

a great cloud behind." Show them that thy mercy endureth forever;
that all things work together for good to them that love God ; and may
their sorrow but subdue their song and chasten it into a tenderer music.
O thou who art the Resurrection and the Life, visit our bereaved ones this
very day, and turn the hour of death into the hour of birth. If thy chil
dren have joy, they lound it in heaven. Where there is gladness of soul
may there be brightness of wisdom, breadth of character, solidity of con
viction, so that the joy may not be for a moment, but for the whole space
of lite. We pray every day for comfort because we need it. We have to
fight the world, the flesh, and the devil. They never sleep, they never
tire, they are always able ; and we, but for thyself, would be crushed be
fore them with ease. 'I hank God I with God we have omnipotence. We
can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us ; so that we, who
are feefile in ourselves, are stiong as angels in the force and comfort of
truth Divine. Let thy ministry in this house be full of grace and truth —
bright, tender, loving, human — touching life at every point, and bringing
thy Gospel to bear upon the whole scope and pain and agony of this pres
ent existence. The Lord make our weakness strength, turn our igno
rance into wisdom, and make the water of our feebleness into the wine of
thine own almightiness ; and at the last, may the old man be as the young
child, and the young child a radiant angel in the heaven-house. There, in
the sinless heaven, may we work without weariness, expect and receive
the fulness ot thy wisdom and the riches ot thy grace ; and through the long
nightless day of eternity may we know one another better, and thyself
more fully, and rejoice in widening spheres of activity. Then shall the
sin and pain of earth be forgotten but for the Cross that made even them
occasions of new light from heaven. Amen.
Acts xvi. 33-40.
33. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their
stripes ; and was baptized, he and all his, immediately.
34. And he brought them up into his house [the baptism being coupled
wilh the washing before the meal is decisive against immersion. Noth
ing corresponding even to a modern bath in which persons can lie or sit
was used by the Greeks, but always a round or oval basin, by the side
of Tjuhich the persons nuashing stood] and set meat before them, and rejoiced
greatly, with all his house, having believed in God [in the Divine Lord
Jesus, whose grace produced this love and joy].
35. But when it was day, the magistrates [praetors] sent the sergeants
[lictors], saying. Let those men go.
36. And the jailer reported the words to Paul, saying, The magistrates
have sent 10 let you go : now therefore, come forth, and go in peace [this
" secret escape" with the night's imprisonment, and, under the circum
stances, even the scourging, was the prtetors' rough mode of saving the
Apostles, and themselves also, from the excited mob. Paul acquiesced

OUR YESTERDAYS. 169

to go, Matt. x. 23, but not secretly. Matt, x, 14, lest the Gospel be despised,
and converts be scandalized].
37. But Paul said unto them. They have beaten us publicly uncondemn-
ed, men that are Romans [see v. 20, and ch. xxii. Tarsus, made by
Augustus a " free city" (commercially), could not, however, confer upon
Paul the Roman citizenship. The father or earlier ancestor ot Paul
must have acquired this as a reward ot merit (magistracy) or by purchase],
and have cast us into prison ; and do they now cast us out privily? nay,
verily, but let them come themselves and bring us out.
38. And the sergeants reported these words unto the [Roman] magis
trates. And they feared when they heard that they were Romans [" It is
a misdemeanour to bind a Roman citizen, a crime to beat him, almost
pairicide to kill him!" — Cic. The Lex Valeria of B.C. 508, and the Lex
Porcia of B.C. 300, had been violated by these preetors] ;
39. And they came and besought [G. "gave fair words to," i Cor. iv.
13] them ; and when they had brought them out, they asked them to go
away from the city.
40. And they went out of the prison, and entered into the house of [the
Philippian church, fairest and strongest of all in Paul's memory, Phil. i.
3, etc., was only a weak "church in the house of"] Lydia. And when
they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, and departed [Luke re
mained behind, and perhaps Timothy also].

CHRISTIANITY SELF-ILLUSTRATED.
THIS is another vivid and happy illustration of Christianity
producing its inevitable and invariable results. The old
cause produces the old effect Analyze the instance, and see if
this be not so. Here is a man converted, and he instantly seeks
to do all that lies in his power to make up for the past Won
derful industry touched with infinite pathos, this ! " He took
them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, . . .
and brought them unto his house and set meat before them."
What did it all mean 1 Exactly what our own repentance and
consequent desire of amendment must do. He tried to rub out
yesterday's injury. It was yesterday that troubled him. Chris
tianity always drives men back upon their yesterdays. The
Christian can never do enough to show the reality and the in
spiration of his repentance. He says, ' ' I must pay the money
that I am owing. I know that the Statute of Limitations would
excuse me, but there is no statute of limitations in the regen
erated and inspired heart." The penitent says, "I must find

I/O ACTS XVL. 33-40.

out the life that I once bruised and crushed, and I must wash it
with my tears, and caress it and help to lift it up by the almighti
ness of love. That life is in the forest, in the far-away backwood
— nay, that life is no longer on the earth ; but there must be
some descendants, even some far-off relatives ; I will find them,
and for David's sake I will love Mephibosheth." The religion that
does this proves its own inspiration. It does not need our elo
quence, nor does it ask for the exercise of our intellectual patron
age. It simply asks to be allowed to illustrate itself by itself, and
its proud challenge is : The God that answereth by fire, let him
be God ! Why will not Christians write the evidence of Chris
tianity, not in eloquent books, but in eloquent lives ? Christian
ity always concerns itself with the past As soon as Zacchaeus felt
the power of Christ in his heart, he said, " Behold, Lord, the
half of my goods I give, to the poor ; and if I have taken anything
from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold." That
is the kind of man which Christianity makes. If any other kind of
man has come under your notice professing to be a Christian, he
is a false spirit ; he is not of Christ, and therefore you are entitied
to reject his testimony. Wherever you see a man wanting to pay
up his arrears, washing the wounds he inflicted, drying the tears
he caused to start, you find a man who has been with Christ
He may be a poor theologian, but he is a very angel of a saint,
and character is better than acquisition. We must stand upon
this to-day. Any argument in words may provoke a more or less
felicitous retort in words ; but a jailer washing stripes undeser\-ed,
feeding hunger unmerited, comforting hearts plunged into hope
less disconsolateness by the intention of nian, and only saved
from it by the grace of God, will carry the day. You cannot an
swer the argument of that man's noble service ; he is fighting a
battle which cannot be lost. Let us not ask ourselves what we
now believe, and muddle our heads with arguments we can never
master ; but do let us wash the stripes we have cruelly inflicted ;
do let us get people into the house and feed them, and comfort
them, and turn night into day, if we would prove that our theol
ogy is Divine. This must not be regarded merely as an incident
in the story, but as a necessary effect of the operation of Christian
ity upon the human heart You must not forget the men you
have smitten, the lives you have injured, the robberies you have

CHR L STL AN JOY. 171

committed, the lies you have told, the graves you have dug. If
you cannot work resurrection of the dead, you can love and pity
and help the living, and ask the injured man's poor son to take
full half your loaf, and tell him it is given not of charity, but of
right When the Christian prof essor does this Judas will fall back
ward in any Gethsemane where he may seek the modern represen
tative of Christ Your argument will but amuse, or at best per
plex, but your self-sacrifice will persuade and win and heal, and
cause Christ great joy in heaven.
The second natural result of receiving Christ into the heart is
the experience of unutterable joy. This you find in the thirty-
fourth verse : the jailer " rejoiced, believing in God with all his
house." Christianity never brings gloom ; it is a religion of
light, morning, summer, fragrant flowers, singing birds, and in
effable delights of every noble name. There are three possible
views of God. There is the view which afflicts the soul with a
sense of terror. In that view we see God as holy, just, righteous,
always judging the sons of men, seated upon a throne high and
lifted up, and trying every act of human life by the essential light
of his own holiness. Before that view criminal man must cower
in abject shame and fear. There is another view, partaking of
this nature but much modified — a view which elevates veneration
without touching emotion. That is a view which shows God to
be very great, illustrious, magnificent, grand ; a Being before
whom the head is to be uncovered, a noble Deity, a transcendent
Power. The third view of God is the Christian one, and that
always brings with it joy ; the fruit of the Spirit is joy. " Rejoice
in the Lord alway ; and again I say, rejoice." " The Lord reign
eth ; let the earth rejoice." Have we entered into this spirit of
joy now, or are we only going to enter into it when we die ?
Have M'e now to walk through a narrow and dark tunnel, cheering
ourselves with the imperfect and uncertain comfort that we will at
the end of the tunnel enter into green meadows and places of
summer beauty ? We ought to enter into joy now ; if we have
not joy, we have not the Spirit ; for where the Spirit of God is
there is no bondage, there is no fear, and in the absence of bond
age and of fear the soul must not be merely in a negative condi
tion ; it must be full of rapture, gladness, and sacred enthusiasm.
Do not let us chide ourselves too severely upon this point, because

1/2 ACTS XVL 33-40.

of the diversity of temperament, and because of the complexity
of physical circumstances, which operate in a subtie and often un
traceable manner upon our intellectual and spiritual constitution.
If we can acknowledge with the consent of reason and heart that
Christianity does bring joy, that is the next thing to our havi»g
the experience of the joy itself. Some of us seem born to be
gloomy. Were some of us caught in an enthusiastic state, our
friends would be alarmed, for we are not born to rapture ; we
speak in a low tone, in a feeble and uncertain manner ; our very
i:peech is a kind' of groping in the dark. We want fulness and
emphasis of utterance ; we have a genius for doubting ; we have a
kind of inspiration for objecting ; we do not throw ourselves with
unconstrained confidence into the very arms of Omnipotence. In
estimating ourselves and one another, therefore, we must take into
account all these subtle and unique circumstances, and we need
not afflict our souls with a double judgment if we cannot get so
high up into the blue morning as bird-like souls can fly who seem
to have some right and title to sit and sing at heaven's gate.
These are not the only results of Christianity ; for there are
results on the other side ; hence we find that the magistrates were
afraid ; they sent a message announcing their willingness that Paul
and Silas should leave the city. The bad man has a ghost on the
right hand and on the left, in front, behind, and many a spectral
presence between. We know it to be true. There are " earth
quakes" representing all kinds of physical difficulty ; motions
we cannot account for ; lightning at unexpected times ; rain when
not wanted ; storms howling down the black chimney in the blacker
midnight ; hands shaking the window frames ; strange occurrences
in the field — in withering roots or blighted blossoms, or har
vests half-grown and damned in their youth. So the bad man
has physical difficulties, material alarms and afflictions. Follow
ing these came the discovery that the Aposties claimed the protec
tion of the Roman law. So the magistrates were frightened from
the side of natural rights. The stars in their courses fought
against the magistrates, and natural rights upon the earth fought
against the same mean judges. The bad man has no peace. The
very law which he attempted to lift like a rod turned to a serpent
in his grip and stung his arm. The bad man is always getting

THE SUPREMACY OF PAUL. 173
hold of the wrong end ; always mistaking the case ; always prose
cuting the wrong party ; always flying past, saying, ' ' I have
touched fire ; O, forgive me if you can ! and say nothing about
it, for I have burned every finger of the ten !" Poor bad man !
The earth will give him no rest ; it shakes under his feet, and
makes him totter as if he were drunk, but not with wine. He lays
his hand, as it were, judicially upon a victim, and the victim turns
out to be an accuser ! Then to earthquakes and to natural rights
add all the fears which come from spiritual doctrine — deep, mys
terious, far-reaching, all-involving doctrine — with the heavens
above it, hell below it, an untouchable horizon round about it —
flaming, shaking, glaring ; and the bad man has a poor time of
it ! The earth was not made for bad men. ' ' There is no peace,
saith my God, to the wicked." No line in all the universe was
laid for the comfort of evil. Wherever you flnd the bad man you
find him in controversy with the earth, with the heavens, with the
laws of nature, with the laws of society, with the mystic elements
and forces which are called Christian doctrine ; and the man is in
'hell already, and lifting up his eyes, being in torment, he would
beg water of a beg,gar if he dare. " My son, if sinners entice
thee, consent thou not" If they , say, "Let us all have one
purse," cast not in thy lot with them. Their way is a darkening
road into sevenfold midnight " Resist the devil, and he will flee
from thee." There is no peace but in goodness ; there is no rest
but in righteousness. If thou hast turned away from thy Father
in heaven, " acquaint now thyself with him and be at peace."
This incident throws some light upon the character of Paul.
He did not tell at first that he was a Roman citizen ; why did he
keep back that fact ? He kept it back until he could use it with
the happiest effect Paul was probably the only Roman citizen in
the littie band, and was Paul a man to get off and let the others go
to prison ? Suppose Silas and Luke had been put in prison alone ;
why, it would have been like putting a man's coat in jail and let
ting the man himself go free ! As long as Paul was out, what mat
tered it who was in prison ? So Paul said, " We are all together ;
come weal, come woe, step for' step, shoulder to shoulder, we go
together"; and then when a time came that he could smite the
magistrates as with a fist of iron, he said, " They have beaten us

174 ACTS XVL 33-40.

openly uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into
prison." He knew how that message would bite all the soul
such men had left This is the way we should stand by one
another ; not running away upon the ground of individual ex
emption, but entering into the spirit of the unity of the kingdom
of Christ, and the strong man making the weak man welcome to
his power. Mark the dignity of his innocence. Paul said he
would be " fetched out"; in effect he said, " Let the gentlemen
themselves come down. As for you sergeants, we are much
obliged to you for your message and civility, but let the gentie
men themselves put on their boots this cold morning and come
down. ' ' Christianity can be haughty ; O, but she can be very
dainty ! So the magistrates, what with earthquakes, and Roman
citizenships, and converted jailers, and one thing added to
another, came down and said in effect, " If you will be so kind,
gentlemen, as to go, we shall be very deeply obliged to you."
" The wicked fleeth when no man pursueth, but the righteous is
bold as a lion." In former days they besought Christ himself to
depart out of their coasts, did the bad people ; and the bad world
is always asking Christianity if it will be so kind as to leave the
world. It will interfere with the world' s scales and weights and
measures ; with life at home and life in the market-place ; with
dress and speech, and with honesty of heart It will meddle with
all these things ; so the wicked world says to it, " If you would
but be so kind as to go away." Sooner would the rising sun go
at the bidding of some poor insect, or the rising tide retire before
the waving hand of some impotent Canute.
Being liberated, the Apostles did not take the shortest way out
of Philippi ; they said, " We must go and see our friends now,"
so "they entered into the house of Lydia"; they called the
brethren together and " comforted them. " The sufferer comfort
ing those who have not suffered ! The dying man praying him
self that his survivors may not feel his death too much, or be swal
lowed up of overmuch sorrow I So having entered into the house
of Lydia and seen the brethren and comforted their drooping
hearts, they departed with the ineffable dignity of Christian up
rightness. So the Church of Christ was first established in Europe at
Philippi — see what a hold Christianity has of Europe to-day.

SMALL BEGLNNLNGS, 175
The beginning of that hold is in this very visit of Paul and Silas
and their companions to the city of Philippi. I am aware of the
perversions and corruptions of Christianit}', but underneath al!
these will be found the truth, that the Christian idea has been
the mightiest force in European civilization and progress. With
the exception of one or two kingdoms, the nations of Europe
are Christian nations. Take out of European cities the build
ings which Christianity has put up, and those cities would in
many instances lose their only fame. What is Cologne but the
foreground of its infinite cathedral ? Whose house is that ?
What would Milan be but for its august and overwhelming church
— the very gate of a celestial empire ? Take away St Peter's from
Rome and Notre Dame from Paris, take away the edifices which
Christianity has erected in every Christian kingdom, and see how
frightful a mutilation would be made in the map of European
grandeur. If you tell me that the great galleries of art would still
be left, I would ask you to take away every Christian picture and
every Christian statue, and then call for your estimate of the
boundless cavity. If you tell me that the great centres of music
will still remain, I would ask you to take away the productions
of the Christian poets and musicians ; and after you have removed
Beethoven and Handel, Mendelssohn and Haydn, and ,all the
stars amid which they shone like central suns, I will ask you to
state in figures the stupendous and irreparable loss. When you call
these things to mind, and then remember that Paul planted the
first Christian Church at Philippi, you will see how important are
the incidents recorded in the chapter, which is little better than an
amplified index. We cannot tell what we are doing. He who
plants a tree cannot forecast the issue of his planting. The king
dom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed, which is the
least among all seeds ; but when it is grown it is a tree in the
branches of which the birds build — a great tree. The kingdom
of heaven is like unto leaven which a woman took and hid in
three measures of meal till the whole was leavened. So we can
not tell what we are doing. The penny you gave to the littie
poor boy may be the seed of great fortunes. The love- grasp you
gave the orphan's cold hand may be the beginning of an anima
tion lasting as immortality. Let us — old men, business men,
young men — be associated with the planting of Christian seed.

176 ACTS XVL 33-40.

which shall be like a handful of corn on the top of the mountains
to-day, but in due time the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon.
Do not associate yourselves with decaying causes, with institutions
that have the condemnation of death written upon them, but with
a kingdom that must swallow up every other kingdom, and with
a music which must gather all other music into its infinite Halle
lujah !

LIX.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, we come to thee in the name of Jesus Christ, and
breathe our prayer through him who makes all prayer prevalent. We
plead not our own case before thee ; we stand beside the Cross of the
Crucified, and through Christ the Lord our prayer is clothed with might.
There is one Intercessor between God and man ; there is a Days-Man who
can lay his hand upon both and plead the human cause. All we can say is
what he taught us — "God, be merciful unto me a sinner." So are we plung
ed in darkness by our own guilt, and lifted up into light by thy great grace.
We are gathered at the Cross. Every hand is touching it; every heart throbs
with love towards it ; every eye is fixed upon it ; it is thy Cross ; Lord, meet
us at this sacred place. We are here because of sin ; we are mourning be
cause of self-accusation, and the only hope that is in us is a light lighted by
thine own hand. Our hope is in the Saviour ; our confidence is in the Cross ;
our expectation is from on high. Read Thy Word to us, O Spirit that
wrote it. Let us hear, in the hearing of the soul, how it should be read, so
that none of its music may be lost. May our ears be greedy to hear
the melody of thy truth; may our hearts clamour with vehement love to hear
it more perfectly in all its infinite sweetness and tenderness and passion.
Thy Word giveth light ; thy Word giveth life ; thine is the only Word
that is true. May all the syllables of our speech be drawn from it and
return again to it, to find their completeness and their glory. Help us to
live well because wisely. May our life be hidden with God in Christ — a
mystery to the world, so that time has no effect upon us but to make us
young ; and all energy employed in thy service is but so much sleep that
renews the strength. The Lord take us wholly into his care — we would
not think for ourselves ; we would have no planning or scheming that
taxes our poor blind ingenuity, we would rest in the Lord. Weare con
fident ot this one thing : that he doeth all things well. We are not wait
ing, so much as longing ; we are standing still, not as an effort, but we
are standing still to catch the last phase of beauty, the lingering blessing of
the light. Oh, that we might have no wish, or thought, or desire, or
anxiety, but live in God and rest in the God of gods. This can be done
only by the indwelling and continual ministry of God thy Spirit. Holy
One, live in us. Thou knowest what we are, and what we need ; thou
knowest the trouble at home, the difliculty in the market-place, the sick
ness we cannot heal, the infirmity that becomes a burden, the joy that
makes us laugh, the prosperity that now is a blessing and now a tempta-

1/8 ACTS XVLL 1-9.

tion — thou knowest us altogether. The strong man ; the patient woman ;
the long-suffering heart ; the dreamy spirit ; the active soul — behold, are
not all these standing before thee like plain reading ? Have mercy upon
us through Christ Jesus, and give each a blessing and make each young
again. Thou knowest our silent prayer, tor which there are no words
dainty and fit enough ; prayers that words would debase ; the cry of the
heart ; the yearning of the spirit ; the groping of the soul in the dark,
seeking for light, and yet almost afraid to find it. Lord, help us in ali
these passages from the known to the unknown, and from the youth to
the maturity of the soul. The Lord look upon us, and we shall be well
again. One glance of love, one smile of approbation, one touch of thine
hand, and we shall be as the angels. If we may but touch the hem of thy
garment, we shall be made whole. Amen.
Acts xvii. 1-9.
1. Now when they had passed through Amphipolis [capital of the first
of the /ia?' districts of Macedonia. On the Strymon ; 33 miles S. W. ot
Philippi by the Egnatian road, which ran from Dyrrhachium to the Hel
lespont] and ApoUonia [a town of the second Macedonian district, 30
miles S. W. again] they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of
the Jews [this was why they stopped there. Thessalonica, capital of the
second district, afterwards of all Macedonia, lay 38 miles IV. of Apol-
lonia. Cassander, who rebuilt it, changed its name from Therma in
honour of his wife, Alexander's sister. Was "the bulwark" of Greek
Christendom'in the Middle Ages, and the means of converting both
Sclaves and Bulgarians] :
2. And Paul, as his custom was, went in unto them, and for three Sab
bath days reasoned with [G. held dialogues with ; the word Plato uses of
Socrates] them from the Scriptures [O. T.],
3. Opening and alleging [Bengel paraphrases, " cracking the nut and
bringing out the kernel "] that it behoved the Christ [Messiah] to suffer,
and to rise again from the dead ; and that this Jesus, whom, said he, I
proclaim [G. announce], unto you, is the Christ.
4. And some of them were persuaded and consorted with Paul and
Silas; and of the devout [G. "worshipping," i.e., in the synagogue]
Greeks a great multitude [throng], and ot the chief women not a few.
5. But the Jews, being moved with jealousy, took unto them certain vile
fellows of the rabble [" market loungers"], and gathering a crowd, set
the city on uproar ; and assaulting the house of Jason [Rom. xvi. 21],
they sought to bring them forth to the people [G. "demos" ; Thessalonica
was a "free city." The demos (commons) in its ecclesia, church, or
duly summoned meeting was the head political power, and appointed the
politarchs, here translated "rulers of the city"].
6. And when they found them not, they dragged Jason and certain
brethren before the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the

A NEW BATTLE-FIELD. 179
world upside down [G. "stirred up to sedition," as in 21, 28] are come
hither also ;
7. Whom Jason hath received [John xiii. 2d] ; and these all act con
trary to the decrees of Csesar [imperial edicts, Luke ii, i, were binding upon
the whole Roman world. But there is no mention in this " free city" of
the Roman law and magistracy as at the " colony" Philippi], saying that
there is another king, one Jesus.
8. And they troubled the multitude [G. demos, as we say, " The Com
mons"] and the rulers of the city [the politarchs], when they beard these
things. 9. And when they had taken security [had satisfied themselves by
examination that no sedition was meant] from Jason and the rest, they let
them go.
PAUL'S MANNER.
LUKE was evidently left at Philippi, where he might have a
good deal of doctor's work to do. Paul and Silvanus and
Timotheus moved on from Philippi elsewhere. We wonder
whether Paul will fight any more, or whether he will spend the
remainder of his days in pious reflections ? We have some littie
time for the consideration of that question, for a period is occu
pied in passing through Amphipolis, where nothing was done,
and Apollonia, where nothing was attempted. Surely the fight is
over, and the warriors are going home. The warriors travelled
some thirty-three miles the first day, from Philippi to Amphipolis ;
thirty miles a day seemed to be about an apostolic journey. The
next day they went some thirty miles, from Amphipolis to Apol
lonia, but there was not any preaching. The fight seems to be
over, and the smitten warriors are going home to anoint their
wounds and wash their stripes in secret. But, when they had
passed through the cities that had no synagogue, they came to
lovely Thessalonica — a woman's name, so named because her
great husband loved her. He took away the old name, and said
he would call the city Thessalonica, the capital of all proud Mace
donia. Then we read : ' ' where was a synagogue of the Jews.
Seeing the synagogue, Paul saw a battie-field, and instantly he
stripped to the fight ! We see now what he was looking for. We
were a little troubled when he passed through Amphipolis and said
nothing ; and when, the next day, he went through Apollonia
and never challenged public attention, we wondered what the

i8o ACTS XVIL 1-9.

matter was. But now that he has come into the lady-city, the
capital, now that he sees a synagogue of the Jews, he begins again.
The war-horse will paw when he can no longer stand ; the war is
in his blood. You cannot make war-horses of wood and paint ;
they are God's fires ! Nor can you put fire into men when there
is none. Their industry is but a strenuous idleness, and their
walking about is only whirling around in a circle. Truly the
Christian war spirit had entered the very soul of Paul I When this
Marmion came to die, " he shook the fragment of a blade," and
said, " I have fought a good fight," and none could deny it
Surely he had been a brave fighter 1 "I have finished my
course," and finished it gloriously. When are we going to begin
the fight — the good fight, the battie that means victory ? Let us
assemble at the synagogue in Thessalonica, and watch events.
"And Paul, as his manner was, went in  " It is difficult
to do away with a " manner." Paul was not an occasional at
tendant Jesus Christ did not go now and then to the synagogue.
The first Christians lived in the Church, and only existed else
where. It was a dull time to the early Christian when the church
was closed. Outside he was always waiting for the opening of
the gate. They were brave days of old.
Paul is here, as everywhere, the very model of a true Christian
preacher. What conditions does he fulfil as such ? Here he
stands, with a written revelation ; "he reasoned with them out of
the Scriptures." The preacher stands in a great tower. If he
were standing within a paper castie, which his own fingers had
fashioned, it might be burned down or blown away by the tem
pestuous wind. But the true preacher, who preaches with every
drop of his blood, and every spark of his life's fire, utters the
words of Another. So the true preacher is never stale in matter
or dull in manner. The sunlight is never other than a quiet
miracle ; the common air is an uncommon blessing. Paul did
not go up and down European or Palestinian cities talking
something which he himself had invented ; he had a Book, an
authority, a written order, and he at least believed that eveiy word
he said was written for him by the pen and ink of Heaven. Once
let that thought go, and preaching becomes loose and vain, without
a centre and without one dominating thought or note. A sermon

DOCTRINAL PREACHING.

is nothing that is not a paraphrase of the Bible. It is great only
in proportion as it begins, continues, and ends in the Scriptures.
Paul is standing in the synagogue, or sitting there, as a man who
constructs a historical and religious argument, " opening and al
leging" — opening words to find their inner secret ; alleging, con
tending, demonstrating, proving, bringing one thing to bear upon
another ; connecting the golden links and making a chain of
them ; constructing an argument which should be at once a tower
of protection and a home for the soul's security. Then he crowns
his ministry by enforcing a distinct personal appeal. Hear him :
" This Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ" This was a
sword with a point This is a sermon with an accent The
preacher must have an object in view ; he should say to himself
every time he stands up, " What do I want to do?" Paul al
ways had his answer ready, " I want to preach Jesus and the res
urrection, and to get every man to say to Christ, ' My Lord, my
God.' " So whatever Paul did was contributory to this great end.
The difficulty with the Christian preacher is that nobody wants to
hear his doctrine. Do not imagine, my young brethren prepar
ing for the ministry, that the people care much to hear your doc
trine. They want to hear your particular way of putting it.
They could hear the doctrine next door to their own houses ; they
would never travel miles for the purpose of hearing your doctrine.
They know your doctrine, your theology, your thought, but they
want to hear your way of putting it. Babies ! they want to see
your toys I They like your manner, your gentleness, or your
force, your voice or eloquence, or rhetorical way ; but the doctrine
— they would listen to you with equal delight if you were uttering
the other doctrine I This is the difficulty of the Christian preacher.
There are those again who love the doctrine above all things, and
they care not how it is spoken ; but they are in the inner circle,
and of them I am not speaking. My reference is to the great mul
titudes crowding around the Apostles, and crowding around all
Christian ministers, and the question which I have to put is this :
Do these people want to hear the thought, or only the happy
words which for a moment endeavour to express it ? I went the
other day to hear the most illustrious judge in England. Every
man who can afford the time ought to spend, I think, one hour a
week in the law courts ; it is an education and a stimulus. I sat

i82 ACTS XVIL 1-9.

with reverence of no common kind before the foremost judge of
his day. His voice was feeble and indistinct ; at times I had
great difficulty, as had others, in hearing him ; but, oh, the
strain, the anxiety not to miss one word ! It was dry, it was
argumentative, there was not a single flower of speech in the
whole, and yet no man coughed there ; every man was silent
Why this anxiety ? Because the people wanted to hear what he
said. He is interpreting law, or making law, or settiing an ex
pensive controvers}', and bringing practical questions to an issue.
As to his manner — no man cared for it ; no man went to hear
eloquence or poetry ; every one was there to hear what the judge
would say, not how he said it. You must not compare the
judge and the Christian minister. Poor minister, he must please,
persuade, pander to many a taste, for who wants to hear the
truth ? This is the difficulty we all have to contend with, and
it will be a growing difficulty with the ages. When a mum
bling speaker reads a will to persons probably interested in the dis
position of the property, does any one say anything about his
manner ? Each wants to know what he in particular is to get
Oh, could I persuade my hearers that I am reading a WILL ! for
that I am surely doing ; the will of God, the testament of Christ,
the decree of heaven. Oh, that men were wise, that they under
stood these things I
Contrast with that scene the opposition which it awakens.
Sometimes you cannot enter into the merits of a controversy, but
you may form a tolerable judgment as to its quality by observing
the way in which it is conducted. Let that thought rule our con
struction of these incidents. Opposition arose again, as it always
arose ; however quiet the town when the Apostles entered it, they
left it in a serious uproar. They came not to send peace on the
earth, but a sword. They kindled a fire among the dry wood,
and how it burned, how it flamed, how it went up as with a will !
Look at the opposition, ' ' moved with envy ' ' ; then it was a litlh-
minded opposition. Where is majesty ? There is none. Where is
the noble challenge to discuss a great question upon equal terms ?
There is none. How is Paul moved ? By love. How is the op
position moved ? By envy. The Jews will not have it that a felon
— so deemed by the law — shall be King. The Jew will never kiss

HATERS OF THE GOSPEL. 183
the Cross in homage ; he hates it ; it smites his pride ; it blows
witheringly upon his national and personal vanity, and he will
not accept it
' ' Moved with envy, they took unto them certain lewd fellows of
the baser sort"; then it was an unscrupulous opposition. Any
stick will do with which to beat a dog. The Jews, who would not
have spoken to those " lewd fellows" on any account on common
ground, will make use of them to put down this religion of the
Cross. If they had not been " lewd fellows," and in very deed
" of the baser sort," they would have seen that they were
being made use of. On legal, political, social questions they
never would have been consulted for a moment How Envy can
stoop to take up polluted weapons ! How Envy can search in
the mud for stones to throw at Goodness ! Is there anything so
lasting as hatred ? We are told that Love will outlive it, but it is
hard to believe in that survival. We do believe it, or we could
not live ; but Hate is long-lived ; unscrupulous ; will say any
thing, do anything ; pervert, twist, corrupt, and poison. There
is nothing too despicable for it to use to express itself in denuncia
tion and contempt and penalty.
" Moved with envy, they took unto them certain lewd fellows
of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on
an uproar"; then it was a lawless opposition. Never mind the
dignity of the city. Never mind the politarchs who reign over it ;
they can easily be alarmed, and they will take part with the op
position. Magistrates are bound to be timid ; politarchs cannot
stand against an uprising city ; they will either dismiss the case,
or take bail, or do something to get out of it So the opposition
— little-minded, unscrupulous, lawless — prosecutes its mission to
the end. This is true of all opposition to the Christian cause.
Do not let us suppose that this was a Thessalonian incident
with local beginnings and local endings. Wherever you find
opposition to Christianity you find an opposition that is lit
tle-minded, unscrupulous, lawless, and dishonest. There can
be no honest opposition to Christianity. There may be an
honest opposition to some special ways of representing it, but
to its purity, its self-sacrifice, its nobleness, its purpose, there can
be no honest opposition. Yet how the Lord makes the wrath
of man to praise him! What said the enemy? "These that

ACTS XVH. 1-9.

have turned the world upside down. ' ' There I that is a tribute
to their power. Even the Jews, " moved with envy," dare not
make a little cause of this Christian mission. They did not dare
to call it " a bubble on the water," " a flash in the pan," " a
nine days' wonder. ' ' They saw in it a world-exciting force, and
we who are Christians will become fearful and timid and self-
protecting just in proportion as we lose our conception of the
grandeur of the cause which we have to handle. This is a case
that touches the world. It is not a parochial accident This is
not an affair you can confine within local boundaries ; this is not
an incident to be read off in a hurried line and then forgotten.
It is a force that causes the whole world to thrill and vibrate with
new life.
Then they become themselves again, "saying that there is
another king." That is a lie! The Apostles never said so, in
the sense now put upon that word by their accusers. You can
use the right words with a wrong meaning. It is not enough to
tell me the words a man employed ; I must see the man himself ;
I must hear his own voice ; I must get into the music of his
utterance before I can tell you what the words really mean.
When the Jews said to the Thessalonian politarchs, " These men
say there is another king," they told a lie. But the Aposties
did say there was another king. Yes, but not in that treasonable
sense ; not in the sense of opposing Csesar, in the sense of sedi
tion, in the sense of throwing down political constitutions. So
you must know the man before you can tell the value of the word.
You may report words correctly, so far as they are mere words ;
you may relate a conversation line for line and word for word,
and yet make a lie of it A conversation is not an affair ot
words ; it is an affair of looks, tones, touches, accents, subtie un
dertones, and emphases that are full of colour. You are right
when you say, " These are the very words he said," and yet by
your telling of them you have created a false impression. We
must not only speak the words of the Gospel, we must speak them
in Gospel tones. True eloquence is true love ; true preaching is
true feeling. If you have sympathy with Christ and with his Gos
pel, you will speak it in words that are more than words ; part of an
atmosphere ; syllables that must be measured in their native air, and
must be viewed in relation to all the appointments of the universe.

THE NAME JESUS. 185
Then the accusers proceeded to say, " one Jesus." There
they were right The Aposties, then, had left no false impression
as to the Man they were preaching. The Apostles had not left a
vague impression that they were preaching about some one who
had come, or was coming, or might come. Amid all the tumult
and uproar and opposition, they had got this word well into the
public memory — "Jesus." They were skilled speakers. They
did not lodge in the memory an indefinite article, or an auxiliary
verb, or some part of speech that was of no consequence ; but
whenever there was a lull in the storm they said — "Jesus."
Then came the uproar, then another lull, then — "Jesus." So
that at the end, whatever word had been unheard or misheard,
this word ' ' Jesus ' ' was instamped on the public recollection.
Is this the end ? Why, this is not only not the end, it is hardly
the beginning. The very first letter that Paul wrote to any of the
churches was probably the First Epistle to the Thessalonians.
What does he say to them ? ' ' For our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and
in much assurance, for ye know what manner of men we were
among you for your sake. And ye became followers of us, and
of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with
joy of the Holy Ghost ; so that ye were ensamples to all that
believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded out
the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also
in every place your faith to Godward is spread abroad ; so that
we need not to speak anything. For they themselves show of us
what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned
to God from idols to serve the living and true God ; and to wait
for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus,
which delivered us from the wrath to come. For yourselves,
brethren, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain :
but even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully
entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to
speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention. ' ' This
is confirmatory evidence ; this is a happy corroboration of Luke's
narrative. Paul spent at least three weeks in Thessalonica ; how did he
live during that time ? He had no money ; how did he live ?

ACTS XVIL 1-9.

How we ought to live — by working J That is the only true way
of living. Why ask so foolish a question ? If you go into a vil
lage without any money, with only one coat for your back, and
one staff for your hand, how are you to live ? By breaking
stones, by sweeping floors, by cleaning boots. How are you to
live — by writing begging letters to London ? This is how Paul
lived: "For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail, for
labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto
any of you, we preached unto you the Gospel of God." These
were not the men to be put down ; they did not live on patron
age ; they did not consider whether they would offend the ' ' sub
scribers, " for there were none. We now live on " subscribers,"
and therefore we do not live at all, and therefore we breed a small
race of men, whose height is to be measured in inches and whose
weight is to be announced in ounces. Paul, Silvanus, Timotheus
fell to working — not eight hours a day and eight shillings for pay,
but — why, if I read the time-bill aright, their hours were long :
" For labouring night and day." " Two hours longer, Silvanus,"
said Paul, ' ' and this tent will be done. If we sit up till three
o'clock to-morrow morning, we shall just get bread enough to
keep us going until the synagogue is open again." These were
not the men to be put down !
When they said good-bye to Thessalonica, was it a final adieu ?
Read Paul's First Epistle to the Thessalonians, second chapter,
seventeenth verse : " But we, brethren, being taken from you for a
short time in presence, not in heart, endeavoured the more abun
dantly to see your face with great desire. " They wanted to. go
back to the old battle-field ; they were not afraid of the uproar.
When anything occurs nowadays, we become suddenly " not very
well, and must go down to the seaside over Sunday." We think
it better to be out of the way. How did Paul view the people
whom he had won there ? Said he : " For what is our hope, or
joy, or crown of rejoicing ? Are not even ye in the presence of
our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming ? For ye are our glory and
our joy." They valued the prey which they took in fight ; they
saved the souls of men. These are the relations which Christian-
ity would establish amongst us if we would allow it Christianity
would make a compact society of us — not living under formal

WHAT CHRISTIANITY WOULD DO. 187
rules, but under gracious inspiration. If Christianity had its own
way in the world, it would never rest until it had united all
hearts, driven out all unforgiveness, expelled every evil spirit It
would unite heart to heart, life to life. It would take away every
evil memory and every ungenerous thought, and make men,
strong men, love one another, hope the best concerning one
another. It would lift up the whole level of our life to the plane
of Christ's own character.

LX.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, this is resurrection-day ; a time of upspringing and
coming clear out into the light ; a widening of the sky ; a driving away of
all rain-clouds from our joy ; and the banner is full out upon the wind, and
all the heaven and the earth are glad. Jesus Christ is risen to-day ; he has
consecrated the time ; it is the Lord's day ; day of light, day of victory,
day of heaven ; the day of the Son of man upon the earth, which makes
all other days sacred by its holy fire. We have come to see the place
where the Lord lay. He is not there. He is risen ; but the place is dear
to us ; we love it because he who is our Lord once lay there. He has
made all graves sacred ; he has made every grave a door into heaven.
So now we say to Death; " Where is thy sting?" and to the grave:
" Where is thy victory ?" and to all fear we address the challenge of al
mightiness. We are glad to-day. The church-gates are not wide enough
for our entrance, and their opening is long delayed, for our hearts are in
the haste of eager love to speak well of the name of the Lord, and to
laud the Most High with noble psalm and anthem. We woiship thee, O
Son of God ! Thou art Alpha and Omega — the First and the Last. Thou
didst die, but thou hast risen again, and thou wilt die no more. Jesus
Christ ever liveth to make intercession for us. In thy death we die ; in
thy lite we live ; in thy prayer we pray. We are crucified wilh Christ ;
nevertheless we live ; yet not we, but Christ liveth in us : and the life we
now live in the flesh we live by faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and
gave himself for us. Old things are passed away, all things have become
new. No longer is there darkness or possibility of death. Life has
sprung up and death is dead. These are thy great sweet words to us in
Christ. They are words of strength and beauty ; they fall upon us like
the dew, yet sometimes they ring in our ears like trumpets telling of tri
umph—wondrous words I beautiful syllables ! messages from the hills of
light I May we receive them every one and answer them with love.
May our faith prove itself by our obedience, and may the joy of our heart
lighten the toil ot our life. We are come together again tor sweet, bright
Eastertide. The flowers are around about us ; the earth is just forgetting
winter and putting on its youth again for one more struggle, one more
adorning, one more bright summer day. Help the earth, thou clement
Heaven I shine upon her. She is guilty in very deed, and she has given
herself up to be dug into graves and pits of death. Shame be on her !
But thou dost love the earth, O Christ, and thou hast redeemed it ; the

ANNOTATED TEXT, 189
earth is precious to thee amid the whole estate of the stars. May the
families now before thee feel the joy of reunion ; with the boys at home
and the girls back again ; with the old voices in the house and the old
gladnesses all around about — the buzz of gladness, the excitement of grati
tude, the uproar that is harmonious. The Lord look upon our houses
and make them dwelling-places ot light, homes, indeed, where love lights
every room, and where security binds every door in fastness. As for those
who are heavy-laden still, whose hearts are being eaten by hungry care,
and whose lives are being driven by unsleeping anxiety, surely for them
also there is comfort this resurrection-day. The bereaved have forgotten
their bereavement in the conscious immortality of those whom they have
loved and lost. The graves are gardens to-day ; there is a sound from
heaven that tells of immortality, but the feast is waiting for the prodigal ;
we are all delayed because he has not arrived. O bring him swiftly
home ! The old man js here, and the white-haired mother, and all the
children but one, and he is in a far country. Would God he might come
home just now, quite suddenly, and break in upon us and take the vacant
seat and make the circle of gladness whole. Lord, if thou canst not bring
him, it is not in us to win a victory where thou dost sustain defeat. Be
with the dear sick ones yonder in the great house and in the little cottage
on the lonely hill-side and everywhere. Be with the widow and the
orphan and the sad, with the sailor on the sea and the soldier, with the
traveller, with our loved ones far away, and give us to feel that though
separate in the body, we are one in the soul, bound together in the eternal
union of common love to a common Saviour. Amen.
Acts xvii. 10-15.
10. And [G. "but," or "now"] the brethren immediately sent away
Paul and Silas by night unto Berosa [27 miles west again along the Eg
natian road to Pella, capital ot the third Macedonian district ; then south
by branch route to Beroea] : who, when they were come thither, went
into the synagogue of the Jews.
II. Now [as ver. 10] these were more noble than those in Thessalonica,
in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, examining the
Scriptures [O. T., Isa. v. 39] daily, whether these things were so.
12. Many of them [Jews], therefore, believed : also of the Greek wom
en of honourable estate, and of men [Greeks] not a few.
13. But [as ver. 10] when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that
the word ot God was proclaimed [announced] of Paul at Beroea also,
they came thither likewise, stirring up and troubling the multitudes [this
the right word here. Beroea was not a "free city," having no demosi,
14. And then immediately the brethren sent forth Paul to go as far as
to [G, "as (where he could embark) upoji"\ the sea ; and Silas and Tim
othy abode there still.
15. But they that conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens ; and

igo ACTS XVIL 10-15.

receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timothy that they should come
to him with all speed [see xviii. 5 and i Thess. iii. i. Luke seems not to
have been aware of Paul's change of plan mentioned in this second text.
Paul may have sent a second message from Athens, or may even now
have instructed Timothy to revisit Thessalonica and then rejoin him
"with all speed." Or, Paul may have sent Timothy back by sea to
Thessalonica from Athens. For Luke's seven years at Philippi, see
xviii. I and xx. 5], they departed.

FROM THESSALONICA TO BEREA.
PAUL and Silas were sent away " by night" That is the
way to make the most of time. Travel by night and preach
by day if you would live industriously and make the best of your
opportunities. We sleep by night, and hardly get over the slum
ber all day. The Apostles found that there were four-and- twenty
hours in a day, and he would have been a vigilant critic who
noticed the neglect of any one of them by the zealous messengers
of the Cross. It was a fifty miles' journey. Last week we saw
the Apostles taking two journeys of about thirty miles each — to
day we see Paul taking a fifty-mile walk, to get out of the road
of the fury which had been excited in the lady metropolis. The
enemy would say they had driven Paul off the ground — Paul
himself would say that he was going to make new ground, and
that he would certainly come back again to the old place. There
is a going away that means a coming back again with a stronger
force than ever. Christ and his Apostles never left a place with
the intention of visiting it no more. We have seen the tide go
out, but we have seen it also return, and in the returning it seems
to play at going back again ; but the refluent wave increases in
volume, and returns with enhanced force and grandeur. Paul
will come back again — personally, or by letter — to Thessalonica,
and we shall have, in connection with his personal or written min
istry, some of the boldest of his speculations and some of the no
blest and tenderest of his pastoral appeals. He is fifty miles away,
and yet he is not one inch off. He has taken with him in his
heart all that he won at Thessalonica. To the Philippians he
wrote: "I have you in my heart" Paul kept his friends in
that safe house. When they are there they are no burden ; the

THE CONTLNUAL BATTLE. 191
heart is omnipotent in strength. If our Christianity were in our
heart, rather than in our head, we should be as bushes that burn
and are not consumed.
When Paul came to Berea, he went into the synagogue of the
Jews. How irrepressible he was ! He seemed to look about
eagerly for the synagogue. There are men who have a genius for
closing their eyes when they come within visible distance of
the church. If I rightly follow in my imagination the course of
the Apostle Paul, I think I see him, weak-eyed, as he was, look
ing around anxiously for the synagogue. How was that ? Surely
he had suffered enough in connection with synagogues ? Yet
wherever he goes he looks out for the synagogue as a man might
look out for home. It is one of two things with us all : either
the inward conquers, or the outward — the soul or the body, love
of God or love of ease. Which is the greater quantity in your
nature, your faith or your self-indulgence, your love or your
fear ? Human life is a continual battle between two forces, which
we may term the Inward and the Outward. Man holds a dia
logue with himself. In every one of us there are two. So it is
not a monologue, but a dialogue — converse between two speak
ers — running thus : " Shall I go to the synagogue to-day and
risk my life amongst those vagabonds ? I think I will not go to
day ; I will rest a while and get my breath again." Second
speaker : " Go ; time is short ; this may be the last opportunity.
Follow the Captain of thy salvation, O soul ; he was made per
fect through suffering, and if any man will not take up his cross
and follow Christ, he is not worthy of him. Up, thou coward,
and fear not !" First speaker : "I do not fear, I only rest; I
will go to-morrow ; I have no idea of abandoning the work.
Give me forty-eight hours' rest, and you will find me back
again." " No ; in forty-eight hours you may be half-way across
the universe. You cannot tell what will occur in two days' time
—NOW, instantiy ! ' Faint, yet pursuing ' — be that thy motto ;
start at once." " Well, I — I will go !" The Inward has won ;
the soul bas mastered the body. Had the dialogue gone other
wise, then the body would have been master ; the soul would have
been snubbed and humbled ; the mind, which ought to be the
regnant force in every nature, would have been ordered off ; the
body would have been at the front with its meanness, its self-seek-

192 ACTS XVLL 10-15.

ing, and its self-idolatry. That is a fight which every man must
fight out for himself.
" These were more noble than those in Thessalonica." The
word "noble" means well-born in Paul's Epistle to the Corin
thians ; but in this verse it has a wider meaning. No reference is
here made to mere birth or ancestry. The paraphrase might
read: " These were nobler-natured people ; freer from prej
udice ; more willing to receive new impressions ; much more
prepared to hear what men have to say upon difficult and perplex
ing subjects." How could they be more noble than those in
Thessalonica ? Thessalonica was a capital, a metropolis — not of
Macedonia prima, but of Macedonia secunda ; still it was a capi
tal ; and Berea was an out-of-the-way place. It was not Pella,
the beautiful city where was gaiety, where was well-dressed fashion,
where was continual rioting and noise and self-glorying. Paul
might have been taken to Pella, but they were wise men in apos
tolic days, so they took Paul to Berea, an out-of-the-way place ;
and of the Bereans we read, that they were ' ' more noble' ' than
metropolitans. That often happens. London is the largest place
in England ; it is not, therefore, the greatest It is quite possible
that there may be more reading of a solid and instructive kind in
a little country town — a western Berea — than in the immeasurable
Babylon. The metropolitan of course feels that he is entitled by
some subtie and inexpressible authority to sneer at people who
live in the ' ' country. ' ' He has a gift of small sneering. But the
Bereans were " more noble" than the metropolitans. When
men do give themselves to reading in the country they have more
time for it ; their minds are not distracted and vexed by compet
ing claims. They have not to get over the initial difficulty of
being supremely proud of a city which is unaware of their exist
ence. There can, however, be great ignorance even in Berea-
Probably there is hardly a more ignorant man to be found on the
face of the earth than an agricultural labourer who is determined
not to read. You ought to turn your obscurity into an ally of
your education. Coming from a littie village or an obscure town
where you say with a tone that has in it a good deal of dissatisfac
tion, " There is nothing to do" — why, you ought to make such
a town a very school of the prophets ; no noise, no uproar, no

TESTS OF NOBLENESS. 193
call-off from prolonged and arduous inquiry into profound and
useful subjects ! Every locahty has its advantage. In the metrop
olis we have friction, continual motion, man sharpening man by
daily collision, and in the country we have the opportunity of
profound cultivation, because of the time which is at our disposal.
Let us not complain of our circumstances, but rule them, sancti
fy them ; and every sphere of life will afford an opportunity for
intellectual and spiritual advancement
What is the test of " nobleness" according to the eleventh
verse ? Good listening is one trait of nobleness. The Bereans
wanted to hear. The hearer makes the preacher. When con
gregations fasten their attention on the preacher he must preach.
Expectation becomes inspiration. The Bereans drew out of the
Apostie all that was in him, and thus gave him more. Such was
the double action in continual process as between great Paul and
the listening Bereans. They heard every word — who does that
now ? They wanted to hear every syllable ; they were hushed in
silence till the last cadence died upon the air. Paul calls that
nobleness — loyalty to truth, freedom from prejudice, mental ex
cellence, spiritual aristocracy.
To good listening was added patient examination. The
Bereans " searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things
were so." What is the model congregation? A congregation
well provided with Bibles ; with large-print Bibles ; wilh Bibles
with ample margins ; with Bibles that open easily ; a congregation
that has the text before it, and that looks from the sermon to
the text ; from the text to the sermon ; from the text to the con
text ; and that binds the speaking man to keep within the sacred
brief which God has given to him. That would be a congregation
that would compel sublime preaching ! The Bereans " searched
the Scriptures. ' ' Paul was not talking about something which he
had himself cunningly invented. Paul did not say : "I have
had a dream, and I will relate it to you, and you can pass your
opinion upon it ' ' Paul only told the Bereans what God had told
him. You must not look upon the preacher as a man who has
found out something, made a wonderful discovery, or performed
a juggler's trick with his mother tongue. The preacher preaches
what he has been told to preach — " Go, stand and preach the

194 ACTS XVLL 10-15.

preaching that I bid thee." You have lost your status as hear
ers ! Where are your Bibles ? The preacher could quote fifty
things that are not in the Bible, and if he quoted them in old
English, he could make many people believe that they really were
in the Bible. If he said "saith" instead of " says," there is hardly
a man in the congregation that would be able to affirm that what
he said was not in the Bible. There is a Bible-tone, an old-Eng
lish way of uttering words, and if words so uttered are uttered
as if they were in the Bible, the Bible is not at hand whereby
either to confirm or contradict the amazing statement How
much Bible did you read last week ? Some can answer that they
read a great deal — to them I am not addressing my inquiry ; but
to others I think I may fairly say. How much Bible did you
read ? How much Bible can you quote ? Do not shirk -the
question ; do not suppose that you could quote a good deal if
you had time to collect your wits. Do not let yourself easily off ;
always be terrifically hard upon yourself, and then you will be
gentie to other people. I will therefore probe myself with the
inquiry, " How much of Paul's writing could you replace if the
Pauline Epistles were lost?" If we would be "noble" in the
estimation of Heaven, we must acquaint ourselves deeply and ac
curately with Heaven's own Word. One thing would follow from
the Biblical examination — we should destroy the priest. The
priest is a curse wherever he is. The priest is a magician who
lives upon the credulity of the simple. The priest is at the bot
tom of nearly all the unrest of nations. He can dry his lips and
say, " Behold, I knew it not"; but the priest is a liar. How is
his influence to be broken ? By the Bible ; by the people know
ing the Bible ; by the people committing it to memory — not the
memory of the intellect, but the memory of the heart, and letting
the word of Christ dwell in them richly. It is not by wit, by
genius, by skill, or learning, but by deep and sympathetic ac
quaintance with the Word of God, that all priestism is to be put
down and destroyed. The sermon ought only to be a paraphrase
of the text If it is not a collection of Bible phrases, it ought to
be a poem instinct with the Bible spirit Call for Bible preach
ing ; value most the preaching that has most Bible in it, and
you, as hearers, will revolutionize the whole scheme of human
preaching.

DEEP CONVICTION.

19S

There is a logical term in the twelfth verse — " Therefore."
With that logical form comes the happy announcement, '.' Many
of them believed. " That is the true rationalism. Why did you
believe? " Because the speaker fascinated me; because he laid
a spell upon my imagination ; because he charmed me with sub
tle music ; because he got around about me in a completely over
mastering manner. " You will one day escape from those poor
chains — they are not chains of iron, the}' are little bands of straw.
Why did you believe? " Because it was shown to me by the
Living Word that this is the only conclusion that can be estab
lished ; because beginning at Moses and the prophets and the
Psalms, I was shown in all the Scriptures the things concerning
Christ, and I found that if I accepted any one page in the Bible,
I must accept the whole volume. I wanted to be an eclectic,
and to take a page here and a page there ; but I was shown
that the Book was one, and that if I accepted the first chapter of
Genesis and the first verse, I was bound to accept the entire apoc
alypse — away to its last grand Amen !" Fou will stand like a
rock amid troubled waves !

LXI.
PRAYER
Almighty God, thou hast set us in a dream of mystery, and we have
no answer to the mocking voice ; nor can we tell how to follow the luring
hand. Thou hast made us, and not we ourselves, for surely we would
not have made ourselves as we are. Behold ! we know nothing as it
really is ; whilst we are looking the meaning escapes us. Even in the
act of saying " We live," behold we die. Eternity is nearer than time.
Thou art nearer to us than we can ever be to ourselves. These are the
mysteries which make us glad with morning light, and which sometimes
burden us with all the darkness of midnight. We are in joy and yet in
sorrow. We live and die in the same moment. We are slaves on the
one side, and yet have the liberty ot the skies on the other. So hast thou
made us, and we are in great trouble. We do not touch things, or see
them, or know them in their reality. We are mocked, and laughed at,
and put down and scorned — yet are we applauded and hailed and crown
ed. This is the infinite mystery, and iu our heart there is no answer.
We come to thy Book, and read its large letters, and there the light shines.
We see in thy Book that we are made in God's image and likeness ;
charged with responsibilities of the sublimest range and quality ; called
to high action and to heroic sacrifice and to patient suflfering ; promised
that the day will soon dawn, and the shadows flee away, and the great
answer of love coverall the mystery of pain. It is a noble voice, it is
music from heaven ; hearing it, the chains drop from our limbs, and
sweet, glad liberty calls us into its noble companionship. We therefore
will live in Christ ; we will study his heart and will ; we will watch his
footprints and put our feet into them ; we will give ourselves up to his
guidance, and go as he may lead. "Jesus, still lead on." We would
escape the dark valley, and the deep river, and the thick wood, where the
beast of prey lies in wait. We would like to walk on velvet grass, along
summer paths, to watch the cloudless blue and hear the birds which are
all song ; but be it as thou wilt, not as we will ; only be thou thyself there,
and the valley shall be as the hill, and the great hill shall be part of heav
en. Thy love in time past is our surety for the future. We have been
girded by thee, even when we knew it not ; invisible hands have held us
up ; kind ministries, not of earth, have nourished and sustained us. We
have had bread in the wilderness, and flowers have been found for us
among the rocks. So we will not fear, nor tremble, nor die ; but stand
surely in the love of the Cross, and find our victory in the Son of God.

ANNOTATED TEXT.

197

Come to us as we need thee, thou healing One. Breathe upon us the
breath of sweet summer. Come with early flowers, and tell us that they
are promises of fuller beauty. Speak to us some word of tender comfort,
and our heart shall grow quite young again, and all our strength shall
come back in full current, and we shall forget our trouble in our joy.
Thou wilt not disappoint us ; thou delightest to satisfy the soul, and not
to mock it. Feed us with the bread sent down from heaven. Comfort
us with the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and fill us with the inspiration
of his love and Cross. May we live as he lived, and being crucified with
him, may we rise again in his glory.
Bless the strangers within our gates, and give them to feel a sense of
home and rest and security. Regard the stranger who is not often in thy
house, but who has looked in to-day to see what is here and what is being
done. May he see great sights and hear voices not of earth. Heal those
whom we cannot heal, and speak comfortably to such as lie beyond the
reach of our poor voice. As for the dying, carry them straight through
the deep, black river, and set their weary feet on the other side, and in
heaven's light they will forget the gloom of earth. The Lord's light be
our day ; the Lord's kind smile our heaven ; the Lord's great voice our
continual inspiration. Amen.

Acts xvii. 16-23.
16. Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked
[i Cor. xiii. 5. This argues jiot Paul's lark of charity, but the heinous-
ness of idolatry, which can "provoke the Lord to jealousy," i Cor. x.
22] within him, as he beheld the city full of idols [ritual show ; covering
Athens' moral and political decay\
17. So he reasoned [see note on v. 2] in the synagogue with the Jews
and the devout persons, and in the market-place every day with them
that met with him.
18. And certain also of the Epicurean [Materialist] and Stoic [Panthe
istic] philosophers encountered him. And some said. What would this
babbler [Ar. Av, 232, used of the chattering crows vi\io picJi up seeds ;
then of parasites and of brain pilferers] say ? other some, He seemeth to
be a setter forth of strange gods : because he preached Jesus and the res
urrection [A.D. 474 Justinian suppressed the chairs of the successors of
these philosophers on the ground that Christianity had rendered them
obsolete]. 19. And they took hold of him and brought him unto the Areopagus
[the council of the Areopagus, the 600, and the demos were the three po
litical powers in Athens, sdll left by Roman courtesy a "free city." The
Areopagus had gained, as the others had lost, by the conquest ; it now
concerned itself more with education and religion, and many inscriptions
attest its jurisdiction in the matter of the erection ot altars and statues],

igS ACTS XVH. 16-23.

saying. May we know what this new teaching is, which is spoken by
thee? 20, For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears : we would
know therefore what these things mean.
21. (Now all the Athenians and the strangers sojourning there spent
their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new [G.
" newer"' — later than the previous news ; Luke's order of the words hints
they sometimes " told" before they had " heard " this " newer"] thing.)
22. And Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus [not upon his trial,
but invited, as a foreign savant is sometimes invited to address the French
Institute], and said, Ye men of Athens, in all things I perceive that ye
are somewhat [are in character] superstitious [G. " God-fearing" or re
ligious. To begin the speech with this gross blunder, " superstitious,"
was as impossible for the inspired orator as it has been easy for the Vul
gate and its English transcribers].
23. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I
found also an altar, with this inscription. To an unknown God [Pausa-
nias, i. I, 4, and Philostratus, Vit, Ap, vi. 2, inform us that there were
several z\X.s.x?, " of unknown gods" ; Diogenes Laertes, Ep, 3, that sheep
were sacrificed on the occasion of a plague " to tlie God concerned!' and
that therefore "anonymous attars" are found in Athens]. What therefore
ye worship in ignorance [" as agonistics"], this set I forth unto you.

PAUL AT ATHENS.
THIS was Paul's method of "waiting"! The "waiting"
of some men is infinitely more energetic than the toil of
others. Paul might be said not to be doing anything just now.
He was in Athens alone, ' ' waiting' ' for Silas and Timotheus.
He needs rest ; he will now sit down and be quiet, and recover
himself after recent experiences. It is interesting to note that
Paul was waiting. But how could Paul wait ? The two words
do not go happily together. Paul waiting ! He cannot wait
Life is short ; the enemy is at hand ; the opportunity enlarges
around him ; and he who was left by the brethren in an attitude o
waiting begins to burn. A paroxysm (for that is the literal word)
seizes his heart His soul is stirred within him ; a paroxysm o
agony seizes his whole nature when he sees such a sight as he had
never beheld before — a city wholly given to idolatry. One histo
rian tells us that in ancient Athens it was easier to find a god than
a man — that is to say, the idols were so numerous as almost en
tirely to fill the whole city. Wherever a marble god could be put

CHRISTIANITY AND ART. 199
up, there he was set. Paul was a Jew, and had not been trained
in schools of images ; he was not an artist any more than he was a
classical scholar. To him images were forbidden. " Thou shalt
not make to thyself the likeness of anything that is in heaven, or
that is on the earth," was ringing in Paul's ears ; and when he
was made to understand that the people actually worshipped, or in
some sense religiously reverenced, those idols, his spirit was thrown
into a paroxysm. He was not simply moved, superficially agi
tated ; he was not the subject of a new and transient sensation :
he was writhing in an unfelt and unknown agony. Religion does
not destroy Art, but it destroys its superstitious uses. Christianity
says to beauty, " Stand there ; I will look at thee, I love thee ;
come to me with new suggestions of dawning light and broader
glory than I have yet realized ; but do not expect me to pray to
thee. " In Athens the human form was worshipped. To be per
fect in form was to be Divine. Paul never cared for form, for its
own sake. He saw the religious intent of everything, and if the
religious intent was not health}', holy, and real, he broke the image.
He was an ardent Christian. We are Christians, but not ardent
Athens was wholly given to idolatry. You cannot stop at one
idol. One idol brings another. There is no stopping-place in
idolatry until the very last little niche is filled with such god as it
will hold. This law has also its force and sweep in higher direc
tions. You cannot stop with one virtue — one singular and iso
lated excellence. It is not excellence if you so use it. If the
supposed excellence be figured as an angel, then you are unjust
to the heavenly spirit You deprive the celestial visitant of com
panionship ; your piety is cruel. The law is impartial ; vices go
in groups ; piety is a whole excellence and not a partial virtue.
The Athenians covered their irreligious lives by these religious
forms. " Fill the city with gods, and let us live as we like,"
was the Athenian philosophy — it is ours too ! Do not stand up
in Christian pride, boasting over Athenian paganism. We play
the same trick ; we are caught in the same intoxication.
" Found another society, and let us live at home as we please."
" Start another mission, and let us play what pranks we like
under the darkness." "Build five hundred more churches and
set them all in a row, and let the city know that we are not afraid
of church-building, but let us drink the devil's cup right down to

ACTS XVIL 16-23.

its last hot drop. ' ' We vainly suppose we have made advances
upon Athenian idolatry, whereas we may but have changed the
outward and visible form. There are more idols in London, in
Paris, or in New York, than ever there were in Athens ; not marble
idols, but idols we can hide, expensive idols, ruinous idols, idols
that will make us worship them, idols that infuse their poison into
the blood, and taint the inner life of the heart. Athens was quite
a godly, clean little city compared to either of the cities I have
named. Were Paul to come to London, Paris, or New York, he
would see fashion, fortune, ease, ambition, self-seeking ; yet a
census could be taken even of these idols ; but we scorn little
Athens in mighty, measureless London, for every man is his own
idol ! When Christianity undertakes a man's education it never
rests until it shows him that every heart is its own idol ; and
Christianity alone can take away a man's self out of himself, and
associate him with the larger life which is called Divine. Man
is not a mere unit, a single and detached individual, but he sus
tains responsibilities to the sum total of life in all the universe,
and must give an account to tv&ry creature below him and above
him ; for he may have stopped Divine currents, or interposed in the
on-rush of Divine influence in the universe. That is the worst
kind of idolatry. Stone idols may be so many marble steps up to
the highest altar ; but when the heart is its own idol, and its own
idolater, nothing can break up the deadly paganism but God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost The break-up
does not come through schooling, through book-reading, and
through crafty devices in language ; the break-up comes through
crucifixion, so that idol and idolater are nailed to Christ's grim
Cross, and there they die amid the sevenfold night of Divine
wrath, and out of that death there comes the resurrection, which
is immortality. The Athenian pagan might be led away argu-
mentatively from stone deities to higher intellectual conceptions
of deific being and force ; but the pagan heart never listens to
logic, and never cares for intellectual appeals. Only one thing
can break the heart-idol — ' ' the hammer of the Lord, ' " that could
grind to powder the stoniest heart that ever shut out the clemency
and love of Heaven. To that " hammer " we must look, in that
hammer we must trust " Not by might, nor by power, but by
my Spirit, saith the Lord."

INTELLECTUAL LNQULRY. 201
Paul did a littie introductory work. Paul, as we have often
seen, always began just where the opportunity permitted him to
begin. " He disputed in the synagogue with the Jews and with
the devout persons," and he found a custom in Athens of meeting
in the market-place, which was the general school-house of the
city ; and there learned men were talking upon learned subjects,
and Paul listened. Having listened, he spoke, as he had a right
to do according to Athenian custom, but he so spoke as to bring
upon himself the contemptuous name of "babbler" — literally
"seed-pecker"; one who took littie seeds to pieces ; who sepa
rated one little seed from another. ' ' What will this seed-pecker
say ? He is evident]}' nibbling at something, poor little, small-
minded, weak-eyed man with Jewish cast of face — what will he
say ?" " He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods." The
word " strange " in this reference to Paul's doctrine in the twen
tieth verse — ¦" Thou bringest certain strange things to our ears" —
means startling things. The Gospel starties ; it never comes
easily and smoothly into any civilization — it flames, it throbs like
thunder, flashes like lightning, plashes like deluges of water from
infinite heights ; so that men say, ' ' What is this ?' ' Jesus did not
come to send peace on the earth, but a sword, not quietness, but
fire ! The Gospel is not to be received slumberingly. If you
can receive it slumberingly, you do not really hear it ; if you can
preach it slumberingly, you do not really preach it. The Gos
pel is not a sleep, it is a resurrection ; it is the trumpet of im
mortality !
The Athenians were interested in the matter from an intellectual
point of view. Some said, ' ' He seemeth to be a setter forth of
strange gods ; let us hear what he has to say about them. ' ' That
is not religious inquiry ; that is mere speculative excitement.
If you want to know what religious inquiry is, recall an
instance which has just passed. under our review. The jailer at
Philippi said : " What must I do to be saved ?" The Athenians
said : " May we know what this new doctrine whereof thou speak
est is?" Mark the difference between the one question and the
other. The Philippian jailer was in earnest ; the Athenian philos
ophers were simply speculative, willing to turn the conversation
into a new channel, and not unwilling to hear a strange speaker
discourse with strange eloquence upon strange subjects. Are we

ACTS XVLL 16-23.

typified by the Philippian jailer or by the Athenian stoic ? Why
are we in church ? How many of us are in fiery earnest to
know God's will and do it? How many of us are inclined to a
little philosophical dispute, and to a littie intellectual debate?
And how many of us are not unwilling to experience a new spirit
ual sensation ? Only let it be as short and trenchant as possible,
but we are not unwilling just to hear what some seed-pecker may
have to say. Let us be honest with ourselves in this matter. If
we are in God's house for the purpose of really ascertaining and
obeying God's word, all heaven will be aflame with sacred light,
and every guest at God's table will be satisfied and refreshed ; but
if we are here in the Athenian spirit, we may be disappointed and
mocked ; great questions will go with little answers, or little ques
tions will be mocked by irrelevant replies.
Paul will speak ; he was always ready to speak. But they were
learned men — he, too, was learned, but not in their sense. He
was learned in the one subject that he cared for. So many men
are burdened with unavailable learning. Paul was learned in
his Gospel. He asked for no time to prepare in ; he would not re
turn and dispute with refined disputants when he had had sufiicient
time to make preparation of an intellectual and rhetorical kind.
Instantiy he stood up, and to stand up was to establish himself in
the confidence of all who heard him, as an extraordinary man at
the least What came afterwards would be seen ; no man could
despise him who listened to his revelations. To begin his state
ment he said, " Ye men of Athens." That was Demosthenic; '
the great orator always began his , appeal in those very words.
Paul often began, " Men, brethren, and fathers." Alas ! he was
in a city where there were no " brethren." He must begin upon
the broad human relation. There the 'true preacher can always
begin. He cannot always say " Dear friends," for there may be
none ; " brethren," for that may be an unknown term. Had
Paul begun by calling the Athenians " brethren," they would have
accosted his salutation with unanimous and contemptuous laugh
ter. There is genius even here. There is a gift of God in these
little matters, as well as in matters that are greater. Paul was
never wanting in tact ; he knew how to open the door and how
to enter in. Mark the simple dignity of the salutatory form.
They were " men ;" they met upon a common platiorm ; there

TRUE PREACHLNG. 203
could be no dispute as to the character in which they stood as to
one another. " I am a man speaking to men." In salutation
there should be no controversy. Then the next : "I perceive
that in all things ye are too superstitious," or too "religiously-
minded." Mark the broad and generous recognition. Do not
affront the people you intend afterwards to persuade. Do not
mock the idols you are about to sweep away. There are two
methods of delivering a country from idolatry. The one is to
override the country, so to say, by military force, taking away all
brazen gods, and marble deities, and figured divinities, and so,
Jehu-like, destroying Baal out of Israel. That is not destruction.
The other way is to reason, to persuade, to displace, to expel the
false by the introduction of the true — not 'to deride an idol, but
to preach a Saviour. So Paul recognizes what he sees ; he says,
" You seem to be excessively religious." He did not scorn
them as idolaters, but credited them with a superabounding relig
ious spirit and activity. " For as I passed by and beheld your
devotions, I found an altar with this inscription : TO THE
UNKNOWN GOD. I will begin where you end. Whom,
therefore, ye ignorantiy worship, him I declare unto you."
What infinite tact ! What sublime adaptation of means to ends !
" You yourselves," said Paul in effect, " will supply me with the
text on the marble slab. You declare yourselves to be agnostics,
or to have an unknown or unknowable God. So far you have
come along the line of religious education ; I will take up the
matter where you have left it, and now you must listen to my ap
peal." That is the true method of preaching to-day. You must
interpret to men what they do not interpret to themselves. It
would be possible to go into some assemblies not called Christian
and to say to them, " Men, you who think yourselves not relig
ious are actually too religious." That would be a startiing
declaration to make to a number of atheists, secularists, or positiv-
ists ; but it would be true in proportion as they were earnestly
pursuing the subjects with which their labours are identified. En
deavour to make the most of a man. Every man has upon him
this inscription who is out of Christ : " To the Unknown," and
the Christian teacher has to say, " Then I will make it known to
you. Do you ever yearn and long and desire and wish ?' '
The reply would be, " Certainly I do ; my whole life is one con-

204 ACTS XVIL 16-23.

tinual aspiration. ' ' Then as a Christian teacher I tell you that
such aspiration is the beginning oi prayer. Wfiat you ignorantiy
do, I declare unto you, in its broadest interpretations. You can
not exclude prayer from lite. I hear you say, "I wish  ";
"I would  "; "I long for  "; "I yearn for  "; "I
desire^  . " Why, these are the negative terms which are equiv
alent in Christian language, to " I pray." You are praying in
some sort of dumb, uncertain, troubled way. I am not going to
mock you as an atheist, or tell you that you are an agnostic, or
fasten upon you some stigmatizing term. I heard you just now
sighing, desiring, yearning ; I saw you lift up }-our poor head in
an attitude of expectation and hope, and I said, " Behold, he
prayeth, and did not know it" I will not have you called
"infidel," and "unbeliever," "outsider," and "Philistine."
Have I not seen your fingers laced 'as if you wanted to say some
thing for which there are no words ? That is prayer. Call it
negative prayer, call it dumb prayer, call it inarticulate prayer, I
hardly care for the epithet by which you qualify it ; it is my busi
ness to tell you that you are not atheistic, or godless, or prayer-
less, or lost ; but in you there is the beginning of the kingdom of
heaven. Or take it from another point. Do you suffer for others ? Do
you say you will endure hunger that others may be satisfied ; you
will sit up all night that others may sleep ; you will take upon
you the full burst of the storm that others may be quiet at home ?
Is it in that noble language you speak ? If so, that is the begin
ning of sacrifice. The Cross is in those sacred words. You are
not a worldling ; you are not a scoffer ; you are not an atheist.
You do not know it, but I tell you that by every act of heroic
suffering, that others may escape pain, }-ou represent the mystery
of the Cross ; you show forth in human form the transcendent
glory of the work of Christ Do not let men come and rub out
the inscription, "To the Unknown God," as if you had com
mitted an insult to high Heaven. You have come along the phil
anthropic line, the educational line, and you have got right up
to that point, saying, " I am willing to suffer that some other
man may not suffer. I would I could take half the pain which
my friend endures and so divide the agony with him, that there
might be two of us to carry the burden instead of one." Thou

BETTER THAN YOU THLNK. 205
art not far from the kingdom of God ! , If some Paul should
meet you — some great, heroic, inspired Paul — he would tell you
that such an offer, such a feeling or impulse, on your part, meant,
being fully interpreted, the very Cross anel agony of Christ. Or,
take it from another point Are you dissatisfied with earth and
time ? Are you filled with discontentment ? Do you say, ' ' I have
drunk every goblet, and still my thirst remains ; I have tried every
medicine, but my disease is untouched ; I have hunted over
every field for pleasure, and have never found it' ' ? That is the
beginning of immortality ; it is " the divinity that stirs within you."
See the greatness of man in his very discontentment with earth
and time and sense. He takes it up, says he will absorb it, does
absorb it, and then says, ' ' Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
What is the meaning of that ? You are not a secularist ; you
are not a dust-worshipper ; you are not — oh, believe me ! — a base
groundling. You have got down to those experiences to learn
that it is not in matter, time, space, sense, to satisfy the infinite
faculty which makes you akin with God. Why not start from that
point ? Why not give broad interpretations to human instincts
and human experiences ?
This text of Paul's is in every man ; every life furnishes a Mars'
Hill from the top of which Christian preachers may preach. The
sun does not plant the root, but warms it into fulness of life. The
witness of God is in every one of us, and answers to the claim of
the written Book. Here is the grand appeal of the Cross. It
comes to something that is already in us. It is one revelation
speaking to another, and in proportion as the two revelations har
monize, supplement, and complete one another, is the inspiration
of the Scripture proved, and the grandeur of human capacity
established.

LXIL
PRAYER.
Almighty God, thou art the God of gods and the Lord of lords, yea
the King ot kings ; the root ot all life ; the glory of all light. We know
thee not except bjr our love. We know thee through our holiness, and
that holiness is thine own work ; for in us — that is in our flesh — there is no
good thing. We are saved, not by works of righteousness which we have
done, but according to thy mercy, by the washing of regeneration, and
the renewing of the Holy Ghost. So, what we have of pureness in our
hearts is the snow and the wool which thou hast made out of the crimson
sin and the scarlet transgression. The blood of Jesus Christ, thy Son,
hath wrought this miracle in us. We do not understand it, nor do we
ask tor it to be explained. We open our hearts and receive the great
gospel which we need. We feel our need ot it, and when it comes, it fills
the heart with a strange glowing ot love unfelt before, the very warmth
and tenderness of God's own grace. Sweet is the day thou hast set
among the days that are common. It has a light of its own ; it dawns
upon the weary world like no other day. We are glad of its peacefulness ;
we are thankful for its rest — may we enter into it as of right Divine, and
enjoy the calm, and be healed and soothed by the heavenly serenity.
This is the day the Lord hath made : we will rejoice and be glad in it.
We would have all days touched by its glory ; we would that into every
other day some breath ot its peace might quietly steal ; so that the tumult
ot the week might be checked as by a presence from heaven. We thank
thee for strength and health and spirit, with which to do our daily work ;
it is no more a toil to us if thy strength be in our soul. Then we stand
upon it, and speak to it, and lift it up, and set it down, and keep it at
arm's length ; it is no longer our master, because of the kingdom of
heaven which rules in our hearts. Thou art bringing us onward a day at
a time. We bless thee for the black night when we can see nothing : it is
good for us to have no eyes. We bless thee for letting down a great
curtain we cannot see through, though our curiosity would peer into the
secret so near as to-morrow. This is thy way of teaching us, and behold,
we know it to be good. Thou hast brought us to this acquiescence in thy
method. Once we chafed as Ephraim, like a bullock unaccustomed to
the yoke ; but now we have become used to God's light burden. Thou
dost also lead us forward into truth a day at a time ; thou wilt not allow
us to read two lessons at once. We bless thee for this care of our sanity ;'
thou hast many things to say unto us, but we could not bear them now.

PR A YER. 207

So we may not turn over one leaf until we have read it well. Thou dost
turn the pages — not we. Help us to read every syllable, and to print
the whole lesson upon our heart, so that we may be able to say it over to
ourselves when we walk the earth or travel on the sea ; when weare alone
in the night-time, or when we are hurried by the crowd. We would that
thy truth might be in us — part of us ; so that we shall feel it to be no
burden to carry, but a source of new life and new hope day by day, till
the winter of earth is quite gone, its last snowflake melted, and the great
warm summer of the eternal heavens is upon us, with infinite beauty and
fragrance. By thy good hand upon us, we have conquered another
week and set it up amongst our victories. If we feared it, our fear is now
forgotten. We have slain every giant—not with our own arm, but with
thy strength ; we have wrestled with the foe and flung him in the en
counter, so that he cannot rise again ; and this we have done, not by our
own skill or power, but by the indwelling strength of God. We come to
thee in the sweet spring-time, when the earth is young, and every living
thing is going back to its early childhood, and showing ail the beauty of
its heart. May we, too, feel the vernal breeze in our inmost lite and root
of thought ; and about us may there be an upspringing of things beautiful
and good ! The winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the voice of
the turtle is heard in the land. May our hearts welcome thy descending
kingdom, as the earth welcomes the growing light and warmth of the
sun ! Be with those for whom we ought to pray who are not here to
join the common speech at thy throne ; the sick ones ; the weary toilers
who are almost stealing unconsecrated rest to-day ; men who are bring
ing earth's weariness to be refreshed by Heaven's bounty. Be with our
loved ones far away in the little house at home, in the quiet village, in
the middle of the wood, in the new country, in the colony unformed, in
missionary lands speaking unknown speeches, on the sea, torn between
two continents, leaving love and coming to love. Do thou bind up the
divided heart, and grant safe landing to those now on the deep. As for
those who are beyond our reach, slipping over the brink, dear old friends,
who have only now to say good-bye, may they be stronger than those
who watch them ! In death may there be more than there is in lite, and
through the closing eyes may the light Divine stream into the waking
heart I And when all is over, the battle and the feast, the dark night and
the bright day, may we meet through the blood of the everiasting cove
nant and the washing of regeneration—" no wanderer lost"— a congrega
tion in the skies ! Amen.

Acts xvii. 24-28.
24. The God [comp. Rom. i. 18 ff.] that made the worid and all things
therein, he being Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made
with hands.

2o8 ACTS XVIL 24-28.

25. Neither is he served by men's hands, as though he needed any
thing [any additional thing], seeing he himself giveth to all life and
breath and all things.
26. And he made of one ? [" blood " had offended these autochthonous
Greeks] every nation of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth,
having determined their appointed seasons, and the bounds of their habi
tation ;
27. That they should seek God, if haply they might feel after him,
and- find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
28. For in him we live, and move, and have our being ; as certain even
of your own poets have said [Ovid said of the Cilician Oratus that his as
tronomical poems would make him immortal " as the sun." But to this
halt-line from Phan. 5, quoted by his countryman on this occasion, he
owes his rescue from oblivion. The Stoic poet Cleanthes in fov, 5, and
a number of other Greeks, had expressed the thought]. For we are also
his offspring.

PAUL'S THEISTIC ARGUMENT.
HOW to address a reluctant assembly ; how to conduct a
difficult case in the presence of men who are filled with un
belief? This was Paul's task. He is now in comparatively new
circumstances. He could fight with Jews ; he could bear opposi
tion ; he had an answer to the tempest of antagonism — how will
he deport himself under the pressure of indifference ? This will
try his mettie, and he will fail ! Indifference will kill him —
antagonism never ! Athens will be too many for Paul, because
Athens will not fight Athens will go home to its dining and
refining and speculation. Indifference has killed many a noble
soul. It is killing many of you, mayhap, at home. You do
not feel it — because you are not public characters— as Paul felt it,
but you may have some idea of it in the domestic sphere. You
could get through a controversy, but the indifference that never
looks at you, never caresses you, never speaks one gentie word to
you, the Athenian coldness that never appears to live, except
when it sneers, will kill the youngest, freshest heart amongst you.
How does Paul begin his work ? Like a master builder. He
lays before himself one clear, distinct purpose which is to be ac
complished. He takes the text from his congregation and says :
"Whom, therefore, ye ignorantiy worship, him declare I unto
you." Jesus Christ always found his texts in the congregation.

PA UL' S PRE A CHING. 209
When a man looked at him, he saw in that look the beginning
of a new discourse. Paul did not open a scroll which had no
relation whatever to Athenian tradition and Athenian education ;
he read the marble slab, and said, in effect : " You shall be
your own Bible ; I begin where you have ended ; I will supersede
that inscription, ' To the Unlinown God,' by revealing him to
everyone of you." Find in the man himself the beginning of
your speech. Find in the littie child, in home or school, the
text. The child will then follow you with interest Do not lay a
heavy volume upon its young head and say : " You must carry
all this." No. The child will smile, or cry, or sigh, or look, or
lay its little hand upon you. In every one of these actions find
your initial Bible, and biing the other Bible in now and again as
you go along ; but begin with natural instinct, inborn reason,
conscious necessity, dumb prayer, sighing that has in it the begin
ning of supreme religious desire. Paul said, " You are in search
of a God, and I have brought you one. ' ' Instantly attention was
arrested. Had Paul begun at the Christian end of the argument,
the people would have turned away from him with unbelief ; but
Paul was a workman not needing to be ashamed, handling the
word skilfully ; so he began where Socrates himself might have
begun, he joined the great speculation just where the door hap
pened to open. Christianity identifies itself wherever it can with
ancient thinking, and current systems, and traditional practices ;
and from these starting-points, supplied by others, it works its
way up to its own Cross and its own heaven I \ye should be
crafty in this business ; herein men should be wise as serpents and
harmless as doves. This was Paul's purpose. Paul announced
his text and kept to it Let us hear him.
The twenty-fourth verse is the first chapter of Genesis and the
first verse over again. How often in our teaching have we seen
that there is but one verse in the Bible, and that the very first !
The other verses are all " Amen." Away they pass like many-
coloured and many-toned anthems ; but they come back again to
the original note, and constitute in relation to the opening verse
in the Bible one all-reconciling and all-contentful Amen. Listen
to Paul's retranslation of the Bible's opening words : " God that
made the worid and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of
heaven and earth." That is Moses. All complete preaching

ACTS XVIL 24-28.

must begin with Moses and go on to the Lamb. What other
names are there in heaven or on earth but " Moses and the
Lamb' ' ? — law and grace, stern beginnings, tender endings, foun
dations of granite, pinnacles tipped with hght This is ideal, be
cause Divine, completeness.
Paul revealed the spirituality of God, saying, " He dwelleth not
in temples made with hands." No explanation was attempted.
To explain is to lose. Religion is not a thing of explanations, a
riddle with an answer ; but the Divine angel has been debased
into a church conundrum with a clever answer ! On the contrary,
we should have said, "God isa Spirit" What is the meaning
of " Spirit "? It has none to us in our present fleshly condition.
What is God ? No man can tell. It is the Mystery of being ;
the Glory of light ; the Secret of all things. There is no ex
planation. He who attempts to explain God blasphemes the God
whom he explains. The best explanation is silence. The
noblest prayer is a speechless look. How far you have realized
the true spirituality of God will appear in your life. The proof is
not intellectual but practical. By noble character, by charity of
soul, by love that would die for its object, you will know whether
your God is a nightmare or an inspiration. This is not an affair
of words. You have none other than an Athenian marble god if
you have a marble heart. If you can forgive till seventy times
seven a thousand multiplied, then you have the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ glowing in your heart like an infin
ite fire which burns but does not consume. The marble heart
always means a marble god. The proof of }'0ur deity is in
your spirit Some doctrines are not to be explained as some
spaces are not to be used. How little even of the universe that is
about us do we use ! Whatever we have to set down we are
obliged to set down on the ground. Yes, now I think of it, that
is true. I wanted to hang something upon the horizon, and I
could not reach it ! What a magnificent ring for hanging things
on is the horizon ! And yet we, who can see it and talk about it,
are obliged to set down everything on the cold ground ! The fly
ing bird — dear littie self-deceiver I — thinks it is suspending the
law of gravitation when it goes up to sing in the air. It says, as
it flaps its tiny wings, ' ' You talk about things seeking the centre
of the earth ; I know nothing about .your centripetal force — see !

PAUL'S EMPHASIS.

I am going away from the centre of the earth all the time."
Sweet rationalist ! Watch it. It is coming down again — why
come down ? Because the centre of the earth is stronger than any
wing that ever attempted to compete with its infinite pressure. At
night the bird will be glad to rest in the earth which in the
morning it avoided with a song ! There will be a good deal of
coming back again amongst many flying minds ; let us not object
to their flying in the meantime. Learn that the air is but a
larger earth.
This nobility of expression on the part of Paul does not inter
fere with the solemn roll of his logic. ' ' Seeing that he is Lord
of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands ;
neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any
thing." A spiritual God requires spiritual wonship. That is the
philosophy of the whole case. You determine your worship by
the nature of the object which is worshipped. Do you worship a
marble slab ? You will be as cold as the marble. Do you follow
a God that answereth by fire ? Then there will be fire in your
prayer, and there will be fire in your pure and purifying life.
Men like a god they can patronize. To be able to "do some
thing" for God pleases the little vanity of littie minds. But we
cannot do anything for the God of the Bible except obey, and we
cannot obey unless we love. You cannot keep the law in the
letter ; he who keeps the letter of the law breaks the law itself.
The law can only be kept by love. You may do it all, and do
nothing of it. A regulation-life is a life of self-idolatry.
Another view of God is given in these wondrous words : " See
ing he giveth to all life and breath and all things." How in
finitely Paul has gone beyond the point which he found in the
text ! The Athenians had wrought their way up to Unknown ;
Paul makes the dumb speak ; he turns the stone into a living
revelation. Read the words again, for in their repetition you find
their best explanation : ' ' God that made the world and all things
therein, seeiug that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not
in temples made with hands. ' ' And this was said on Mars' Hill !
This was said in the presence of the Parthenon ! This was said
in presence of pillared temples and majestic edifices, raised to
deities fancied and unknown. " Neither is worshipped with
men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to

212 ACTS XVH. 24-28.

all life and breath and all things ; and hath made of one blood all
nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth." Who could
read these words without feeling that they carry with them their
own proof ? This is the peculiarity of the Gospel. It brings with
it its own fire ; it carries along with it its own eloquence. The
Gospel only asks to be stated or preached that it may be heard in
its own tongue. In Paul's speech there is no uncertainty of
speculation ; there is no hesitancy of doubt, as if the speaker vent
ured to make a mere suggestion in elucidation of another
scheme of cosmogony.
Paul stands on Mars' Hill in another sense than that which is
indicated in the mere letter of the text : he stands above it, and
looking from the heavens down upon Areopagus, the Acropolis
shrinks into a handful of dust, and is viewed by the inspired and
heaven-illuminated eyes with contempt and disdain. Athens had
to climb its Mount Zion foot by foot, yard b}' yard, up to its top ;
but the Christian revelationist came down upon it from the clouds,
stood upon it for a moment, and reduced it to contempt by the
eloquence of an infinite contrast Your god will determine your
prayer ; your god will be the measure and force of your preach
ing. If you have come to pit one little god against another, then
you will be but jostling a whole crowd of godmongers, and you
will be poor preachers, not deserving sleep when night comes,
for you have toiled in a bad cause ; but if upon every infidel
Areopagus, every speculative rock, you come down from imme
diate face-to-face talk with God, your face will burn and your voice
will be charged with a tone which will throw all other tones into
grating discord. The Church will be worsted through not know
ing God. If the Church has been patronizing God, she has not
been living in the heavens. If the Church betake herself to the
revelation of God, rather than to his explanation, she shall
always have a hearing in the world.
I hold God because I need him. I do not explain him,
because I cannot ; I do not defend him, because he needs no de
fence. I prove him by reasoning higher than formal logic : by
the reasoning of a life that goes upward in daily prayer, and out
ward in continual sacrifice. This may give peace perhaps to some
disquieted minds who have imagined that mechanical theology was
to be mastered before Divine communion could be realized. Have

THE GLORY TO COME. 213
aothing to do with mechanical theology. You can make nothing
Df it, neither can any man. Theology-making is an attempt to
serve God with hands, and God is not worshipped with men' s hands,
IS though he needed anything. All mechanical theology is un
true, because it is incomplete. What you have to struggle after
is to feel God — a rebuke to all evil, a judgment of all crooked
ness, an inspiration to all nobleness, the fountain of purity, the
pavilion of defence. Do you so feel your need of God ? Then
the only explanation you can now have of him is to be found in
Jesus Christ. He that hath seen Christ hath seen the Father ; no
man hath seen the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son
will reveal him. So we must go to Christ's words, Christ's life,
Christ's whole priesthood; and there we see the beginning ofa
light which the universe is too small to contain or express in all
its intensity and fulness. A littie ray comes down to gild the disc
of time, but for the whole glory we shall want the immeasurable
fields of eternal duration.

LXIII.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, in Jesus Christ thy Son we thank thee for everything
that hints at the great home-going. We love to think of going- home ; we
are stirred by the happy reflection that we are even now on the road —
stony, uphill, often hard to climb, but still on the home-road, with many a
tree on the wayside under whose shadow we can rest a while, and many a
rill of pure water of which we may drink, and so become fitter for the
next stage of the journey. We love to think that we are only on the road,
and not yet quite home. This world could never be home, because it is
so small, and in it there is such uncertainty and trouble, and behold men
are digging pits under our feet which they call graves ; and at home there
must be no death. We bless thee that we are lifted up sometimes quite
above all cloud and wind and high noise, and are brought into the still
ness, the peace, the security of a very near sight of thy shining face.
This enjoyment we have only in thy Son— never out of him. It is in
Christ that we see thee, through Christ that we come to thee, and through
the Cross of Christ that we see Righteousness and Mercy embracing each
other in infinite and eternal reconciliation. These are visions the prophets
did not see ; these are the revelations which make our Sabbath-days and
Our rest-days ; yea, it is no ox that rests, or beast of the field, or plough
that stands still in the furrow ; it is the troubled heart, the sin-riven spirit,
the disobedient soul that is caught up into the movement of thine own
righteousness and love, and in the harmony of the Godhead we find the
harmony of humanity. We bless thee for great doors in heaven. Once
it was a curtain without break or tear ; we could not see through it ; but
now there are open doors and windows larger than the constellations, and
we see the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. Our hearts
need no telescope ; they are far-sighted because much-loving. Blessed
be the vision of love, the eyesight of the heart, for unto it shall be granted
vision upon vision, until the whole sky shall be one flame of glory. We
bless thee that as sinners saved we can say all this, and love thee for the
larger life, the ever-increasing liberty, the perfect freedom of Divine son-
ship. What wait we for but to forget the earth, and to escape from time
as from a cage that bounds our liberty ? We want to be consciously swal
lowed up ot love — absorbed in God. We would have no feeling of foot or
hand, of earth or air, but would live the ineffable life and breathe eternity
itself. To this end withhold not the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of life, the
Spirit of fire, the Spirit of God. May he dwell in us, and be with us, and

PRAYER. 215

lead our every thought, and lift up our every impulse, and move our
whole being with the energy which is infinite and gracious. The week is
behind us — the spoiled, blurred week. It came from heaven white as
snow, and we have sent it back scarred and ill-treated, and into thy
heaven it is taken only because thy grace is greater than our sin. Thou
hast begun to send us another week, another bright chance, another
gracious opportunity. May we make better use of this than of the last.
We are sure to spoil it, for our snow is blackness, and our beauty is a
blot I there is in us — that is, in our flesh — no good thing, no perfect power,
no faculty that can please thee if thou dost judge by thy holiness and not
by thy compassion. Write thy word for us everywhere, on every open
ing flower, on every dawning morning, on every brightening, lengthening
day. On all the events of our life may we see thy Gospel traced, thy
meaning made clear, and thy purpose surely established. We thank thee
that old friends are with us to-day. In these reunions we have a pledge
of a larger fellowship. For all travelling mercies, tor all home enjoy
ments, for every element that makes lite pure and glad, we bless thee
with a full heart. We thank thee that the father is here, and the child,
that the mother has come back again, that the old man has come to look
upon young life, that young life has come to be blessed by paternal
graciousness. For all these reunions and fellowships — how temporary
soever — we bless thee, because they bring with them glowin.g love, and
hints of longer, brighter days. As for those who are under the sod, they
are not forgotten, they are still with us ; they cannot die. We bless thee
for all that was brave in their lives, and for all that was sacred in their
death. We commend one another with tenderest love to thy great keep
ing, Father-Mother of us all. Spare us every one. Make the blackest
the whitest ; make the worst the best. Give the heathen for an inheri
tance to thy Christ, -and this day, in this house, may he see of the trav
ail of his soul. In our preaching touch us with the music of heaven ;
in our hearing bless us with the attention ot earnestness ; and when the
day closes and the cold stars come out to replace the sunshine, may we
feel as if we had touched the heavens and seen somewhat of the glory that
is beyond. Amen.
Acts xvii. 29-31.
29. Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the God
head is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and device of
man [this iconoclast spoke facing the Acropolis and Parthenon, in full
view of Phidias' colossal Minerva].
30. The times of ignorance [ver. 23] therefore God overlooked ; but
now he commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent :
31. Inasmuch as he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the
world in righteousness by the Man whom he hath ordained ; whereof he
hath given assurance ["afforded faith"] unto all men, in that he hath

2i6 ACTS XVII, 29-31.

raised him [the Lord Jesus, who is not named, but upon Whom the whole
argument here concentrates itself. The orator's art here supplies the
demand of the evangelist's zeal] from the dead.

PAUL'S CUMULATIVE ARGUIVIENT.
UP to the twenty-ninth verse Paul has made a general state
ment respecting God. In the twenty-ninth verse he lays
down the ground-work of a true and abiding Christian philos
ophy. If the Church could fully understand the meaning of the
first word in that verse, and would fearlessly apply it, there would
be no infidelity worthy of a moment's notice. What the Church
has not yet mastered, so as to be able to use it with perfect ease
and fearlessness, is this word " Forasmuch." The armoury of
the Church is in that word. The weapons of our warfare are
all kept within the sacred custody of that most simple, but most
inexhaustible, term. We have hurried over it as if it were an
antiquated phrase — a piece of very old, quaint English, whereas it
is a theological armoury. It contains all that is necessary for the
completest and sublimest revelations of God. That word throws
man back upon himself, and says, " If you want to know what
God is, know yourself. ' ' That is the mystery of reason. That is
the transcendent rationalism — the sublimest faith. Find your
way to the Unknown through the known ; to the Invisible through
the visible ; to the Infinite through the finite.
"Forasmuch then" as we ourselves are not " like unto gold,
or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device, we ought not
lo think that the Godhead is like unto them." We ourselves are
limited expressions of God — we are made in the image and
likeness of the Creator. God has left his witness within ourselves,
and if we would but fairly and honestly and continually study
ourselves, we should have no difficulty about the Godhead. This
is what the Church dare not say, except with great guarding and
reservation and parenthetic subtraction from the essential meaning.
The Apostle's words are sublime : " Forasmuch then as we are the
offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like
unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device."
We are not so made ; we are not carved images ; we are not
straight lines ; vi'e are not empty vessels. If we would study our-

THE UPWARD ARGUMENT. 217
selves, we should know the mystery of the Trinity. Men have
abandoned the self-study, and have taken to book-reading and
word-fighting, instead of dwelling within themselves until the
quietness was deeper than the stillness of death, and until the
movement of the Ghost could be heard. They have gone out to
fight one another with long words, and arguments long and cun
ning and mischievous as serpents. If you want to know what
God is, enter into you closet, shut the door, sit down, and listen
to your own heart-beat You have all the mystery there. This is
not an argument of my invention ; it is the expansion of Paul's
own statement. To the Athenians he said : " You do not know
one God, you have openly called him Unknown ; whom, there
fore, ye ignorantiy worship, him declare I unto you. He
made us ; as certain also of your own poets have said. For we
are also his offspring." Then judge the Father bythe child;
judge the Creator by the creature — not by the creature of his hand,
but by the creature made in his own image and likeness, and rise
from the human to the Divine — the ascent of reason and the way
of faith. I see heaven opened ; now I know of a surety that the
Bible representation of God is true, because it is true of myself.
My reasoning is now invincible, because it takes this turn,
namely : Forasmuch, then, as we are not entirely comprehended,
even by those who know us best and love us most, even so is God
a mystery, even to those who linger longest at his altar and hon
our him with most zealous fidelity and the incense of sacrificial
lives. How strong I feel when I rest upon that ground ! Your
child does not know you fully ; there is always some other word
you could say if so minded ; there is always some deeper depth of
being, some inner secret of mystery ; the father is always in advance
of the child. That is so amongst ourselves, and is so, not arbi
trarily or whimsically, as if we had invented the process, but is so
necessarily, essentially, unchangeably. Forasmuch, then, as this is
the case between man and man, friend and friend, heart and
heart, we ought not to think that it is otherwise with the Godhead.
You must reason upwards, and your reason will soon take fire and
go up as a burning sacrifice before the eternal throne.
Take it from another point, and the reason is equally valid,
because equally Pauline and inspired. Forasmuch, then, as we
have not been seen by our dearest admirers, we ought not to think

2i8 ACTS XVH. 2<)-zi.

that the Godhead can be seen by angel or archangel or seraph that
first saw the light of his face. You have never seen your friend ;
you have never seen— let me say again and again — your own
SELF. No man can see himself and live. What wonder I have
not seen you when I have not seen myself ? Forasmuch, then,
as we have not seen ourselves, we ought not to think that God is a
plain surface, which every eye may look upon in its entirely. The
mystery is in ourselves. Any mystery that we find in God we
find initially and typically in our own nature. We must first settle
the mystery of man before we attempt to deal with the mystery of
God. Or take it thus, and see how the Pauline reasoning clears its
way through all difficulties : As we express our thought and feel
ing through body send form, so does God. We proceed by incar
nation. We have supposed that incarnation was a theologi
cal term, and belonged wholly to the Church ; we must now
learn that incarnation is the necessity of love. Indifference need
not incarnate itself ; but love that thinks about us by day and
dreams about us by night — love that would give its very heart for
our salvation — must come in visible form, must be borne in some
Bethlehem — in inn or manger somewhere, and must show its ra
diant self simply because it is love. Forasmuch, then, as our love
must incarnate, enflesh, and embody itself, so as to touch us,
we ought not to think that the Godhead is independent of the
method which amongst ourselves he has made essential to union
and happiness. If we have come upon the doctrine of incarna
tion through some long and weary process merely intellectual and
verbal, I do not wonder that men should stumble at it and en
deavour to argue it down ; but if we have come upon it through
the deep study of our own nature and ways of self-revelation, when
we come to the historical Bethlehem of Judsea we feel we have
only come home. That Bethlehem has been in our hearts ; that
Bethlehem is the inner circle of our sacred home ; that Bethlehem
is the secret of our union and fellowship and hope.
Take it from another point Forasmuch, then, as we forgive
our children who repent of their sins with broken-heartedness and
honest confession, we ought not to think that the Godhead is un
willing to forgive. How is it with you when the child comes
home and says, " Father, I have sinned, and am no more worthy

A NEW RESPONSIBILITY.

to be called thy son' " ? Did you fall upon his neck and clothe
him and jewel his flngers and kiss him back into sonship ? For
asmuch, then, as that man did so to that sinning son, we ought
not to think that the Godhead is made of iron or is a carved
statue in the sky. This is the Biblical reasoning leading up to
the Biblical faith. ' ' Like as a father pitieth his children, so the
Lord pitieth them that fear him." " If ye, then, being evil,
know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more
shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them
that ask him I" You note the reasoning, the mysterious, gra
cious balance of the sentences — " As — so," " If ye — how much
more ! — He." The lines are the same, they only grow in height
and width and burn into purer splendour ; but you must find in
yourselves the root-thought of God.
Now the speaker rises to a higher moral tone in verse 30.
" And the times of this ignorance God winked at ; but now
commandeth all men everywhere to repent" God saw as if he
did not see. The Gracious One made allowances which would
not enter into a narrow calculation. God gave the world wide
chances for a long space ; but now we date from Christ ; all our
episties, and bookkeepings, and commercial transactions, all our
nativities and festivities, and bonds and covenants, must be dated
at Bethlehem — that is where you sign ! That littie Child, with
eyes that see not, divides the old from the new, and you dip your
pen in the inkhorn of his revelation when you date your commonest
letter or sign your meanest bond of merchandise. But now a new
bell has rung, a new day has dawned ; from this time forth there
is a " command to repent." We have now the responsibility of
ignoring the revelation. That is a tremendous responsibility.
You have to stand up and say to Moses and the prophets, to the
minstrels of Israel and the evangelists of the Church, to Christ in
Bethlehem and Christ on Calvary—" We do not believe !" We
thus come into a great inheritance of responsibility. No man is the
same at the end of a religious service that he was at the begin
ning ; if he has not gone up, he has gone down. We cannot
take up the position of uninstructed inquirers and sit down with
ancient Greeks and say, "We know no more than they did."
That opportunity has been destroyed. We do not go up from
ancient Greece, but from modern Christendom, and acccording to

ACTS XVII. 29-31.

the line along which we have walked to the judgment seat will the
judgment itself be conducted in every case. You who were born in
Christian houses — you who were sung to sleep with snatches of
Christian hymns when you were irresponsible infants, you who were
carried to Christ's house and nurtured in the fear and love of
God, cannot go up to the judgment seat as if you had been born
in some barbarous country and had never heard of the name of
Christ Thus our responsibilities are increased apart from our
own control. No man can draw the line and say, " My respon-~
sibility begins here and ends there." Civilization every day adds
some new weight to the obligation which rests upon every human
soul. Our responsibilities are oftentimes created for us, as well as
created in us. Now that the sun shines we must not be striking
lights of our own. No man will be held to be irresponsible if he
has not availed himself of the light which lay within his use.
Believe me, you cannot act as if you had never heard of the Bible.
You have now to thrust your way past the Bible and to say, " I
will not believe one word you utter ; I resent and denounce every
appeal you make." Are you prepared to make that violent
reply ? O, answer, No !

LXIV.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, thou art our Shepherd in Jesus Christ thy Son, through
whose sweet name we now come to thee, as through an open gate on
which thou hast written all the welcome of thy love. We love to be
thought of as a flock. Thou makest thy flock to lie down at noon ;
thou leadest thy flock by the still waters and the green pastures ; thou
carriest the lambs in thy bosom ; thou art merciful as well as mighty.
We need the shepherdliness of heaven amid all the bleakness and sore
travail and labour of earth. It is sweet to think of the descending heav
ens and of their warmth and comfort and tenderness, and to know that
they come down to take us up as into strong arms, which will hold us
lovingly in eternal security. We bless thee for this vision in Christ. He
said we would see heaven opened and the Son of man descending upon
us. Our hearts long to see no other figure ; they love the Saviour.
They would see Jesus only — all beautiful sights in one — the glory of God,
the Light of heaven, the Jewel of eternity. We bless thee for a Word
that touches our life's necessity and pain ; a Word that is no burden, but
a morning light, a summer hope, a gladness that has no comparison.
May that Word enter into our life and make us young again ! May that
sweet Word sing in us like an angel sent down from God to comfort and
cheer the heart I We know thy Word ; there is none like it, there is no
counterfeit. It comes to us with its own authority of sweetness and pow
er and joy in the Holy Ghost. We have come to hear it, to believe it,
yea, to devour it, as hungering men devour bread. May we now know
that the festival is spread for our soul's delight, and may thy banner over
us be Love ! We want to live as thou wouldst have us to live. Thou
didst make us, and not we ourselves, and thou wilt account to us as to
thyself for our individuality. Thou hast a set purpose in each life ; we
are all thine, jewels thou wilt number, and not one of us in Christ Jesus
thy Son our Saviour can ever be lost. Thou hast made our life into night
and day. Thou hast set the one against the other. Thou hast made the
day partly ours and the night mostly thine own. Thou dost set us up in
the presence of light, and thou dost lay us down to sleep that we may
get back our youth and strength and hope and begin another day's work
with yesterday's experience. Thou hast also given us the bright day, so
full of light, so full of joy, a gleam of heaven, a hint ot the world in which
there is no darkness at all. Help us to understand this variety of night
and day, and to feel that it is a parable full of Gospel meaning to those

222 ACTS XVIL 32-34.

who have the pure heart. We commend one another and all our interests
and relations to thy tender care. Be unto us all in all ; bind us together
in the bond of eternity. Save us from despair, from sin, from death.
Fill our hearts with life that shall say, " O death, where is thy sting? O
grave, where is thy victory ?" May the life of thy Son be in us abun
dantly, and more abundantly, like wave upon wave of waters that can
not be measured ! Regard the traveller and the stranger, the friendly
visitor, and those who would enlarge our prayers by the addition of their
own. Regard the dear young ones and save them from the cold wind,
the cruel tempter, and the snare cunningly laid ; and help the old to be
lieve that onwardness in age is progress towards youth. Be with the
dying, and grant unto them the power to wave the banner of triumph and
to speak the fearless and hopeful word. Help every good man to be bet
ter, every faithful servant to be more industrious, every sufferer to be
more patient, and every waiter for the kingdom of heaven to stand still
with a deeper and happier contentment. Our sins thou wilt deal with,
for we cannot ; they will not baffle thee. Thou hast opened a fountain
of blood. Where sin aboundeth grace doth much more abound. Thou
dost magnify thyself against our enemy, and show thyself to be greater
than all that can be against us. We fall into thy hands in this great sweet
faith. We are quite strong ; no cloud is before our eyes, the earth is a
solid rock, and the heaven an eternal security, whilst this faith that is in
Christ Jesus reigns and rules in our souls. The Lord's love be our Sab
bath blessing and the Lord's light our Sabbath glory. Amen.

Acts xvii. 32-34.
32. Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mock
ed ; but others said. We will here thee concerning this yet again [expres
sion incompatible with the view of some Evangelical commentators, who
argue from the name of Jesus not having been spoken that Paul was in
terrupted before his intended close].
33, 34. Thus Paul went out from among them. But certain men clave
unto him, and believed ; among whom also was Dionysius the Areopagite
[one of the council], and a woman called Damaris. and others with them.

THE POINT OF DEPARTURE.
WE have heard of Paul's great sermon, and yet that sermon
would be called by very hard names if it were preached
to-day. Consider that Paul was never at Athens before, and that
Paul never went back to Athens any more ; and consider that this
is his deliverance to Athenian hearers on a great and historical oc-

AN ADR OIT BEGINNING. 223
casion. Having put these points before your mind, tell me where
is what we too narrowly call the Gospel? There is a theory — popular
with those who have never considered it — that in every discourse
there ought to be a clear and complete view of the way of personal
salvation. The theorist founds his theory upon the probability,
or at least the possibility, that some hearer may hear only once
and nevermore. That theor}' found no respect in the Sermon on
the Mount, or in the sermon preached by Paul on Mars' Hill.
Life must be taken in averages ; life must be taken in breadths of
time. We can only address ourselves with intelligence and effect
to the broader possibilities and probabilities of the case, and not
to exceptional circumstances, which are of a kind that would, if
attended to exclusively, upset the whole policy and scheme of
civilized life.
Paul began adroitly by beginning where the Athenians them
selves were prepared to begin. They wanted a god — he said he
could declare or reveal the very god they were seeking after.
That is sublime preaching ! sitting down beside a man and asking
him where he, poor groping soul, can begin. Christianity goes
about asking men themselves for the starting-point The religion
of benevolence, the religion of love, the religion of the heart of
Christ, is willing to give us a chance by saying to us, with tender
graciousness, " What is your uppermost question ?" or " What is
your special and most urgent desire ? Tell me all about it, and
let us sit down on this green hillock and talk it all over. Tell
me what is in your troubled heart ? for I have with me balm and
light and true wisdom and grace, sympathy and help. Now,
poor heart, begin." That is not a ruthless religion, forcing itself
upon reluctant attention, but taking up our poor weaving and
completing the web, or disentangling the piece that has been
woven, and saying, " Now let us both begin together and see if
we cannot do something better. " These are the traits of the re
ligion of the Cross which lift it above the necessity of all patron
age and all vindication.
Paul addressed at Athens the very congregation which every
preacher addresses to-day. The congregation never changes. If
it is " The king is dead — Long live the king !" it is also the same
with the congregation. There is but one assembly, for there is
but one blood among all the nations of the earth. Paul's assem-

224 ACTS XVIL 32-34.

bly was divided sharply into Epicureans and Stoics— the very men
who are here to-day ! Do not let us put off the Epicureans and
Stoics on account of their peculiar names, and think of them as
Grecian antiquities. Nothing of the kind. We are the Epicu
reans and Stoics, though mayhap we did not know it The Epi- '
cureans glorified lust ^ the Stoics glorified suicide — so do we ! Any
protest you may lodge against the suggestion is an affair of weak
words. Centrally, substantially, protoplastically, we do precisely
what was done by Epicurean and Stoic. The Epicurean would
have what he liked — not this dish, but that. He would tarry long
at his pleasures ; he would pay any price for a new sensation. He
awoke in the morning to find a new delight ; he lay down in the
darkness to dream of a novel pleasure. He lived in his palate, he
lived in his taste ; and his posterity is with us unto this day. The
Stoic was a fatalist His great ambition was to suppress all feeling,
to retire within an impervious shell, to regard all the events of life
with equal indifference, and to put an end to intolerable agony,
concealed and suppressed, by suicide. He took matters into his
own hands ; and are not we committing suicide every day ? An
etymological definition of suicide would be a childish answer to
that tremendous impeachment Do not play off against this terri
fic indictment some little knowledge of the Latin language. Sui
cide is not one act. Self-murder we perpetrate every day. We
say we will ' ' put an end to this " ; in higher anger we say ' ' this
shall not go any farther' ' ; in madness we declare that a line shall
be drawn, and the affair shall be determined, cost what it may.
What if we escape the charge of etymological suicide, and yet be
convicted of having committed self-slaughter in the deepest sense
of that term every day in the revolving year ?
Christianity creates a third class. Whatever the third class may
be in any congregation, it is the specific creation of Christian
teaching. Christianity says, " Do not live in your pleasures."
Christianity says, " Do not take cases into your own hands as if
you had no Father in heaven. Sacrifice is better than indulgence,
and resignation is better than suicide." So, though it is true that
humanity, and substantially the congregation, is made up of Epi
cureans and Stoics, it is true doctrinally and spiritually that there is
a third quantity — the Christian life, the Christian hope, the Chris
tian victory, for which God's name and Chri.st's Cross be praised !

CONGREGA TLONS DLSSOL VING. 225

If Paul began adroitiy, he proceeded, as the subject unrolled
itself before his spiritual vision, to touch upon distinctively Chris
tian points. He came to the Man not named. That was a
touch of happy and permissible cunning of a rhetorical kind.
The anonymous is often more influential in the case of the igno
rant than the avowed and duly-testified declaration. Paul refers to
his Master as " that Man whom God hath ordained." Paul will
touch attention ; he will excite wonder ; he will compel those
people to listen to him. Had he begun by thrusting a Jew's
name upon their attention, they would have turned away from
him and left him to address the empty air. He kept his bolt to
the last If he did fail, he would fail as only a great general can
do. He will get his men well in order ; he will watch his oppor
tunity ; with that wonderful eye which saw behind and beyond
the near and the tangible, he watched the working and beating of
every heart, and when the moment came he launched the grand
appeal. He failed, but he failed magnificently. There was no
-blundering in the generalship ; there was no flaw in the inspira
tion ; he failed, but he failed as only a great soul can fail. Some
failures are better than some victories. Sometimes weakness is
strength. " When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mock
ed : and others said. We will hearthee again of this matter." But
they never did ! That is precisely what we are doing to-day.
Were I to give an account of any Christian congregation, I should
give it in the very words of the thirty-second verse. Congrega
tions now listen as long as their fancy is pleased, and no longer.
If a preacher can dominate by intellectual lordship, or moral
' supremacy, the public crowd, he will hold his position. The
public do not listen to him longer than fancy is titillated or some
selfish desire is gratified. The poor deluded preacher sometimes
imagines that the public — I am not now speaking of the inner
circle of friendship and love, but the promiscuous public — care
something for him personally. They would leave him to-morrow
if his throat failed ! Some of them would not mind taking up
their hats in the middle of his feeble discourse and going out to
seek some other man to kill ! Why will preachers delude them
selves by such folly ? Do not preach on that ground, young as
piring brother, but preach for Christ's sake and in Christ's name.

226 ACTS XVH, 32-34.

and find your compensation, not in pecuniary wages, but in your
Lord's " Well done !"
The Athenians left the discourse at the point of moral pressure.
So long as Paul played the part of a Jewish Socrates they were
willing to hear him. They said, with Athenian contemptuous-
ness, " This seed-pecker seems to have picked up some new and
strange god — I wonder what it is. ' ' But the moment Paul flamed
into moral earnestness, left the intellectual plane and came down
to struggle with the heart and question it with hard interrogation,
then the Athenians mocked, or with partial civility nodded to him
a promise that they might come again to-morrow. Is it not ex
actly at that point that the congregations leave the preacher now ?
After the beautiful anecdotes ; after the exquisite language, so
pearly, so translucent, so charming ; after the strong smell of
scrap-book, then comes the moral appeal, and the people say they
will not be lectured ! They will devour any amount of rhetoric,
and they will listen to any number of anecdotes, but the moment
the preacher becomes the messenger of God with immediate
charges from heaven the people go out — not physically, that
would be vulgar ; not uproariously, that would be discourteous
and indecent ; but sympathetically, attentively the soul seals up
its hearing and will listen no more. That is the cause of failure
on the part of Christ's Gospel to-day. We do not want to hear
its essence. It was, the same with Jesus Christ himself. We are
told that " the common people heard him gladly," but that was
not so. Many a minister' s heart has been made sore by the mis
quotation of that passage. The common people do nothing of
the kind. The common people then were like the common
people now, and like the common people of every age. The
passage has been used to show that if we would speak as Christ
spoke, in parables and and in images, and in sweet, beautiful sen
tences, "the common people" would understand words of one
syllable. The common people do not care for words of one sylla
ble or ten syllables. Do not suppose that the common people of
any great city are lying outside the Church this day, fretting and
sighing for some man who will come and talk in words of one
syllable. It is preposterous ! The common people heard him
gladly so long as He had anything to give away, and On one oc
casion he said,, " Let us be frank now. You have come, not

WORDS OF ONE SYLLABLE. 227
because of the words, but because of the loaves and fishes. Do
not imagine that you are taking me in. I will still go on doing
you good, but do not suppose that I give you credit for a good
motive." How terrible he was! What rebuke was that!
How they might have withered up ! For a man to tell you to
your face the exact motive which moves you, and for you to know
that he has found you out ! The common people ! — the
moment he began to be spiritual they turned away in crowds.
The moment he began to say, " You must eat my flesh and
drink my blood," they said, "This is a hard saying; who can
hear it ?' ' They had come to eat and drink, but not to eat and
drink his flesh and his blood. He had lured them, as Paul after
wards lured the Athenians, on from point to point. He healed
their sick, gave bread to their hungry, and was kind to them in
what they would term a practical manner. But all the time he was
leading them up to its application, and when he said, " You must
eat my flesh and drink my blood. If a man eat not my flesh and
drink not my blood, he hath no life in him," the common
people, whom you thought to be worshippers of the god-monosyl
lable, turned right round to seek some other giver of loaves and
fishes. Do not torment the preacher's heart by telling him that if
he would speak words of one syllable, his church would be too
small to contain the great crowds that would thrust down the most
substantial walls.
The Athenians mocked and procrastinated. It is easy to mock.
We mock the preacher's manner, and think that that excuses us
from attending to the preacher's doctrine. We say, We will
come again to-morrow. So we may, but Paul may not be there !
I dare not say that the Epicureans and Stoics did not return to
Areopagus, but if they did, they would wait in vain for the man
they had called "babbler" or "seed-pecker." "So Paul de
parted from among them." If they had beaten him, he would
have been there to-morrow. If they had been angry with him, he
would have invited their attention a second time, or he would
have returned some distant day. He never was afraid to go back
to a city where he had been beaten or stoned or imprisoned ; but
to be mocked, to be treated with indifference — that kills the heart !
To pour out one's blood for the people, and then for their very

228 ACTS XVIL 32-34.

next remark to be one about the weather — that kills a man,
though he be mailed with great strength and have a lion's heart
within him. To suffer, to live, to die for your hearers, and then
simply to be mocked — that is DEATH !

LXV.
P RAYER.
Almighty God, everything is in thine hands. It is thine to set up
and to pull down ; to make rich and to make poor. It is well. " Even
so. Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight." We rejoice in all this
rule of thine. Whom thou lovest thou chastenest ; whom thou wilt
enrich thou dost first impoverish ; whom thou wilt lead into nobler prayer
thou wilt for a small moment forsake. Thy purpose is all love. There
is no hatred in God. All thy ways are light, sometimes so bright as to
be dark. Clouds and darkness are round about thy throne, but in thyself
is no darkness at all. Thou knowest that we are here but for a little time,
and during that little time thou art training us for the eternal day, for the
unwearying service in the everlasting temple. Thou dost train us vari
ously, but always with tender wisdom. Take thine own way with us, for
we are thine, and into thine hands we fall in the name ot Jesus Christ,
our only, because infinite, Saviour. We assemble in his name. His
resurrection day is the brightness of our time ; his triumph over death is
our victory in pledge and earnest. Because Jesus lives, we shall live also.
This is his own sweet word, and we cannot part with it. It is the angel
that sings in the house, and that makes the night of trouble better than
many a day of joy. ' We stand in Christ Jesus the Lord. When we have
least to say it is because our hearts are full ot wonder, love, and praise,
for which there are no words. Enable us to live in Christ Jesus, the
Priest of the world, the Saviour of sinners, the Redeemer of all that
have transgressed. May we learn ot him. May we know his very
Spirit and reproduce it in our own. He was pure, gentle, true, self-
forgetting, sin-forgiving ; when he was reviled, he reviled not again ;
when he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself unto him that
judgeth righteously. May we attain the measure ofthe stature of perfect
men in Christ Jesus. This is beyond our ability, but thy grace is suf
ficient for us, thy Spirit is our Comforter. The Spirit of Truth dwells
with us, yea, dwells within us, and it is his purpose to purify us and make
us like our Lord. May we not interrupt the sacred work by impatience,
or by ill-nature, or ingratitude ; but may we abide constantly in the sure
confidence that all things work together for good to them that love God.
If thou wilt enrich us with this faith, we shall never be poor again. To
have this faith is to have all things- — things present and things to come.
Lord, increase our faith ! We bless thee that we are united in Christian
love. We thank thee for a new object which constrains our love, and

230 ACTS XVIIL 1-6.

binds to itself all our desires. That object is to know thee and to glorify
thee in and through the blessed Son of thy love. We would have no other
care ; each would say for himself, " For me to live is Christ. God forbid
that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ'' May
each remember this holy vow, and breathe its spirit, that he may live
loyally the life ot sacrifice and the life of eternal hope. We know how
wanting we are, lacking in every good quality, often speaking good
words and forgetting to obey thepi ; but thou knowest our fall, thou
rememberest our beginnings. If we forget the hole out of which we were
dug, thou dost never forget. Have pity upon us I We often mean better
than we do. Our purpose is often thine own creation ; it is our unworthy
deed that seems to throw discredit on the inspired motive. We are
unequal ; the force within is Divine, but it is marred in the expression
because of our fallen humanity. Lord, pity us ! Thou Triune God, let
thy compassion fall upon us ! Make the house a home. Train up all the
little children thyself. Set them in such trades and occupations as ,are
best for them when their schooling days are done, tell each what he ought
to be, according to thy will, and let his little young heart accept the
destiny with eager love. Spare all that will make the world better. Thou
dost seem to take away tlie teacher and the reformer and the wise, and to
leave behind many vfe could well spare. This is our ignorance. Thou
art the Husbandman ; pluck what thou wilt where thou wilt, the trees are
all thine. We have nothing that we have not received. Heal the sick.
How long their days ! How longer still their nights ! How wearily the
time moves ! Sit beside them, look at them, touch them, speak to their
inward hearing, and then they will forget all time and darkness, night
and day, for they will be living with the Lord. Reconcile us to all thy
way. Send messages to us from the sanctuary, and grant us a great
reviving. Let thy Spirit fall upon this assembly and upon all our inter
ests, and inspire us with heroic faith and enrich us with inexliaustible
patience. Amen. Acts xviii, 1-6.
1. After these things he departed from Athens [i. 4], and came to
Corinth [Julius Caesar had rebuilt Corinth, constituting it a colony and
the provincial capital, v. 12. It was now again, after lying waste from
B.C. 146 to B.C. 46, the greatest commercial city in Greece, while Athens
was but a superannuated university town, xvii. 21].
2. And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, a man of Pontus by race,
lately come from Italy [from Rome, his dwelling-place, whither also he
returned, Rom. xvi. 3] with his wife PrisciUa, because Claudius had com
manded all the Jews to depart from Rome [Suetonius tells us the name of
the chief agitator of the Jews was Chrestus ; not " Christus,'' which name
he rightly spells when mentioned. Chrestus was a common slave name].
3. And he came unto them ; and because he was of the same trade, he

PROCRASTINATION. 231
abode with them, and they wrought [to assume that Aq. and Pris. were
Christians already, in order to account for Paul's intimacy with them, is
both gratuitous and ignores the actual reason, ihe Jewish custom, which
Luke gives] : for by their trade they were tent-makers [tent-tailors. A
Cilician industry ; the goat-hair rugs themselves were called cilicia'\.
4. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded
Jews and Greeks [proselytes of the gate].
5. But when Silas [xvii. 10] and Timothy [xvii. 14, 15] came down from
Macedonia [from Thessalonica, whither, on second thoughts — comp. xvii.
15 with I Thess. iii. I — Paul had directed Timothy to go], Paul was con
strained by the word [G. "seized upon bythe word." The opposite
experience is when the minister has difficulty in "finding a text" !], testi
fying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ [Messiah].
6. And when they opposed themselves [to this word], and blasphemed,
he shook out his raiment [Matt, xxiii. 35 ; Rom. xiii. 2], and said unto
rhem. Your blood be upon [2 Thess. i. 8] your own heads ; I am clean !
from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles [xiii. 46].

AT CORINTH.
" "P)AUL departed from Athens." The Athenians said when
X. they left him, " We will hear thee again of this matter."
How like selfish human talk that is ! They forgot, what we too
forget, that there are two parties in every contract. When did it
occur to a selfish man that he had anything to consider but his
own purpose and his own convenience ? It did not occur to the
Athenian mind that perhaps Paul himself would not be there the
next day ! ' ' Paul departed ' ' —the sun goes, the preacher ceases
to preach, the vain hearer says, " I will hear thee again concern
ing these things," and perhaps when that hearer returns Paul is
not there ! How then ? We think the sun will always be pres
ent We take for granted that our mercies, privileges, and op
portunities will always be available. This is vanity ; this is self
ishness ; this is tiie very sin of sin. We read in sacred Scripture
that " the door was shut." The laggards came again and found
that the door was shut They never thought about the door being
possibly closed ! We think we can go to church when we like,
and take up the broken hymn where we left it Some day we
shall find that " the door is shut" We go back to Mars' Hil]
and find the teacher gone. " Behold, the days come, saith the
Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of

232 ACTS XVIII. 1-6.

bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the
Lord " — the famine that kills the soul ! Whilst Paul is available
make the most of him. Whilst the Redeemer tarries tarry along
with the sacred Presence. ' ' Seek ye the Lord while he may be
found ; call ye upon him while he is near." There have been
those who went away to buy oil for themselves, and when they
came back the chance was gone ; there was nothing left but the
outer darkness ! Now is the accepted time !
"Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth," the
apostolic journey, as we have seen, of about forty miles. Prob
ably he did not go by road ; that might have taken him a long
time. The supposition is that he crossed by water for about five
hours, and then walked some eight miles to Corinth, and Corinth
did not know he had come ! The only event that lifts up Corinth
in history was an event that Corinth knew nothing of I Corinth
was the Venice of Southern Greece, so situated as to catch two
civilizations— the east and the west ; and a right gay city was
Corinth ! The Corinthians could drink and dance and follow the
devil through all the mazes of his pranks and antics ! The Co
rinthians were skilled in sin. There was no city superior to it in
its devotion to the altar of darkness. A littie blear-eyed Jew went
into it with a sore heart, and Corinth that night sang as loudly,
drank as deeply, showed its finery with as base and vain a profusion
as if the wandering Jew had never been born ! The man may have
come into London last night who will invest the metropolis with
its sublimest fame. Poor man ! living in one of the poorest lodg
ing-houses in all the city, perhaps having hardly enough to pay for
this morning's breakfast —perhaps he may be in this house. We
do not know what is happening. Give us drink enough, meat
enough, drum and trumpet and dance enough, and what care we
what Jew or Gentile is making his way amongst us ? We have no
eye but for purple and fine linen, and no palate but for sumptu
ous fare. Poor Jew with the Christian fanaticism in his heart !
Poor, ill-shapen Jew, laughed at by every man of form and noble
ness, with an idea in his mind that the worid is to be saved by the
Cross ! Put him in anywhere, his room is better than his com
pany. All tilings fail but truth. The fine gold becomes dim,
and the canker-worm eats the fine clothing, and the painted cheek
shows at last its well -concealed ghastliness, and the noble frame

EVANGELICAL PREACHING. 233
falls down a meal for death, a festival for worms ! But truth,
spiritual truth — the kind of truth that gets down through the
fancy, imagination, taste, feeling, right away into the very heart' s
heart, that lives when gorgeous palaces and Corinthian grandeurs
and vanities are forgotten — this is immortality. Not iron, or
brass, or things of outward beauty made with hands, but the inner
loveliness, the meek and quiet spirit, the pure heart, the truth-
loving mind, the soul that yearns for God — these shall abide.
The sun himself shall sink in years, but the truth of the living
God will be the light of the universe when that poor celestial
spark is utterly forgotten !
Had the visit to Athens been without advantage ? We were
sorry for Paul when he turned away from the Athenian city,
mocked by Athenian taste. We felt grieved that such a fire should
have been extinguished by such indifference. Was the visit, then,
wholly without advantage ? No. It involved a great lesson to
Paul upon the art and mystery of preaching. He preached
better at Corinth than he did at Athens. We noticed that in his
Athenian discourse there was hardly an evangelical tone. It was
a classical speech ; it was addressed to a speculative question ; it
involved that which was practical indeed, but the whole subject
was approached in a philosophical spirit Men are not philoso
phers, and that is the reason why philosophy seldom touches them.
He who speaks to the heart is the true Christian philosopher. In
going his forty miles from Athens, Paul seems to have said to
himself, ' ' No more preaching like that for me. Give me another
chance and I will preach in another tone." So when he came to
Corinth he did, and when he wrote to the Corinthians he said, in
the second chapter of his First Epistle, " And I, brethren, when I
came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom,
declaring unto you the testimony of God (I learned at Athens
that that would never do again, so) I determined not to know any
thing among }'ou, save Jesus Christ and him crucified." The visit
to Athens was not in vain. For once, poor Apostie, he tried to talk
the Grecian speech, and when he was done they mocked him and
said, "We will hear thee again, thou seed-pecker." Going to
Corinth he said, ' ' I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in
much trembling. ' ' There he will succeed ! He made room for
the Lord. He seemed (only seemed) to have got up a sermon

234 ACTS XVIIL i-6.

for Athens, and when the Athenians heard it they mocked both
him and his discourse. But at Corinth he got nothing up ; he
said, " Lord, take thy way. I am here, play what music thou
wilt upon me. " " My speech and my preaching was not with
enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the
Spirit and of power ; that your faith should not stand in the wis
dom of men but in the power of God." That is the way to make
the best of your losses ! Here is the secret of the true treatment
of human failures. When you are going from the Athens in
which you have failed to the Corinth in which you may have
another opportunity, put some sharp questions to yourselves.
Say, " How was it that I made no impression there ? Where was
the flaw ? Was my tone wrong ? Was the substance of my
matter wrong ? Was my spirit a little too controversial, or con
tentious ? Did 1 lower the dignity of the Gospel and make it
one of many, as if the Athenians had as much right to speak
about these things as I had ? I see it now. Let me but stand
up in Corinth and, God helping me, the Corinthians shall hear of
Christ and the Cross !"
Entering Corinth, Paul " found a certain Jew, named Aquila."
How did he find him? He found a "certain Jew" amid a
population of tens of thousands ! How do we find one another ?
That is a social mystery. We " came together. " How? How
do the roots know where the sun is ? You put stones upon them
and they still work their way, and more stones and still they
are growing as fast as they can. What is their purpose ? To
find the sun ! There are mysteries of the earth as well as m}'S-
teries of the written Word. Paul had never seen Aquila before,
and yet when they met and hand touched hand, they had been
with one another from eternity ! Banish chance from all your
criticism of life. There is no chance, but the chance of the eter
nal purpose.
Paul came unto Aquila and PrisciUa, "and because he was of
the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought ; for by their
occupation they were tent-makers." It did not follow that they
were therefore poor. According to the Jewish law every man was
bound to bring up his son to some way of getting his living.
Some Christians have outlived that fanaticism. According to the
Jewish law, if a man did not bring up his son to a trade he was said

THE ATTRACTLONS OF THE MINISTRY. 235
to bring him up to be a thief. There are many such thieves in
Christendom ! Why do you not learn to work ? You can easily
set it down if you can do without it He is not the gentleman
whose only claim to the title is that he cannot make his own liv
ing. He must then get somebody to make it for him ! Will
you submit to the humiliation ?
In the fourth verse we read that Paul " reasoned in the syna
gogue every Sabbath." So the first verse is explained in the
fourth. The first verse is this : ' ' After these things Paul departed
from Athens' ' ; and we thought he had departed from the work I
He had- not changed the work, he had only changed the city.
The word ' ' departed ' ' in the first verse made us feel apprehen
sive. We said as Paul went away, " Is he then disgusted with the
work ? Has he seen its folly ? Does he now see that epicurean
ism and stoicism, as represented in Athenian life, are better than
Christian devotion? Will he preach no more ?" We wait until
the forty-mile journey is completed, and, behold, Paul is once
more in the synagogue every Sabbath, persuading the Jews and
the Greeks. What a hold this Christian work gets upon a man I
You can give up almost any other kind of work, but who can
give up the service of the Cross ? We have seen enough of the
results of Paul's preaching to lead us to suppose that if any other
man might have given up the work Paul might have surrendered it,
for surely he was badly treated in the exercise of his ministry !
But the work gets hold of the heart. It pays poor wages ; it
makes no worldly promises ; it tells a man that he will be buffeted,
and stigmatized, and sneered at. Many a' Christian preacher oc
cupies a lower social level than he might under some circum
stances have done. Still, the work gets ' hold of his heart ; he
cannot give it up. That is plainly proved. In the old, old time
the enemy was determined to put down this preaching ; he would
have no more of it, and he tried his very best, and what was the
result ? As for the preachers, ' ' they were stoned, they were sawn
asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword : they wandered
about in sheepskins and goatskins ; being destitute, afflicted, tor
mented ; they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in
dens and caves of the earth ;" and no man gave up the work.
That is its best vindication ! If they had been man-made preach
ers they would have changed their occupation, but being born of

236 ACTS XVIIL i-6.

the incorruptible seed of the Divine will and purpose they were
faithful unto the end.
Paul gains some new experience in Corinth ; he puts down this
note in his book : ' ' For I think that God hath set forth us the
apostles last, as it were appointed to death : for we are made a spec
tacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. . . . Even
unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked,
and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place ; and labour,
working with our own hands : being reviled, we bless ; being per
secuted, we suffer it ; being defamed, we intreat : we are made
as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto
this day. ' ' Why then did he not give it all up ? He could not
In the very first words we heard from his lips the reason was
given. I have read from first Corinthians, fourth chapter, ninth
verse ; and in the opening of that verse you have the whole secret :
" For I think that GOD hath set forth." It is God's doing.
God takes us to the whipping-post and sets us within reach of the
mocker. This is God's discipline ; this is the way he will test
our sincerity and reveal his Gospel. Let a man think that his
ill-treatment is limited by human spite and malice, and he will sur
render his mission ; but let him feel that GOD hath set him
there to be mocked, ill-treated, defamed, spat upon, and he will
accept all this base treatment as part of the sacred discipline. The
enemy would have no power over us but with God's permission.
The devil cannot add one link unto his chain until God enables
him to forge it The whole thing is in God's keeping. Seize
that idea, and you will be quiet with the peace of heaven.

LXVI.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, we come to thee in Jesus Christ thy Son, the door that
is ever open, and the only door by which men can come to the Father.
We bless thee for that open door. May we hasten to it and enter, lest
by delay we find that the door is shut when we come ! We would ask
for large room in thine house, and being in it we would abide there for
ever. Who would wish to leave thy table ? In our Father's house there
is bread enough and to spare. Once we perished with hunger when we
were in a far land, and no man gave unto us ; but now we are in our
Father's house, and thou hast said unto us, " Eat and drink abundantly,
O beloved, and let your souls delight themselves in fatness." We wish
to come to thee through great increase of faith. Our prayer is that every
doubt and hesitation may be destroyed, and that our hearts, being filled
with faith and burning with love, may have no question to ask concern
ing the nearness, the goodness, and the infinite sufficiency of God. Thou
knowest what temptations assail us, thou knowest how our hearts are
often hardened by unbelief, and thou knowest how our eyes are often
blinded because of disobedience. Thou dost receive us in thine house
that thou mayest do us good. Thou wilt reply to every heart's necessity ;
every life has its own prayer, weak or strong, earthly or full of heavenli
ness, and thou wilt listen to every heart's own speech, and answer it with
appropriate love. Thou hast called us to growth, and in calling us to
growth, thou hast given the sun to warm us, and the rich rains to refresh
the roots of our faith. May we accept the gracious gifts of heaven, and
answer them by daily increase of strength, and continual growth in love
liness and beauty. We would be strong in the grace that is in Christ
Jesus ; we would be men of God ; we would be thoroughly furnished
unto all good works. Our desire, created by thyself, and therefore to be
satisfied by thyself alone, is that we may be temples of the Holy Ghost,
wise unto salvation, well-instructed in the heavenly testimony, baptized
into the very Spirit of Christ, and being filled with his Spirit, to wait in
patience, and toil in hopefulness, until the day of maturity and reward.
Do thou, by the gracious ministry of the Holy Spirit, work in us all the
good pleasure of thy will, and the work of faith with power ; may there
be no remnant of the old nature left in us. May the city of God within
our hearts lie four-square, the length and the breadth and the height of it
being equal ; so that being perfected according to thy purpose, our life,
washed with the blood of Christ, and made to glow by the purifying

238 ACTS XVIIL 7-11.

energy of the Holy Ghost, may be lifted up into heavenly service, and
comforted with heavenly rest. We remember — because thou dost put
it into our hearts — the sick, the poor, the wandering, and those that
are ill at ease — men who cannot find rest at night or work by day ;
lives that knock at doors that ne"er open ; wanderers that search
and cry, but never find or hear the friendly voice. Thou knowest those
who are on the sea, in trouble and fear. Thou knowest the loved ones
from whom we are parted as by the stroke of a sharp knife. They are
all present to thee, the good and the bad, the wheat and the tares, those
who are nearly angels, and those that are nearly lost. The Lord's pity
weep for them, the Lord's love go out after them, the Lord's grace be as
a portion ot meat in due season to every soul suffering the pain of hunger.
What we most need we cannot tell thee in words, but thou readest the
speechless prayer. Look upon us. Read our thoughts we cannot speak,
and enter into covenant with us, pledging that whatsoever our sin may
have beei), thy grace is infinitely more, and will surely drown it, as the
stone is lost in the sea. What we forget thou wilt remember. If we
have omitted from our prayer any name, or life, or interest, thou wilt not
omit it from thy love. We give one another to thee standing hand in hand
— fathers, mothers, children, friends, neighbours, acquaintances, pastor,
people — standing heart in heart, hand in hand, we say, at the Cross, and
in the name of him who died upon it, take us all, love us all, cast none
away. Amen. Acts xviii. 7-11.
7. And he departed thence [from the synagogue, where the words of
the previous verse were spoken], and went into the house of a certain
man named Titus Justus, one that worshipped God [a proselyte], whose
house joined hard to the synagogue.
8. And Crispus [l Cor. i. 14], the ruler of the synagogue, believed in
the Lord [G. believed the Lord], with all his house ; and many of the
Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.
9. And the Lord said unto Paul in the night by a vision ; Be not afraid,
but speak, and not hold thy peace ;
10. For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to harm thee, for
I have much people in this city.
II. And he dwelt [G. "tarried," as Luke xxiv. 49] there a year and
six months, teaching the Word of God among them [writing thence two
Ep. to the Thess., the earliest of all the N. T. writings].

ENCOURAGEMENTS— DIVINE AND HUMAN.
IN the fifth verse we read that " Paul was pressed in the
spirit ;" in the seventeenth chapter and the sixteenth verse we
read that Paul's " spirit was stirred in him." In both cases there

INDIFFERENCE TO SIN, 239
was a paroxysm. It was not a little transient excitement, or
momentary ruffling of the feelings, it was really what we ourselves
never feel now — agony. He could stand it no longer ; his soul
was in pain. He would have been more accustomed to it now.
Would God we could recall our early enthusiasm, our virgin pas
sion, our first burning hate of sin. We are familiar with it ; we
pat its black head ! There was a time when Paul could not look
upon idolatry without his soul writhing in pain, and when he
could not look upon Jewish obstinacy and unbelief without his
breast heaving with violent paroxysm. We can now drive through
whole miles of idolatry, unbelief, worldliness, and sensuality, and
sit down at the other end to the smoking feast, as if we had come
through hell blindfolded. Familiarity has its acute and terrible
danger. Paul was a man of conviction. He really believed in
his soul that there was no other name given under heaven among
men whereby they could be saved but the name of Christ
That faith will not lodge in the same heart with indifference.
That faith wants a whole heart to itself. It says, "If this salva
tion is worth anything, it is worth everything." That old martyr-
faith is dead.
In the sixth verse we read, ' ' And when they opposed them
selves" — literally, set themselves in battie array — "and blas
phemed, he shook his raiment [symbolically], and said unto
them, Your blood be upon your own heads ; I am clean : from
henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles." We do sometimes long
to be missionaries ; to plough a virgin soil ; to name the name of
Christ to men for the very first time ; to meet men to whom the
Gospel would be nnvs. Paul did not say he would give up the
work. Paul was not the man to lay hold upon the plough of the
heavenly kingdom, and to turn back ; Paul would not even keep
company with a young man who had broken faith with him in the
Christian work ; so if he himself had at last broken down in the
middle of it, surely then the pillars of heaven would have been
rottenness, and earth's base built on stubble ! He went clear
through with it to the end. The old Paul — "such an one as
Paul the aged"— sat down and said, "I have fought a good
fight"; lay back in his bed, and said, "I have finished my
course." Let us never give up the wor-k. We may give up this
corner of the vineyard or that ; we may leave localities, but we

240 ACTS XVIH. 7-1 1.

must not leave the Cross. We may turn in vexation of soul from
stolid unbelief and preach to ignorant and bewildered heathenism,
but do not let the work have less of our energy because we have
been disappointed in this or that particular circle.
A little encouragement would cheer us now. One ray of sun
light shooting athwart this gathering gloom would make us young
again. Here it is in the seventh verse. Paul departed from that
quarter of Corinth, ' ' and entered into a certain man' s house, named
Justus, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the
synagogue. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue,
believed on the Lord with all his house ; and many of the Corin
thians hearing, believed and were baptized." " One that wor
shipped God " ! Is there any greater phrase in all human speech ?
Perhaps you are waiting in order to know something about God
before you worship him. You can never know anything about
God except — GOD ! But the little, inventive, ingenious, indus
trious, fussy human brain wants to define God and classify his at
tributes, and practise upon him a kind of spiritual vivisection.
The firmament will not be taken to pieces ! I preach GOD, not
some view of God. If you begin to have " views" of God, you
will begin to have sects and classes, orthodoxies and heterodoxies,
divisions, and whole libraries of pamphlets with nothing in them
but words. Worship is greater than any definition of worship.
God is the undefinable term. The soul knows him, but cannot
get the mouth to speak Him. In this stupendous temple words
may soon be lies. What is your feeling ? Is there an uprising in
your heart that can only say, " Abba !" " Father !" That up
rising of the heart is the miracle of Christ, the inward and won
drous working of the Holy Ghost Why do you not order back
your obtrusive intellect, and tell it to be still in the presence of
such an experience ? Many of us could be almost good if we
could hold our tongues ! Some of us could almost pray if we
were dumb !
When Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed,
many of the Corinthians thought they would believe too. A
quaint commentator has said that great men are the looking-
glasses into which ordinary men look to see what they ought to be
like. There was much human nature among the Corinthians !
It is so with all departments of life and thought This is not an

DIVINE ENCOURAGEMENT; 241
argument on one side only, but on every side of human life.
What we want, then, is courage on the part of those whose influ
ence is legitimately beneficial and extensive. If you, the head of
the house, could say, ' ' Let us worship God, ' ' many within the
house might respond affectionately and earnestly, "So be it."
We must have leadership — may that leadership always be in an
upward and solar direction.
A little encouragement now, I say, would come in well. Here
it is again in the ninth verse, in another form. " Then spake the
Lord to Paul in the night by a vision. Be not atraid, but speak,
and hold not thy peace ; for I am with thee, and no man shall
set on thee to hurt thee : fqr I have much people in this city."
These words express a Divine encouragement ; they are addressed
to every sincere heart ; they were not spoken once for all and
limited to a personality and a place, they are spoken from the
heavens every day to every earnest labourer. The time of visions
has not gone for ever. To-day it is possible to hold heart-to-heart
fellowship with God. Even now the spirit can assure itself that it
is reading the very will of God and doing the very behest of
heaven. Paul was accustomed to visions. The first vision startles
a man ; the second is expected ; the third longed for ; and the
last hailed with thankfulness and expectation, for it is the vision
of heaven — tiie vision of rest. God took the census of Corinth
from a religious point of view ; he said, " I have much people in
this cit}'. ' ' He was going to work miracles in Corinth. Appar-
entiy there was not a saint in the whole place. As Athens was
" wholly given to idolatry," so Corinth was, apparentiy, wholly
given to sensuality. We cannot tell where God's people are.
The ancient prophet thought that he alone was left ; but God told
him that he knew of seven thousand who had not bowed the knee
to Baal. Surely there are more good and brave souls and Christ-
worshippers and Christ-seekers than we have yet supposed. I see
no reason why in the presence of this tenth verse we should not
take a more hopeful view of human society. " How can I give
thee up ?" Even yet he expects some of us to pray ; even yet he
knows that many of us will come home. Th« Christian Gospel is
not an exclusive one ; whoever is excluded from its hospitality is
self-expelled. God is looking for his own. He is looking for the
religious amon^ the irreligious ; and one of the most gracious sur-

242 ACTS XVIIL 7-1 1.

prises in store for the Church is that there will be more people in
God's pure home — heaven — than it may have entered into the
most generous human heart to conceive or venture to anticipate.
But the twelfth verse seems to contradict the vision. We no
sooner hear of the vision than we learn that " the Jews made in
surrection with one accord against Paul, and brought him to the
judgment seat, saying. This fellow persuadeth men to worship
God contrary to the law." What a violent transition in personal
experience ! At night, lost in the ecstasies of Divine fellowship, in
the morning dragged before the judgment seat by an incensed
mob ! Is it thus that Providence contradicts itself ? Apparently
so, but not really. Good will come out of this evil ; character will
be developed ; friendships will be tested ; the way will be broad
ened and improved, and evil shall be overruled for good.
You may probably have read the " History of Civilization in
England," by Mr. Buckle. Mr. Buckle has, in that most refined
and erudite work, made no concealment of his opposition to what
are called Christian missions. He refers to certain good-natured
and well-intentioned people, whose motives he would not question
for a moment, who have gone to distant parts of the world to
propagate the Christian faith. He says they bring home, or send
home, very interesting reports of spiritual successes gained in the
mission-field ; but he says he has taken pains to test the accuracy
of those reports. He sets side by side along with them the testi
mony of impartial, independent, well-instructed travellers — not re
ligious agents of religious societies — and those travellers say in
the distinctest terms that whilst many heathen populations have
received Christian baptism and taken upon themselves Christian
forms of worship, they are destitute of the spirit of Christianity,
and if they could be seen, and lived with, by men who believed in
missionary reports, those men might very possibly have their faith
in missions considerably shaken. How can we, after reading such
a testimony, take any part in missionary operations ? This, unfor
tunately for Mr. Buckle's originality, was recognized in the Bible
itself some hundreds of years before he lived. It is beautiful to
notice the verdant simplicity of men who have just discovered that
converted people — nominally converted and baptized people — are
not angels. They write it in their books as if it were news. They
quote from "impartial and independent travellers" as if at last they

CORLNTH. 243

had found the reality of the case. ' ' Independent travellers' ' have
never written such burning, scorching words against Christian
converts as Paul wrote. Mr. Buckle has written most classic and
refined English, but he does not touch the moral agony, the sub
lime vehemence of the Jew, who nearly nineteen hundred years
ago wrote words of condemnation regarding Christian converts,
which probably are unequalled in the most energetic eloquence
of the world. Take Corinth as described by Canon Farrar
— one of the most learned and eloquent Christian writers and
preachers of this da}'. These are his words : " Corinth was the
Vanity Fair of the Roman Empire, at once the London and the
Paris of the first century after Christ. . . . But there was one
characteristic of heathen hfe which would come home to Paul at
Corinth with overwhelming force, and fill his pure soul with in
finite pain. It was the gross immorality of a city conspicuous for
its depravity, even amid the depraved cities of a dying heathenism.
Its very name had become a synonym for reckless debauchery.
. . . East and West mingled their dregs of foulness in the new
Gomorrah of classic culture." Out of that city Paul brought
some converts! But "impartial and independent travellers"
testify that they were not angelic in spirit and temper and charac
ter ! Take ancient Corinth as described by Frederick William
Robertson, of Brighton, the prophet and the martyr of his age.
These are his words ; " The city was the hotbed of the world's
evil, in which every noxious plant, indigenous or transplanted,
rapidly grew and flourished ; where luxury and sensuality throve
rankly, stimulated by the gambling spirit of commercial life. All
Corinth now, in the apostolic time, as in previous centuries, be
came a proverbial name for moral corruption." That was the
field in which the Apostle Paul had to labour. ' ' Many of the
Corinthians hearing, believed and were baptized" ; but " impar
tial and independent travellers" testify that even after that they
were not so good as they might have been. Did Paul set them
forth to be perfect men ? Read his Epistles to the Corinthians.
Read above all — a passage, the whole of which I dare not read in
pubhc — Paul's description of heathenism as given in the first
chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, and then say whether any
" impartial and independent traveller" is to testify against a man
who used such accusatory language. We must not give up mis-

244 ACTS XVIIL 7-11.

sionary work simply because some " impartial and independent
travellers" interrupt their geographical business by little scrutinies
into the spirit and manners of people who had been baptized into
the name of Christ Let us go to the States — the Southern States
of America. You talk about Freedom ; you boast about Liberty ;
you have written odes and sonnets and poems of divers length to
the Spirit of freedom and liberty. I \yill show you what it is.
Here are some millions of black men who used to be slaves, and
at that time the auctioneer who sold them used to give them really
very nice characters, spoke of them in really creditable terms, and
so put up their price. But now that they have become freed men
look at them ; lounging about the streets ; lying and basking like
dogs in the sunshine ; going to the tavern ; rising late ; doing
next to nothing — that freedom ! And yet your poet says —
"Spirit of Freedom, on.
And pause not in thy flight,
Till every clime be won
To worship in thy light !"
Look there — this is freedom ! These are freed men ! Oh for the
old days of slavery and obedience ! You would resent the appli
cation of such an illustrative instance if freedom were in question.
I ask you to be as just in your judgment of Christian evangeliza
tion. We do not expect a man to grow in a night. If they have
been arrested ; if their attention has been turned in the right direc
tion ; if they have expressed a desire to enter even into the veriest
elementary lines of discipleship, let us be glad,- and rejoice, and
report at home that the battle is moving towards victory. We are
not at home what we ought to be, but always remember that
things are seen most by contrast. What is black is blackest when
seen upon a white surface, and so many of our shortcomings and
failures look very black because of the background of the holy
Name which we profess to have accepted as our symbol and our
hope— the spotless name of the Son of God !

LXVII.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, thou hast in Christ Jesus provided a feast for all
people ; a feast of wine on the lees, a feast of fat things. Thine invita
tion is — "Eat and drink abundantly, O beloved." Jesus Christ is the
true bread sent down from heaven, of which if a man eat he shall hunger
no more, but be satisfied with the satisfaction of his Lord and quiet with
the peace of the Saviour. We have come to this feast upon the mountain to
day, and as we have travelled up the steep sides of the hill, we have heard
a voice, which our hearts knew well, saying, " Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled ; " and again, " If
any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink." That voice is the
voice of Jesus Christ, thine only-begotten, thy well-beloved Son, the
mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. There is no
voice like it ; our hearts know every tone of its gracious music ; our life
rises to it because it is full of God, and full of grace. Thou wilt come to
the feast thyself ; without thee it would be no feast. We come to see
thee ; to eat bread with thee ; to touch thy dear hand, thou wounded
Saviour of the world ; and to look into Thine eyes full of heaven, full ot
eternity. Thou wilt not disappoint the least of thy guests ; for the least
thou wilt prepare the most — yea, for the youngest a double portion. This
is our hope, and it makes us glad ; this is our confidence, and it makes us
strong. No more is there any fear in our heart ; no more can night settle
upon our lives, in gloom and darkness ; death itself is swallowed up in
victory, and sin is a forgotten shadow. Thou wilt cast sin and death into
the lake of fire ; thou wilt burn them out of thy beautiful universe. In
this great faith — sometimes as a calm river, sometimes as mighty music
of triumphing in the heart — may we conduct all the affairs of life, and go
on from strength to strength until every one of us appears in Zion before
God. Thou knowest that every day we fall ; every morning ere the dew
has gone up we have eaten the forbidden fruit ; every day we have talked
with the serpent and been worsted by his baneful speech. But the seed of
the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent ; our enemy shall be slain,
and we shall be delivered with a mighty and costly redemption, and shall
be set in thy heaven far above all sin, temptation, storm, and sorrow.
Meanwhile, we are upon the earth, the way is weary, the well is seldom at
hand when we seem to need it most ; at night time the road is dangerous,
and the day itself thickly beset with foes. The Lord grant unto us grace,
peace, and confidence in the Holy Ghost Give us the larger view. Help

246 ACTS XVIIL 12-17.
us to take in the " all things" which work together for good. Deliver us
from superficial views and narrow and straitened outlooks, and give us
that clear eye of believing love which sees amid all time the " third day"
of pertectness. For special mercies we pray thee. Some hearts have but
one sharp, clear prayer. In some cases life is narrowed to one point of
need ; in other cases the heart is full of laughter and joy, the delight of
those who have been to the wedding festival and have seen the summer
side of life ; others have no prayer though they are not without love ;
others are lost in wonder, are amazed at the sight of the altar, and know
not the reading that is inside the Book, and yet are willing to see and
know and fall down with us in common adoration. To such let there be
light given from heaven, more beautiful than the dawning of the day. So
shall there be joy at thy feast this holy Sabbath ; and many hearts shall
arise to bless thee in new hymns, and psalms, and anthems full of sacred
joy. The old man's prayer is already taking to itself the tone ot a song.
He has prayed long and expected much and received of thy fulness grace
upon grace. Now he is in a strait betwixt two : his prayer ends in singing :
the Amen of his prayer has in it the first note of his anthem. The Lord
be gracious to such and destroy old age as somewhat that belongs to
death ; and establish in the heart of the veteran worshipper the sweet,
dewy, tender thankfulness which comes of faith. Away beyond the
church-line we see bed after bed of sickness and pain and weariness ;
around each bed a little circle of servants, kindly, affectionate, devoted.
We hear, even on this day of Resurrection, sighings and groanings, and
farewells ; and we see, even on the green earth so rich with the emerald
of spring, showers ot tears, hot and bitter, that have been rained out ot
grieved hearts. But thou seest more than we see ; there is balm in
Gilead, there is a physician there. The Cross of Christ is the answer to
all sin, and therefore the answer to all sorrow and pain and distress of
heart. Do thou reveal it. Show all sides ot that wondrous Cross, and
take the heart through all its mystery of shame, agony, priesthood, sacri
fice, triumph, and the eternal and ever prevalent intercession of him who
died upon it. Then in the Church, and beyond the Church, the feast
shall be enjoyed in common, by a number which no man can number.
Amen. Acts xviii. 12-17.
12. But when [after this quiet year-and-a-half] Gallio was proconsul of
Achaia \i,e,, in 53 and 54 A.D. Tacitus tells us that Gallio, the brother of
Seneca, was likewise put to death by Nero], the Jews with one accord rose
up against Paul, and brought him before the judgment seat,
13. Saying, this man persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the [i.e.,
Moses'"] law.
14. But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said unto the
Jews, If indeed it were a matter of wrong or of wicked villainy, O ye Jews,

THE PRESS AND THE GOSPEL. 247
reason would that I should bear with you [suffer you to proceed with the
case] ;
15. But if they are questions about words and names andj'our own law
[G. " the law which concerns you"] look to it yourselves ; I am not minded
[G. " inclined"] to be a judge of these matters [this just judgment of the
secular judge is styled by the persecutor of Servetus, " atheistic"].
16. And he drave [G. "dismissed," see Dem. 272, 11, 1373, 12] them
from the judgment seat. (
17, And they [the bystanders] all laid hold on Sosthenes, the ruler of
the synagogue [not the Sosthenes of i Cor, i,, who was apparently not a
Corinthian], and beat him before the judgment seat. And Gallio cared
for none of these things [took no official note ot them].

REPORTS OF CHRISTIAN SERVICE.
HAVE you ever considered how extremely appropriate to all
ages is the sentiment which inspires this report ? As usual,
our endeavour is to find out what is modern as well as what is
ancient in the text The report which is given of Paul's work in
the thirteenth verse is exactly the report which is being given to
day by hostile journalists, critics, and hearers of Christian truth.
Again and again, as you can bear witness, I have begged you, as
fellow students of the sacred Word, not to put away from you the
apostolic annals as if they belonged to a society that lived nineteen
centuries ago. To-day Christianity is suffering from the perverted
reports of its spirit and its service, which are being rendered by
those who are hostile to its claims. We report ourselves. Even
when we attempt lo report the most simple and patent facts, we
cannot separate the personality of the reporter from the report
which he renders. There are bad men who undertake to report
what Christians are doing ! What can be the report of such men
but a perversion ? Even if the exact letters could be chosen to
represent the exact occurrences there would be wanting the subtle
music of sympathy, the tender spirit of love, the high influence
which comes of personal identification with the thing which is
being reported. You cannot report with the hand alone. You
must, if you would truly report spiritual doctrine and heroic ser
vice, report with the heart Do not take any bad man's report of
any Christian service he may have attended ; do not take any
woridly man's report of it ; do not listen to the unsympathetic

248 ACTS XVIIL 12-17.
narrator of Christian occurrences. All these men lack the one
thing that is needful, the inexplicable sympathy, the subtle and
wordless masonry of oneness of heart with the worker who is toil
ing and with the work which is being attempted. This lesson
overflows with instruction ; it touches an infinite area of thought
and service. No man is qualified to report a religious meeting
who is not himself religious. He can tell who rose and sat down,
and give some kind of abstract of what was said ; but there will be
wanting from it the aroma, the fragrance, the heavenliness, which
gave it all its gracious power. This has a wide bearing upon all
matters religious and theological. We misreport one another,
therefore, we had better not report one another at all. We believe
in God, but we are often reported as only believing something
about God. That is a lie ! We believe in Jesus Christ the Saviour
of the world, and yet we are only reported as believing something
about him. Now wherever the word " about" comes in it qualifies
the thing that is referred to ; and we are not saved by our qualifi
cations of terms and doctrines, but by our inward and often
speechless FAITH. We are saved by faith, and we have no ex
planation of it that can satisfy ourselves. But how little progress
I make as a teacher in this direction ! You need not discourage
me by further obstinacy ; I am already sufficiently discouraged.
The fussy, mechanical, irrepressible mind wants to write down
something about God, and thus create a field of battle, for no two
men believe identically, absolutely, inclusively, and finally, the
same things about any great question. You can have spmiasl faith
without man-made creed, but how it pleases the puerile mind to
write down something in regular, numerical order ! This creed-
mongering, and this church-manufacturing, has crucified Christ
on ten thousand crosses. Yet I know enough of the working of
the mind to know that even now some man is thinking that he
could put down in black ink and in plain Roman letters some
thing that he would expect somebody else to believe in " about"
God. So, indeed, you may be able, but you must not make that
endeavour either essential or final. We are kept together by
common FAITH. I would not sign with my right hand any
creed which that right hand could write. Why not ? Because
words change, doctrines never ; because the word that meant one
thing yesterday may mean another to-morrow. Circumstances are

. FAITH GREATER THAN CREED, 249
continually occurring to change the colour and the tone and the
under-tone of words, and no man can read in another man's tone,
and therefore my signature might give a false impression to those
who read it This is precisely what the unanimous Jews did in
the days of Paul. They heard him speak and they said, " This
fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law" — that
is, contrary to their reading of the law. The law is one thing, and
my reading of it another. So with the Bible : the Bible is one
thing, and the preacher's reading of it is another. I must read it
for myself ; my heart must read it, and through the faith that
comes of that personal reading, equal, by the energy and ministry
of the Holy Ghost, to a personal interview with the Son of God, I
must be saved. Words can hardly suffice to explain how much I
fear lest any man should be believing simply because I believe.
You cannot believe as I believe, nor I as you. Every man must
have his own faith, his own light, his own hope, and yet, when
that personal and discriminating process is completed there will be
found at the end wondrous unity, the more beautiful that it is
non-mechanical, and the more lasting that it is a city not made
with hands. Have no fear of perverting Jews misrepresenting
inspired Aposties and bringing God's doctrine to ruin. The form
will change ; there will be second and third amended editions of
catechisms ; there will be long and angry debates in Christian as
semblies ; and yet when all the words have been rearranged and
readjusted, by very skilful and cunning distribution of their terms,
we shall find the inner, spiritual, holy doctrine untouched. What
is it you believe ? If you are trusting to definitions and calling
that " inteUigent" Christianity, take care that your " intelligent"
Christianity does not ruin you. I want a Christianity that has the
fewest possible human definitions, but that sums itself up into
terms we can hardly quote too often and not too pathetically —
"A guilty, weak, and helpless worm.
On thy kind arms I fall. "
We can all say that. There are men of enlarged capacity, singular
gifts, and competent training, who must, by a species of, I hope.
Christian fate, trouble themselves about the mechanical arrange
ment of words and phrases ; but the great sinful, needy, broken,
bursting heart of man can believe where it cannot explain. If we

2SO ACTS XVIIL 12-17.
have been trusting to reports of apostolic doctrine and service, let
,us henceforward go to the apostolic annals, each for himself, and
find out, so far as the Holy Spirit may reveal it, the inner and last
ing meaning which words can only momentarily typify and sym
bolize. " To the law and to the testimony" must be the cry of
every teacher who would destroy the priest and honour the sanc
tuary and the truth of God.
I find from the twelfth verse that the Jews were unanimous in
the insurrection which they made against Paul. Unanimity is
nothing ; sincerity is nothing. We must inquire what the una
nimity is about, and what the sincerity implies. Sincerity is only
good when rightiy directed, and unanimity is worthless if moving
not in the direction of truth, righteousness, and grace. Paul
stood alone, so far as men were concerned, on more occasions
than one. Said he, in one instance, " No man stood with me
notwithstanding the Lord stood with me." When a man
speaks in the Lord's name }'ou hear more than one speaker ; as
there are voices as the sound of many waters, so there are voices
that bring unto themselves the music of all heaven. Let us take
care, then, lest we mistake human unanimity for Divine counsel.
Whether the unanimity is with us or against us, it counts nothing
if the foundation is wrong ; and if the foundation is right, the
unanimity will come in at the last
And now Gallio, much maligned, and greatly preached against
by those who do not know him, comes into the story. Gallio is a
man who has suffered many things at the hands of preachers. He
has always been set up as a type of the careless man. The text
has often been, "And Gallio cared for none of these things."
And base creatures have been told that they were " Gallios" !
They never were so honoured in their lives ! They Gallios !
Gallio would not touch them with the tip of his fingers ! Gallio
was not a careless rake ; Gallio was not a religiously indifferent
man ; Gallio knew his business and attended to it, and limited
himself by it ; and his carelessness was not a moral blemish, but
was rather a personal honour and a distinct evidence of his high
qualification for the office which he sustained in the community.
Gallio was the brother of Seneca, and Seneca said, ' ' No man can
look so sweetly upon any one creature as my brother Gallio can
look upon all mankind." He was the sweetest, loveliest, most

GALLIO.

251

genial of hearts. To charge him with moral carelessness is unjust,
but to make many modern sluggards into Gallios is to hbel the
dead. Let them find in history some other symbolic name, but
do not let them imagine that they are followers of the brother of
Seneca. Sweet soul ! The genial heart who, not understanding
the controversy, declined to take any part injt.
Yet I would chide even GaUio for the unintentional injury he
has done to the world. We read in the fourteenth verse, " And
when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Gallio said unto
the Jews  " There Gallio did us unintentional mischief. He
has deprived the Church of another speech by the greatest speaker
that ever served the cause of Christ Paul's speech was ready ;
Paul's defence was always within call. What he would have said
to that sweet Gallio who can tell ? We miss the accidental elo
quence of a few measurable sentences, but we know from what
Paul did say upon other occasions that he would only have varied
the majesty of his eloquence by the tenderness of a special appeal.
The substance of his speech we have in all the other speeches ;
but we do wonder with what accidental beauty and subtlety of
allusion he would have addressed the sweetest heart that ever lis
tened to him. Gallio used a phrase which brought him within
lines which we wish could have enclosed him for ever. Speaking
from his point of view, he said, ' ' But if it be a question of words
and names. ' ' Could Gallio have heard Paul upon the Word, who
can tell what would have occurred ? But are we not always putting
away from ourselves great opportunities ? Do we not feel weary
just when the discourse is sharpening itself into the eloquence that
would touch our mind like light, and our heart like a wand of
love ? Why do we not live in an expectancy that turns water into
wine, and common suppers into sacred sacraments ? The next
sentence might have saved you, but just then your ears waxed
heavy and you did not hear ! There may be careless people not
withstanding the misapplication of the name of Gallio. Instead
of calling you by that historical name, I would call you by your
own names, plainly and frankly ; with a plainness which you
might at first resent, but with a candour which you will afterwards
come to bless. Is it true that you care ' ' for none of those
things' ' ? Then for what do you care ? What is it that absorbs
your mind, that constrains your heart, and that moves your whole

252 ACTS XVIIL 12-17.

nature as with the energy of a passion ? Show it me. What is
it ? I undertake to show you, by fair argument that would pass
as gold in the market-place, that whatever it is out of Christ it is
unworthy of the immortality that trifles with it and of the man
hood that is being debased by its frivolity.

LXVIII.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, we stand at the Cross of thy Son, thanking thee for
all goodness, for daily care, for love unbroken and complete. We bring
our thanksgiving unto thee and lay it humbly and lovingly on the altar,
and ask thee to take it as our only gift. We have nothing that we have
not received, but thou hast been pleased to work in us a thankful heart,
and we bring our gratitude to thee in return for blessings that have no
number, and for compassion infinite and unspeakable. We know what
sin we have done, and we hide ourselves in darkness. Thou hast set a
great light before us in the Cross of Jesus Christ the Saviour, and we
would hasten out ot the night of our gloom and despair into the broad,
glorious morning of thy pardon and mercy and love. Receive us, we
humbly pray thee, every one, and let us all be released from every memory
that torments and from every accusation that burdens the soul. The
house is thine, and in our Father's house there is bread enough and to
spare. May we eat of it abundantly, and so destroy the hunger which is
consuming our inmost life. The day is thine ; the beams of the sun seem
to come in tender brightness as if charged with special messages of love.
This is the day of resurrection. This morning all tombs are vacated, and
death has no place in the earth which it has apparently conquered, for
Christ is risen to-day, and in Christ all that are Christ's arise. He is
become the first-fruits ot the dead ; and if we be risen with Christ we
must set our affections on things above and not on things of the earth.
Enable us by the powder ot the Holy Ghost so to elevate our affections as to
show that we have been delivered from the prison of this present lite, and
have been introduced into the infinite liberty of thine own eternal being.
Our prayer cannot be so great as thy love. All our words when put togeth
er can ask but one drop outot the firmament ot thy pity. Giving doth not
impoverish thee, neither doth withholding enrich thee. Thou hast unsearch
able riches in Christ Jesus the Lord. Thou hast a gift for every heart ;
in thy love there is an answer to every necessity. There is no wound in
all the smitten heart of man which cannot be healed by the balm of the
Cross. So will we enlarge our prayers and add to them all that our mind
can think or our imagination conceive ; and when we have made the ap
peal all that we can make it, thou art able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think. We pray to be surprised by the revela
tions of thy light, and the communications of thy love. May we daily be
startled into sotfie new prayer and some higher hymn of praise. Give us

254 ACTS XVLLL 18-23.

the occasional vision which makes our hope a still brighter flame. Come
to us in some special way that shall unite all the ordinary visions of lite,
and make the common unusual, and the daily vision a special brightness.
We thank thee for personal mercies which we may not name in the hear
ing of others. We bless thee for family light and security and rest ; for
all that makes the household the centre of our life and the strength of
our confidence. We thank thee for prosperity in business, in basket and
in store. Thou didst increase the flour and thou didst cause the oil to
overflow the vessels. God be praised for blessings in the market-place,
in the house, and in the open life, and in the secret heart. Now speak
comfortably to us. Let all things temporal and sensible fall away into their
proper place ; and may our eyes be fixed upon the eternal glory, the eter
nal throne, the eternal King ; and so fixed, our hearts shall forget their
trouble, our weakness shall become strength, and our perplexity shall
be turned into quietness and confidence. The Lord hear us when we ask
for pardon. We must be heard, for the cry goes up to heaven through the
Cross of Christ— through that blessed Cross send back thy great reply ; and
every one of us shall feel that there is no past of guilt, but a great past of
forgiveness, and a bright future ot service and friendship and love and
toil that brings no weariness. Amen.

Acts xviii. 18-23.
18. And Paul having tarried after this yet many days [after the conclu
sion of the year-and-a-half of security, and after the Jews' abortive at
tempt] took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence for Syria, and
with him [sailed] PrisciUa and Aquila ; having shorn his [not Paul's, buj
Aquila' s head. G. "and Aquila shorn as to his head," an idiom which
the Vulgate rightly translates by, " Aquila, who had shorn his head in
Cenchrea, for he had a vow"] head in Cenchrea ; for he had a vow [the
Revisers, by their punctuation of the Greek text, separate the adjective
from Aquila and so shave Paul].
19. And they [PrisciUa and Aquila " with Paul," v. 18. They sailed ;
they came ; he left them] came to Ephesus, and he left [ceased to lodge
with] them there ; but he himself [" by himself," or "for his part"] en
tered into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.
20. And when they asked him to abide a longer time he consented
not. 21. But taking his leave of them, and saying, I will return again unto
you, if God will, he set sail from Ephesus [the words omitted were sup
plied by copyists from xx. 16].
22. And when he had landed at Csesarea, he went up and saluted the
[Caesarean] Church, and went down to Antioch [for Syria, v. 18, was his
destination. Note the summary account of the journey from Corinth to
Antioch].

PRLSCLLLA. 255
23. And having spent some time there, he departed [on his third
MISSIONARY journey], and went through the region ot Galatia and
Phrygia [i.e., Lycaonia] in order [as before], stablishing all the disciples.

PREPARING FOR LABOUR.
PAUL had conquered his position in Corinth. He seemed to
have acquired a right to remain there. The battie had raged
and Paul had been brought into rest, and confidence had been
established, in some degree, between himself and the Corinthian
public. Paul, seeing an opportunity of doing very much good,
consented to remain there, and to work constructively rather than
disputatiously. But Paul ' ' took his leave of the brethren. ' '
This is a new tone in the narrative. Paul has not often gone away
from a city in this quiet, friendly, and social manner; Paul's
going out has often been amidst tumult, battle, evil-feeling, and
malignant criticism and treatment Paul now must take leave of
the brethren. He has a purpose which he must carry out ; that
purpose will presentiy come before us in a few significant words.
The intention was in the Apqstie's heart a long time ^before he
expressed it, and it gave, no doubt, a subtie pathos and tenderness
to a good deal of his concluding service in Corinth. When his
tone became sweeter and tenderer ; when his appeals were more
urgent and ardent, people around him might wonder at the
change of accent and emphasis. They would say, " Is this pre
monitory ? Is the spirit of death already upon him ? Is he talk
ing from under a shadow that will presentiy deepen into the final
gloom ? Hovv sweetiy he now speaks ! how gracious is his whole
manner ! how the old rigour and sternness have become subdued !
and how like a littie child is this foremost of disputants, this in
vincible assailant of evil !" The explanation was that Paul had
made up his mind to go to Jerusalem and there complete a Levit
ical obligation. Over part of the road he took with him PrisciUa
and Aquila. But their names did not come before us in this
order when we first made their acquaintance. Then they were
husband and wife, now they seem to be wife and husband. There
is an order in these things ; there is a subtle primacy of influence,
character, and spiritual genius which asserts itself naturally, and
which has to be carefully looked for because of its unobtrusive-

256 ACTS XVIIL 18-23.
ness. It would be easy to read the eighteenth verse without notic
ing that PrisciUa comes before Aquila. Who noticed that change
of relation in the public reading of the Word ? Does it not seem
as if PrisciUa ought to be a greater Christian teacher than Aquila ?
What can he know of the interior of the faith-temple, the love-life,
the sacrifice which is Christianity translated into its native tongue ?
It is not the man that should preach, but the woman always. The
man should be but tolerated, for what can he know of spiritual
mystery, of religious instinct, of that sharp, clear vision which,
taking littie heed of the letter, sees the angel behind it, and that
angel, looking back to the woman's heart, what only a woman's
heart can see ? My wonder is, not that the order of the names
should stand as it does in the eighteenth verse, but that ever Aquila
should have taken the precedence of PrisciUa. Go to the humble
heart, if you would have a right reading of Scripture. He, or she,
who has suffered most can read God's Bible best This elocution
cannot be taught for money ; it is the genius of blood. You
must feel, or you cannot read. Let me hear fhe suffering mother
read sobbingly, and though her words be blurred by tears and
chokings, there will come out of them gleamings of spiritual fire
that will tell me that inside the whole transaction is the God of the
Abrahams, the Isaacs, and the Jacobs, of all massive and sublime
history. Paul had " shorn his head in Cenchrea : he had a vow." The
greatest liberalist in the Church was also addicted to Levitical
obedience. The man who so strenuously and nobly fought the
battie of circumcision himself took the Nazarite vow. Do not
think that a liberal Apostie is necessarily a latitudinarian in action.
Paul maintained a hard discipline over himself, and, therefore,
could afford to be very liberal and compassionate towards other
people. He is the man to be dreaded, who is severe with others
and clement to himself ; and he is the man to be trusted — almost
to the point of idolatry — who keeps himself" under," who strikes
himself, as Paul said he did, in the eyes, and who is gentie, gra
cious, and hopeful in relation to everybody but himself. Could
Paul be prevented from carrying out this now ? Not all the forces
of Corinth, not all the seductions of Ephesus could keep back that

CHARACTER-BUILDING. 257
faithful heart The vow could only be completed in the metrop
olis. It was permitted by the Nazarite law for a man whose hair
had grown long under the necessity of the vow to cut off his hair,
but he must keep it and take it up to Jerusalem and burn it in the
Temple at the appointed hour in the appointed fire. That hair
could not be burned elsewhere and the law be honoured. Paul
carried his shorn locks with him. Think of Paul doing it The
Apostle of liberty, the man who would not give place by subjec
tion, no, not for an hour, to those who would limit the liberty
that is in Christ Jesus, carrying up his shorn hair to burn it ac
cording to the Levitical law. We can trust that man. Sometimes
we dare not approach Paul, when he is wrapped, as it were, in a
mantle of light and fire, and when he is his very self, standing be
tween heaven and earth — more a figure of the former than of the
latter. Then he seems a long way from us, but when he comes
down to the plain level and says — " I have a vow, and I must by
all means keep it" — we feel that a man so honest in a matter so
comparatively trifling is likely at least to be severely true in matters
of larger breadth which transcend oftentimes, not only our intel
lectual, but our moral comprehension. It is thus we must judge
one another. Where we cannot understand the doctrine we can
understand the action. If I cannot understand your metaphysics
of the Trinity, I can understand how you keep your engagements
with me ; and if you fail in those engagements you can hardly be
surprised if I begin to doubt concerning the metaphysics which lie
beyond my usual intellectual line. Men cannot, perhaps, under
stand the articles of our theological belief, but they can understand
our temper, our honesty over the counter, our punctuality, our
ordinary honour in life. If they find us faithful in littie things
they must reason that we are faithful also in greater things. We
may not be able elaborately to defend our theology, but we can
live such a life of simplicity, honourableness, decency, nobleness,
and purity, as shall make it hard work for the sceptic to get at the
inner citadel which we call our theological faith. We can build
such moral outworks as will cause the assailant or the sceptic a
great deal of difficulty. Finding our honour so brilliant, our daily
virtues so complete, our temper so magnanimous, our word a
bond of adamant— the unbeliever will find it hard work to say one

258 ACTS XVIIL 18-23.

word against our prayer, or to mock the utterance of one article of
our faith.
Paul came to Ephesus and left PrisciUa and Aquila there, but
he himself finding that he had a little margin of time said he would
look into the synagogue and reason with the Jews. That is how
Paul kept holiday. We cannot run with this footman ; he is swifter
than the horse-rider. He does not want to look at anything in
the city of Ephesus — famed in a country famous for great cities.
Again he says, " Where is the synagogue ? Where are the Jews ?
Let me reason with them." But the woods around Ephesus are
beautiful — why not drive through them ? Imagine Paul driving
through a pine-wood for the purpose of sniffing the scented air.
He lived in the synagogue ; the Jews were the mountains he
wanted to see, and the obstinacy of the unbelieving heart was the
only field in whic'n he cared to take holiday. At Ephesus he met
with an unwonted reception; he so "reasoned" with the Jews
there that when he talked about going farther on " they desired
him to tarry longer time with them." We have seen how these
Jews spat upon him, hated him, banished him from their syna
gogues and their cities ; but at Ephe.sus he meets with another
reception. What is the meaning of that ? Is the devil playing a
trick here ? He has one trick that he tries occasionally — not too
frequently so as to spoil it — and he may be trying that subtiest
trick at Ephesus. Was there an attempt here to keep the Apostie
Paul from Jerusalem, whither he must go to accomplish his vow ?
Was this a bond fide welcome ? Did the Ephesian Jews speak the
sentiment of their hearts ? We cannot tell ; but if they did not
they got their answer. Paul " bade them farewell, saying, I must
by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem : but I will
return again unto you, if God wiU. " Did they want him to
return ? Did they say anything to encourage him to come back
again ? He will come back ; he has his greatest day yet before
him ! What we have seen in the eighteen chapters gone is next
to nothing to the batties that have to come. Paul will be greater
when he comes back from Jerusalem, for there the spur will touch
his blood, and he will have a new and broader work before him.
In the twenty-second verse are the saddest words in the Acts of

NEED OF SYMPATHY. 259
the Aposties. The words are but three in number, but they hide
a whole grave full of shattered hopes and anticipated joys. Paul
going back to Jerusalem for the fourth time ! The Church will
wait for him ! The Church will pray with him ! The Church
will hold a great banqueting day after a spiritual fashion, for the
noblest of her warriors has returned, and his speech will be a
recital of battles fought and won. Paul went up to Jerusalem and
' ' saluted the Church. ' ' That is all ! Paul went up to Jerusalem
and made his bow. Paul went up to Jerusalem and offered
courteous homage to the Primate of the Church. Where the
sound of festival ? Festival there was none ! Where the clang of
trumpet, and the throb of drum, and the unfolding of red ban
ners ? There was none ! Did that take place in the Mother
Church ? Yes. Can a woman forget her sucking child ? Yes.
,Paul was never greater than when he held his tongue, and left the
dignitaries to perish in their own vanity. What a time they might
have had had they gathered around the warrior and said, ' ' Show
us your wounds and scars, and tell us what news there is from the
seat of war." But no. Paul was a liberal thinker; Paul had
protested against the Judaizing teachers ; Paul had committed a
great offence by claiming liberty in Christ for Gentile believers ;
and some men cannot forgive. Do not blame them until you
have blamed a flint for not bleating. Did Paul change his faith
or his policy because of this metropolitan coldness ? No ; having
played the gentleman where he rather would have displayed the
Christian, " he went down to Antioch ; and after he had spent
some time there  " He was more at home among the Gen
tiles. Paul made short work of his visit to the Church in Jerusa
lem, for the door was shut and the key was lost ; but when he
came to Antioch he said, ' ' The sun is brighter, the earth is
greener, friends are cheerier ; this is home." We cannot live on
ceremony ; we cannot live on dignity ; we cannot be happy where
persons do but touch us with the tips of their fingers, intimating
thereby that they would rather not touch us at all ; but only live
in love, in mutual trust, in mutual prayer. See how Paul was
treated at Jerusalem, but Paul will live, a growing figure, when the
men who snubbed him at Jerusalem are forgotten echoes. Have
faith in God ; try to find out that which is true and right and
good, and follow it to the end. It would be cheering to have a

26o ACTS XVIIL 18-23.
kind word at Jerusalem in the very midst of the battle ; to have
an opportunity of looking over the armour, and seeing that the
panoply was in good condition. It would be cheering if the elder
Aposties could come and say, " Brave heart, fight on ! for our
prayers and our love will follow you across all the war- fields."
But at Jerusalem they were too orthodox to be Christians,

LXIX.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, thou dost say with kingly love to everyone coming to
thee in Christ Jesus, the Priest and the Saviour of man, " What is thy
petition? and what is thy request? and it shall be granted unto thee."
Thou art not as the kings of the earth, reserving unto themselves half
their kingdom when they make great promises. Thou hast given unto
thy Church all things — all height, all depth, all riches, all spaces, all du
ration ; all things are ours, and we are Christ's, and Christ is God's.
Wilt thou give us to feel the infinity of our riches, that there may be no
longer any word or tone of poverty upon our lips, but that we may speak
as rich men, to whose wealth there is no end, and whose joy is wide and
lasting as God's heaven. We are children of the dust, and our lower
nature drags us down to its own beginning ; but we are also children of
light, children of the Holy One ; and thou dost give us lifting up of heart
and thought according to the measure of our dignity in Christ Jesus.
Our hope in him is that the higher will destroy the lower, and that in
thine own good time and way we shall be made like unto the angels,
stainless, infinite in the whiteness of purity, loving God with undistracted
heart, and serving him with undivided strength. Having this hope in us
we would purify ourselves ; having within us this most sacred joy, we
would be no longer children of the night, but would become children of
the day ; loving the light ; loving the noontide most because the noontide
is brightest ; crying for higher heavens and brighter light ; moved by a
sacred and Divine ambition to which there is no answer in things that
can be seen or spoken of. For the holy feeling of this aspiration we
bless thee. When it comes upon us in the full tide of its power we feel
like men who shake off their chains and rise into places fit for souls that
are unstained. This is thy Sabbath blessing. This is the Lord's day.
We have come to thee from the battle of the week, and we have come to
praise thee for some defeats which have been real successes, and for some
victories that have caused us pain. We would no longer be as those who
undertake to see and hear and act for themselves. We will do no such
thing ; thou shalt be our eyes, our ears, and our hands ; and we will stand
behind and hear thy report, and answer thy command, and follow it so
far thou dost give us strength by the mystery of thy will and love. We
want to live so. Our desire is to live and move and have our being in
God. We would be swallowed up of love. We would know nothing
that is not thine, and do nothing that is not according to the good pleas-

262 ACTS XVIIL 24-28.

ure of thy will. This we have learned in Christ, and not out of him ; out
of thy Son no such lesson can be learned. This knowledge is born of the
agony of sacrifice ; herein is the Cross of Christ in all its infinite meaning.
We would be crucified with Christ ; we would glory in the Cross of Christ ;
we would bear the name of Christ. Help us to know what it is to carry
his flag, to breathe his name, and to represent his court, feeling the dig
nity of the call and the solemnity of the obligation. May we throw open
our window seven times towards the Jerusalem that is above, day by day,
and thus live in fellowship with God, and stoop to earth merely as a tem
porary discipline. Some whom thou lovest are sick. Thou canst help
them. Thou knowest every bone and every member of the body, for
thou didst make it all wilh the infinite cunning of Omniscience. Heal
those whom thou hast laid down after a time, and during that time may
their thought be moving upward in loving and anxious desire. Guide the
perplexed. They do not know whether togo to this side or to that ; they
might as well be blind. Take hold of the hand that is groping in the dark
ness, and lead thou on. Comfort the broken-hearted ; turn tears into
jewels ; make sighing equal to prayer ; and may those who are ill at ease
be brought into the sanctuary of Christ. Foil the enemy ; break him
down in the very power of his pride ; when he is about to strike what
would be the fatal blow, do thou bend back his arm and cover his eyes
with eternal night. The Lord lift up all the children, that they may feel
safe in thine arms, and may return with childish laughter the light of thy
smile. The Lord hear ; the Lord read our unspoken thought ; the Lord
exalt himself by forgiving sin through the infinite merits of the blood of
Christ. Amen. Acts xviii. 24-28.
24. Now [ — while Paul was progressing through Phrygian Galatia tow
ards Ephesus, God was preparing his way in that city :] a certain Jew
named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, a learned [G. "eloquent"] man,
came to Ephesus ; and he was mighty in the Scriptures.
25. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord ; and being
fervent in spirit, he spake and taught carefully [G. "accurately" ; so far
as he had learned them] the things concerning Jesus, knowing only the
baptism of John [xix. 3, 4] :
26. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Pris
ciUa and Aquila heard him, they took him unto them, and expounded
unto him the way of God more carefully [G. " with fuller accuracy"].
27. And when he was minded to pass over into Achaia, the brethren
encouraged him, and wrote to the disciples to receive him [i Cor. iii. i.
Note this evidence of a Church having been founded at Ephesus] : and
when he was come, he helped them much which had believed [which he
did] through grace :
28. For [as only grace could have enabled him to do] he powerfully

INDIVIDUALITY. 263

confuted the Jews, and that publicly, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus
was the Christ [i Cor. iii. 6. Bengel's note on Apollos is, "he watered,
but did not plant"].

A NEW MAN IN THE CHURCH.
HOW marvellous is the pre-eminence of individual men.
Herein is the continual miracle of daily Providence. The
great man always comes ; yet few can tell how or whence. God
is pleased to make sudden revelations of power. He is pleased to
surprise men themselves by unexpected accessions of strength, so
that the feeble man becomes as the mighty, and the obscure man
steps up to the very summit of prominence and renown. Elijah
comes without warning, and is Elijah all at once. Other men
have been found on the same lines and have challenged society
with equal suddenness. Men are so much alike up to a given
point, and then without potent reason they separate from one
another into individualities, assuming distinctive colours, and
going out on separate and independent missions. It is not the
first hundred feet that give a mountain its name, but the last ten
feet Just that littie peak will get the mountain a name among
mountains ; that littie hardly visible outline will create the fame
of the hill. It is so that God is always distributing human power,
talent, and influence. We have very much in common, and then
after that which is common we have that which is individual, and
so become particularized into glittering units, each standing alone,
yet each having subtle relations to the whole. Study the miraCle
of the succession of the generations, those of you who have what
you call your ' ' doubts' ' about historical miracles. The anecdotal
miracles have passed away, but there is an eternal miracle, and
men would see it but for the impoverishing familiarity which takes
no notice of the sunlight because it is so regular, so common, and
so plentiful. Yet we are all one, centrally and morally. The
littie bird that can fly seems to have a larger liberty than man who
can only walk ; but the air is only the wider earth— it is all earth ;
the air belongs to us, and though birds can fly in it, they never
get away from the earth really. So with the great mental eagles,
flying souls, minds that open the broad pinions of immeasurable
power and flap them at heaven's gate— they all belong to us ; they

264 ACTS XVIII, 24-28.

are bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. Argumentative Paul
and eloquent Apollos are brethren with us, sitting at the same
table and kneeling at the same altar. If we could get that view of
our leaders we should destroy all envy, suspicion, distrust, rivalr}',
and jealousy, because Apollos would be my larger self, and Paul
in his noblest moods would be myself transfigured. We should
glorify God in the greatness of our brethren.'
Let us look at the pre-eminence of Apollos and study the char
acteristics which were natural and inimitable and those which were
acquired and therefore possible of reproduction by ourselves.
Apollos was " an eloquent man," and therefore his temptations
were great. It is difficult for any eloquent man to be what is
popularly known as honest It is a tremendous trial of integrity,
as usually understood, to have great command of langtiage. Do
not suppose that the eloquent man hears his own eloquence as we
hear it ; he is told about it If he be artificial in his eloquence he
hears every tone of it ; but if inspiredly eloquent he is himself a
hearer as well as a speaker. How does it come to be almost im
possible for an eloquent man to be popularly considered as
honest ? Because he sees so many colours in words, so many
critical variations of meaning. He does not speak with broad
vulgarity any word that he utters ; and when I suggest the diffi
culty of an eloquent man being honest I am bound to add that he
is often thought to be dishonest when he is not really so. He is
speaking another language. Some persons have only two colours
— black and white. What can they know of the revelations of
colour which God has granted to these latter times ? Some voices
have only two movements — loud and low, they have no internal
line, no broken, mysterious, weird tones. They are either speak
ing very loudly or very lowly, and they know nothing of the m}?s-
tery of the mind which sees a whole apocalypse in the action of
intonation. In English we have only two numbers. We are a
concise people ; we speak of " singular and plural." But there
are other languages that have more numbers than two. In Eng
lish we have but three cases ; but there are other languages that
have six cases, as many of my junior hearers know only too pain
fully. In a language that divides everything into singular and
plural there can be, so far, no great mystery. In a language that
has only the nominative, possessive, and objective he would be a

THE DANGERS OF FERVENCY. 265

backward boy who could not master that little variety of case in
one short day. But where language becomes more subtle, com
plicated, and involved, men may be saying things which to the
simpler mind appear to be of the nature of tergiversation and even
lying, which are in their substance critically and punctihously
true. We know that there are men among us — healthy men — of
large and active digestion, who say, " Yes or no !" They mis
take their abruptness for frankness, and their violence for candour.
" Yes" and " No" are not the poles of truth and integrity. Here
Apollos cannot be reproduced by us. Eloquence cannot be
acquired ; it is the gift of tongues.
Apollos was not only "eloquent," he was "fervent in the
spirit" There he may not be imitated. You can paint fire, but
it will never warm you. Fire is the gift of God. He fixes the
temperature of the blood, the scope and fervour of the mind.
Men who are not fervent are not to be blamed. You would not
blame a man for being born blind. You are not cruel in your
judgment of a man who is lame from his birth. In those physical
instances you can see the meaning of the truth ; that same truth
has also its inner and spiritual meaning with regard to intellectual
faculties and moral qualities. Fire can read the Scriptures ; fire is
at home in the Bible. It is like blaze mingling with blaze when
fervent Apollos reads burning Isaiah. How the flames leap
together and form one grand oblation at the altar of the sun !
The difficulty here is lest men who are not fervent should blame
men who are fervent ; and lest fei-vent men should be impatient
with men who are not fervent Here also we belong to one an
other. Human nature is incomplete without the smallest, young
est, frailest child that ever crawled in the dust. The door must
nt)t be shut upon the gathered hosts until the last littie creeper has
been brought in and sat at the Father's table. Men who are not
fervent are often most useful. There is a purpose to be served in
the economy of things by ice as well as by fire — only do not let
them quarrel. Do not let ice say, "You, fire, exaggerate
things" ; and do not let fire say, " You, ice, are an offence to
every planet that burns in the sky." We are all treated by the
same Maker, and we shall be judged by Infinite Justice.
Apollos was not only ' ' eloquent' ' and ' ' fervid, ' ' he was

266 ACTS XVIH, 24-28.
" mighty in the Scriptures." There we cannot imitate him.
Might in Bible reading is the gift of God. It is a wondrous word.
To read the Bible so as to become mighty in it requires insight,
sympath}', kinship with the writers, a spiritual knowledge of the
language, identification with the Spirit of God. All men cannot
read — some schoolmasters cannot read ; some preachers cannot
read. Therein so many blunders are made. To become mighty
in the Scriptures is to know such a variety of mind : Moses, and
the prophets, and the minstrels of Israel, and Christ, and the
Apostles — who can comprehend all that gamut of inspired utter
ance ? We may be able to repeat every word of the Bible, and
yet know nothing about the inner Scriptures. The Scriptures are
in the Bible; the Scriptures are within the Scriptures. "The
letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." We can toil at this ser
vice. Some of us can understand one portion of Scripture who
cannot understand another. We must not begrudge one another
the partial gift, nor endeavour to reduce it to contempt There
are some hearts mighty in the Psalms ; there are other minds
mighty in the histories of the Bible ; there are others with a special
gift for taking hold of, and explaining, Christ We must all work
together. No one minister is the whole ministry. To hear the
sermon which is fxreached in London to-day you must add all the
individual sermons, and when they have gathered themselves up
into one sublime thunder, you have heard the sermon preached
to-day in the name of Christ You should go further still and
take in, not one capital, but all cities, not one empire, but all
kingdoms, nations, and states ; add into one mighty sum all that
has been spoken in them, and then you will have preached in the
ear of inspired fancy the complete sermon heard to-day respecting
Jesus Christ I claim for every servant his own place ; for every
minister his own special vocation ; and I would have ever}' teacher,
minister, speaker, honoured according to the particular gift that is
in him.
Apollos was not only " eloquent," "fervent," and "mighty
in the Scriptures" ; he was " instructed in the way of the Lord."
There we may join him. He spoke through instruction, which is
the surest basis of inspiration. We are not to suppose that in
spiration excludes instruction. Instruction is the proof of inspira-

IGNORANCE. 267

tion — that is to say, the inspired Word so comes down into the
life as to prove itself along the line of our intelligence and moral
responsibility. How few people are " instructed in the way of the
Lord." There is nothing in this world more astounding than its
ignorance. There are preachers gifted with an imagination, I
know not whence descended, that speak of " this large and intelli
gent assembly" ; you cannot tell anything about the intelligence
of an assembly until you have examined man by man alone in any
book in the sacred record. There is a gift of kind heaven by
which a man can publicly look much wiser than he really is.
" Instructed in the way of .the Lord. " Why, these words involve
the devotion of a lifetime. The ' ' way of the Lord " is in the
deep waters, and in the secret places, and in the tabernacles of the
thunder, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He speaks riddle
and enigma, and utters words that startie us by reason of their
peculiarity and utter strangeness. What scope for industry !
What a field for teachableness !
So far Apollos out-soars us, but this cannot be all ; even in
Apollos there must be a weak point. Let us find it out — indeed
no long quest is needed, for we are told distinctiy in the twenty-
fifth verse that Apollos knew ' ' only the baptism of John. " If he
could be so eloquent about water, what will he be when he comes
to speak of blood ? We shall find this man doing wonders in the
Church. If he could burn so in the very soul when he knew only
the initial baptism, what will he be when he sees and feels the
Cross, the BlOod, the Sacrifice, and understands somewhat of the
forgiveness of sins, and the glory of immortality, and the splen
dour of the Christian heaven ? It is possible to teach even the
alphabet earnestiy. Apollos knew only the alphabet, but he
taught the separate letters as if they were separate poems. It is
quite possible to repeat the alphabet as though it contained noth
ing, and it is possible to repeat the letters of the alphabet as if they
were the beginnings of temples, libraries, and whole heavens of
intelhgence and revelation and spiritual possibility. The fervent
man touches everything with his fervour ; even when he repeats
the alphabet it is repeated as with fire. Do not despise the
teachers who are not teaching exactly the fulness of the Gospel.
If they are teaching up to the measure of their intelligence, thank
God for their co-operation. There are men in all great cities who

268 ACTS XVIH. 24-28.
are teaching the baptism of John, who are teaching the elements
of morality, and who are endeavouring to save the world by politi
cal elevation and the larger political truth. They must not be
undervalued ; they must not be talked about scornfully ; they
ought to be treated exactly as Aquila and PrisciUa treated Apollos.
If the offer of further information is declined or resented, the offer
has been made and the responsibihty has thus been discharged.
But do not despise men who do not teach your particular phase of
doctrine. They may be earnest and not belong to your Church ;
they will, however, show their earnestness by their teachableness.
The moment a man, in the Church or out of it, puts on the priest
and enters a claim for personal infallibility, that moment he is a
trespasser in the sanctuary of God. The oldest of us has hardly
begun his lesson ; the wisest of us will be the first to receive
another suggestion ; the most advanced scholar will be the most
docile learner. You may not have come to my Gospel of for
giveness of sins through the blood of the Cross, but you are here,
in the sacred place, to-day — I will set that fact down to your
credit If you go to church I will make that out a line in your
favour. You may not have travelled far along the road, but your
face is in the right direction, and that is a circumstance that must
not be undervalued. The Cross of Christ was set up not to de
stroy men's lives, but to save them.
" Aquila and PrisciUa took Apollos unto them and expounded
unto him the way of God more perfectly." Thus, in an indirect
way, Apollos became a pupil of St. Paul himself. Paul will prob
ably one day get hold of him, and when the two fires meet the
light will be seen and the warmth will be felt afar. These men
are ours. The sun belongs to the very poorest man that hves.
The sun belongs to the blind man who can only feel the warm
beam upon his dark face. The great things are all ours. We
cannot go into the rich man's house or room and warm our cold
hands at his blazing fire ; but the coldest child can hold up its
littie hands to God's sun, and, so to speak, bathe them in its
impartial warmth. The capital of the country belongs to every
villager. The obscure dweller in the obscure hamlet cannot claim
the secondary cities in the same way in which he can claim the
metropolis. The metropolis does not belong to any one particu-

THE CHRISTIAN' S INHERITANCE,

lar set of inhabitants ; it is the Imperial city ; it belongs to every
one in the whole empire. To go to the metropolis is indeed to
go to the mother city ; to go, in a sense, home, and to have
some well-established right to be there. So with the great Pauls
and ApoUoses, and the mighty speakers and teachers, poets and
thinkers — they belong to us, every one. The language of the
country belongs to every man, woman, and child in the country,
simply because of its largeness. If it were 2. patois it would belong
to its valley, or a particular hill-side ; but being the pure speech
of the country it belongs to every one who can utter its words ;
and it is " enough to fill the ambition of a common man that
Chatham's language was his mother-tongue." So the higher we
go the more we own. ' ' All things are yours ; whether Paul, or
Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things pres
ent, or things to come ; all are yours ; and ye are Christ's, and
Christ is God's." This is Paul's own inventory of our property ;
let us claim it, every whit and line.

LXX.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, thou art near unto us in Christ Jesus thy Son. We come
to thee by him, and, therefore, by the only way. We would come boldly
in his name, speaking to thee what is in our hearts, telling thee of our
sin, singing to thee of our thankfulness, and asking from thee daily direc
tion and continual sustenance. This is our delight ; it is no longer a
burden to us, because of the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts. He takes
of the things of Christ and shows them unto us. Jesus Christ himself
thus enlarges upon our wondering vision until he fills all things with his
radiant presence. Under the ministry of the Holy Spirit we would live,
and would prove that we are under him by our joyfulness, peace, hopeful
ness, triumph over the world and time, and by all the fruits which they
bear who are warmed by the presence of the spirit of fire. We bless thee
that we have passed from the baptism of John to the baptism of the Cross.
Weare no longer in the state of mere repentance which daily begs for
giveness ; we enjoy communion with God, fellowship with the Father —
yea, we have access into inner sanctuaries, into the Holy of holies, which
we have obtained through the Cross of Christ ; so that we are no longer
children of grief and ot fear, carrying burdens many and heavy ; but are
children of the day and of the light, filled with sacred hope, animated
with unutterable joy — yea, glorying in tribulations, also. This is thy
miracle wrought in our hearts ; we know it to be thine ; this is no work
manship ot ours ; this is the gift ot God, having in it the quality of eternal
life and the joy of heaven partially begun. We bless thee for all the
gifts of the week ; for the balmy winds of summer ; for the bread of the
table ; for the sleep which has refreshed us ; for the thoughts which have
made us men ; for the hopes which have proved us to be in Christ Jesus ;
tor all the favours thou hast shown throughout the rising and falling of
the days. We stand here to-day to praise God with a full heart and an
open mouth. Verily we are not afraid of our own voices. We would
make a joyful noise unto the rock of our salvation. We would speak with
holy confidence and emphasis of the preserving, sanctifying, tender care
of which we have been the continual subjects. Hear thy people when
they sing their psalm. Listen to them when they would whisper in the
heart of thy love some tale of pain, of sin, of shame, and answer them
with great answers, when, at the Cross of Christ and in the presence of
its atoning blood; they ask thee for a double portion of thy Holy Spirit.
We remember the sick — tho^e who are at home arid those who are in

ANNOTATED TEXT. 271
public institutions. We pray that they may be healed and comforted, and
that the thought of their weakness may become a new strength. We de
sire that having seen the side of life which is humiliating, they may now
see the side of life which presents itself towards heaven's light and rises
towards heaven's rest. Sanctify affliction and pain, sleepless nights, and
weary days. Speak comfortably to those who can hear no voice but thine
own, and where eyes are closing on earth's dim light may the eyes of the
soul be opened on heaven's cloudless morning. Give wisdom to all
physicians ; give patience and tenderness to all nurses ; make thou the
bed of the afflicted, and keep thou watch by the side of the helpless. We
pray for all mankind ; and if specially for the land we love the most, thou
thyself hast set that partiality in our hearts. We bless thee for love of
home and native land ; and we pray that every one now before thee,
praying for special places and countries, may be heard and graciously
answered. Read thy word to us thyself. May we know that we are
only listeners, and may the expression of every life be, " Speak, Lord, for
thy servant heareth." Let this be a wonderful day in the history ofthe
Church. May thy servants speak with new boldness, and by their
ministry may special miracles be done. Amen.
Acts xix. 1-12.
I. And it came to pass that, while Apollos was at Corinth [18,27], Paul
having passed through the upper [G. " more inland" ; i.e., Lycaonia, the
Phrygian district of Galatia, 18, 23] country came to Ephesus, and found
certain disciples [older term still used for Christians, 11, 26].
2. And he said unto them. Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye be
lieved ? [G. " Holy Ghost" without \he article, as in John vii. 39; signi
fying, the gift of the spirit. " Given" is therefore correctly supplied
below, as in John vii. 39 : " Did ye receive the gift of the Holy Spirit as
the consequence of your believing?"] And they said unto him. Nay, we
did not so much as hear whether the Holy Ghost was given [1 Cor. xii.
13 ; for a strikingly illustrative modern instance see John Wesley's Aiders-
gate Street "experience," as narrated by Tyerman],
3. And he said. Into what then were ye baptized? And they said, Into
John's baptism.
4. And Paul said, John baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying
unto the people that they should believe on him which should come after
him, that is, on Jesus.
5. And when they heard this, they were baptized into the name ot the
Lord [the Ascended] Jesus.
6. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came
on them; and they spake with tongues [x. 46, i Cor. xii. -xiv.], and
prophesied [xi. 27. Signs and wonders were still necessary to enable
their minds to grasp the new conscious fellowship of the Spirit].
7. And they were in all about twelve men [the Spirit saith " about"].

272 ACTS XIX. 1-12.

8. And he entered into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space
of three months, reasoning and persuading as to the things concerning
the kingdom of God.
g. But when some were hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the
Way [compare with ix. 2] before the multitude, he departed from them,
and separated the disciples, reasoning daily in the [? rabbinical] school
of Tyrannus [as Jews came freely to hear Paul this was probably a
"private synagogue," Tyrannus being the Greek name of a Jewish
teacher]. 10. And this continued for the space of two years ; so that all they
which dwelt in Asia heard the Word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.
II. And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul :
12. Insomuch that unto the sick were carried away from his body [G.
"skin" : after use by the Apostle] handkerchiefs or aprons [used by
tent-stitchers], and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits
went out.

APOLLOS COMPLETED BY PAUL.
PAUL said he would return to Ephesus. In this chapter we
find Paul again in that famous city. Something has oc
curred since he was last there— that event occupied our attention
in our last study. An " eloquent man and mighty in the Script
ures," named Apollos, had been exercising his ministry in
Ephesus, and some twelve men had answered the persuasion of
his matchless eloquence. Paul found them out, and as he looked
upon them he was surprised. They did not look happy. There
was a severity in the face which excited Paul's anxiety ; there
was nothing radiant in that little Church. The twelve heads
were bowed ; the twelve faces were written all over with lines
of discipline, subservience, fear, penitence. Paul was a direct
speaker. Looking at them, and observing their mode and ap
pearance, he said, "Have ye received the Holy Ghost?" He
noticed that something was absent. He said, " This is not a
Christian assembly ; these twelve men are unhappy ; they are
not singing men ; the spirit of triumph is not in their hearts —
what is it that is lacking here?" "Have ye received the
Holy Ghost since ye believed ?" If you had, your heads would
have been erect ; your eyes would h5ve been flames of light ; a
new life would have lifted you up to higher levels of thought
and feeling and utterance ; what is wanting here is the Holy

PRIMARY EDUCATION.

Ghost Paul was a penetrative observer. He looked for causes,
traced their operation, and judged of them by their effects.
Is there nO lesson here for us ? Looking upon us to-day, what
would Paul inquire ? He would read our faces ; he would listen
to our voices ; he would pay attention to our mode of singing the
sacred psalm and of reading the Holy Book, and if he saw happi
ness in our faces and heard music in our voices, and saw that we
were not men who were time-bound and fettered by sense, he
would say, ' ' This is none other than the house of God and the
gate of heaven, and these are the living miracles of the living
Spirit of God." But if he saw us world-bound, if he saw our
truant minds running out of the church for the purpose of collect
ing accounts and alleviating temporal anxieties, and making
arrangements for the lower life — if he saw our prayers like birds
with bruised wings that could not fly ; and if he heard us talking
the common speech of time in the common tone of earth, he
would say, "What is wanting here is the Holy Ghost— Spirit of
fire. Spirit of light. Spirit of love !" There is no mistaking his
presence, for there is none like it. The fruit of the Spirit is
. . . joy."
The twelve men who followed jVpo'los were like their eloquent
leader. We have seen, in the 2 5th verse of the preceding chapter,
that Apollos knew only the baptism of John. What he knew he
preached. Paul recognized the work that had been done, and did
not attempt to undo it, but rather to complete it ; and that is what
we must study to do in reference to the education of the world.
If you come to me knowing only the first four rules of arithmetic I
must begin with you where you end ; and recognizing the validity
of these four rules of arithmetic, I must lead you up into heights
on which no tape line can be laid, and gradually so enlarge your
vision and increase the inheritance of your soul until you despise
with ineffable contempt everything that can be measured by arith
metical figures and standards. I must not begin your education
by throwing into contempt the only four rules you do know ; my
object as a wise prophet must be to lead you on until you your
selves feel that the first four rules of arithmetic are only for infants,
and not for princes and kings of heaven. Paul did not attempt to
undervalue the work of Apollos— he carried it on to holy consum
mation. One minister must complete the work which another

274 ACTS XIX. I-I2.

minister began. The students of Apollos must become the stu
dents of Paul. We began by loving eloquence ; we end by loving
instruction. But do not let the instructive teacher undervalue the
eloquent evangelist They belong to one another. Apollos has
the silver trumpet ; Chrysostom has the golden mouth. Let such
men make their parables, create their metaphors and figures, thun-
' der with strenuous energy of rhetoric, and they will do a good
work in the world. By-and-by their students will look out for
other teachers, and will pass on from the lower school of elo
quence to the higher school of instruction, doctrine, even the
theology which is truly theological. So must we have large appre
ciation of men : so must we put out no little light, but be thankful
for its flicker and spark. The young man likes to hear a fluent
speaker, one who rushes with unbroken force at a speed incalcu
lable over an area immeasurable. The young man calls it " elo
quence." He goes to the church where the Apollos preaches
long before the doors are opened, and willingly stands there that
he may see this rushing torrent of eloquence, and hear this mighty
wind of sacred appeal. I will not condemn him ; many of us
once belonged exactly to that class. But Time — teaching, drill
ing, chastening Time — works its wondrous wizardry upon the
mind, and without violence, or consciousness of transition, we
come to a mental condition which says, " There was more in
that one sentence than in the infinite Niagara whose bewildering
forces once stupefied our youthful minds." But do not con
demn any man. Let him teach what he can. If he is still call
ing for water to throw upon the faces of the people, or calling
for people to plunge into the water, he knows no better— let him
do it. Have faith in the revelations which accompany a wise use
of time.
If Paul did not discredit the work of Apollos, the disciples of
Apollos did not discredit the larger revelation of Paul. The infer
ence is, that the disciples of Apollos were well-taught They were
not finalists ; they felt that something more might be possible.
That is the highest result of education. The heart in a state of
continual expectancy and preparedness in reference to spiritual
possibilities— that is the image of the true scholar, and that is the
condition of true progress. Christians are always " looking for
ward and hastening unto." Marvellous attitude! A posture

GROWTH IN KNOWLEDGE. 275
created by inspiration ! The look, the hastening — these are the
proofs of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost Jesus Christ availed
himself of this wonderful provision in human nature which creates
continual expectation of still larger and brighter things. When
did Jesus Christ say, " This is the end " ? We know what he did
say. For example : " I have yet many things to say unto you,
but ye cannot bear them now." Or again, "Thou shalt see
greater things than these." The future will throw the past into
relative insignificance. And again : " When he, the Spirit of
truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." " Henceforth,
know we no man after the flesh ; yea, though we have known
Christ after the flesh, yet now, henceforth, know we him no
more." Is there then a new Christ? Certainly not What is
there ? This : An enlarging appreciation of the true Christ,
Christ is always giving to us his larger SELF. These are the
" unsearchable riches." We have not changed our Christ, but
our view of him has become larger, purer, clearer ; so that he is
to our best conception as is the cloudless noontide to the gray
dawn. Look for no new birth in Bethlehem, for no new histori
cal, visible Christ ; but see if, in the growing time, the expanding
and developing ages, there is not everywhere the print of the nails
and the scar made by the sharp spear, and lay your flnger-tip upon
one proved and established benefit of civilization which cannot be
traced back step by step to the cradle in Bethlehem. Perhaps
preachers may have themselves to blame for not having given a
true revelation of the magnitude and glory of the name of Christ
For myself, I find Christ everywhere ; I cannot get away from
him. If you have been thinking of some merely ecclesiastical
Christ, I can, to a large extent, agree .with you that such a Christ
can never spread himself over all the ages and take into himself all
the experiences of mankind. But the Christ we preach is not a
creation of the Church, is not under the patronage of the Church,
is not secured in his place by the lock and key of the Church.
He is Alpha and Omega — First, Last ; who was, and is, and is to
come ; filling all things. This view of Christ enables me to look
hopefully upon some persons who do not know the full extent of
his name — even upon Apolloses who have only got so far as the
bapti-sm of John. Such men are not to be won by denunciation,
but by recognition, and recognition of the frankest, manliest, and

2/6 ACTS XIX. I-I2.

most independent quality. The Church is larger than any four
walls built for its accommodation.
We learn from verse seven that ' ' all the men were about
twelve" ; and yet there is no whining about a " poor" Church
and a ' ' weak' ' Church. We must burn such adjectives out of
the speech of Christians. There is no " poor" Church ; there
can be no "weak" Church. If you think of the Church as a
¦commercial institution with investments, endowments, revenues,
and outgoings, then you may speak about the Church being both
poor and weak, but the Church is a spiritual fellowship, a branch
in the vine sucking the very life of the root. Have we now to
re-define the term " Church" ? I fear so. There is a great deal
of inquiry as to whether the Church is "poor," or "rich," or
" weak," or " strong." It is not heroic inquiry. Moreover, we
may be totally wrong in our estimate as to which is the " poor"
Church and which is the " rich" one. A Church is not necessa
rily strong because its pews are thronged and its collections are
heav}'. It may be that the handful of copper given by some
village Church may be more than the two handsful of gold given by
the metropolitan congregation. In the large sum there may not
be one sign of sacrifice — and giving only begins when sacrifice
begins. The little sum may represent pinching and suffering and
economy equal to sacrifice. Banish from your thought and
speech the idea that any Church, redeemed, purified, inspired by
the Holy Ghost, can be either poor or weak — though the number
of the men may be " about twelve." If you allow the other style
of reasoning you will insult not only the ministry, but the verj'
genius of the Christian Church. We shall then talk about our
" weaker" brethren and our " poorer" brethren, and will appor
tion them places on the back seats when they come up to the feast
of trumpets. Let us protest against this. On the floor of the
Church and in the presence of the Cross all Christians are equal.
We flnd from the verses remaining that the Gospel produced its
usual twofold effect. Some received the Holy Ghost and advanced
in the doctrines of grace, being strengthened daily by the indwell
ing Spirit of God. ' ' But when divers were hardened and believed
not" — is the other side of the case. It must always be so. The
Gospel is a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death. Every

SPECIAL MIRACLES. 277
sermon makes us worse or better. Here you have the same city,
the same preacher, the same doctrine, but not the same result.
The results were twofold. In the one instance the Gospel resulted
in life unto life, and in the other in death unto death.
In the eleventh verse we have an expression which would indeed
be out of place in the cold speech of to-day's Christianity. We
are afraid of the word " miracles" ; we have almost to apologize
for its use. But the writer of the Acts of the Apostles not only
speaks of miracles, but of " special miracles" ; miraculous mira
cles ; miracles with a difference. Truly such men were not afraid
of the word ' ' miracles. ' ' We whisper it, or slur it ; even in our
most energetic speech we have cunning enough to drop the woid
miracle into a kind of tertiary tone ; it is not uttered with a bold
ness, roundness, emphasis. But in the eleventh verse we flnd
" special miracles. " Until the Church becomes bold enough to
use its native tongue it will live by sufferance, and at last it will
crawl into a dishonoured grave — the only tomb which it has
deserved.

LXXI.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, surely this is thy day, and thou art in this place, and
the gate of heaven is not far from our hand. The brightness of the sun
is thine ; the living air blows from the hills of heaven, and the calm day
is a pledge of still deeper rest. This is the day which the Lord hath
made — hast thou not made all days ? Were they not all rounded by thy
self into the completeness of their beauty ? Yet is there upon this day
some touch more wonderful, some sign more tender, and about it there
breathes an atmosphere unlike all other. We know this day amongst all
the seven. It stands alone, yet is the friend of all ; none may aspire to
its sublimity of memory, though all may be touched by the grace of its
history. We would that all our time might receive from this sacred day
some touch that shall lift it up into nobler responsibility and honour.
Thou hast led us through the week, and brought us to see the beginning
of another. May we know the meaning of all these beginnings in lite.
Thou hast jeweUed our time with new chances. Thou dost make every
day a new possibility, every week a fresh opportunity, every year another
time for doing better than before. May we understand this providence
of time ; may we know the meaning of the succession of days. We bless
thee for the black night-river into which we can throw all that was evil in
the day gone. We come with psalms — yea, with shoutings and raptures
before thee, because thy gentleness hath made us great. Thou hast with
held nothing from us. Thou hast delighted in our souls. We have been
as a garden of precious flowers unto thee, which thou hast watched and
tended and watered with dew and warmed with special fire. Thou hast
cared tor us with wondrous care. When we put our life together and see
its true shape, it is a temple not made vpith hands ; it is the Lord's doing,
and it is marvellous in our eyes. When we thought we saw the place of
ruin, thou didst clothe the wilderness with choice flowers. When we
said, " This river will surely swallow us up," behold, thou didst strike it
with a rod, and the waters parted, and we went through on soft golden
sand. Thou hast beaten down mountains for us, and made our foes
into friends, and caused our persecutors to become our helpers. We will
not burn incense unto ourselves, but wave the censer ot a thankful heart
before thyself — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, from whom all good things
come. We would remember our sin were not our hearts filled before
hand with the Cross. We cannot see the blackness through the sacrificial
blood. We hide ourselves in the Cross. Rock of Ages, let us hide our-

PRAYER. 279

selves in thee. Pity us. Lift us up from the lowest dust. Show the
miracle of grace triumphing over the rebellion of sin, and may we in the
Cross of Christ find the answer to our hearts' guilt and the despair of
conscience. Thou knowest what we need, every one of us, down to the
least child whose only song is laughter, and whose only prayer is wonder.
We want so much, but it is all as nothing to thee. Feed us with the
bread of heaven. Lead us into all truth. Give us the royal heart that
takes in the prodigal and prays for him as if he were already at home.
Take away from us all anti-Christ, all bigotry, littleness, exclusiveness,
self-idolatrousness, and may we stand in the love of God as shown in the
Cross of Christ, and carry up the whole world as the object of the salvation
that is in Christ Jesus. Destroy our love of opinion. Utterly drive out
of us the notion that we are to be saved by notions. Help us to slay our
views and thoughts, our conceptions and theories, and to abandon the
base idolatry which kneels to its own inventions. Help us to know
nothing but Christ and him crucified — not to know him with explanations,
but without them, by the wondrous insight of the heart The Lord dry
our tears ; make our knees strong, and our hands skilful, and make our
eyes clear and far-sighted. The Lord reconstruct our manhood, and
make us like Jesus Christ through and through. We have friends at home
who cannot come to thy house because they are sick. — Thou wilt visit
them, and make the house a church, and bring to the heart memories and
hopes and joys full of heaven's own tender grace. We have friends for
whom we dare not pray if Christ had not died. Find them out, and as
a shepherd layeth the strayed lamb on his shoulder and bringeth it home,
do thou bring by the sweet compulsion of grace every wanderer to thine
own table. The Lord hear us ; heighten the heavens above us, and
make the earth greener, and work in us all the wondrousness of a con
scious immortality, until there shall be in our life no sin, no sorrow, no
night, no death, and may our life be as the New Jerusalem, which lieth
four-square, the length being as the breadth. Amen.

Acts xix. 13-16.
13. But certain also of the strolling [itinerant] Jews, exorcists, took
upon them to name over them which had the evil spirits the name of the
Lord Jesus, saying, I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.
14. And there were seven sons ot one Sceva, a Jew, a. chief priest
[? head of one ofthe twenty-four courses of the Levitical priesthood],
which did this.
15. And the evil spirit answered and said unto them, Jesus I know
[recognize], and Paul I know ; but who [what sort] are ye?
16. And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and mas
tered both of them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of
that house naked and wounded.

ACTS XIX. 13-16.

SEVEN SONS OP SCEVA.
IN considering these circumstances we must call to mind what
had been done in the city of Ephesus, the capital of Asia. A
great spiritual revolution had taken place. Paul had been resident
in Ephesus, more or less, for two years. At first he found the
twelve disciples of Apollos utterly without Christian knowledge
beyond the introductory baptism of John. Under Paul's ministry
the Holy Ghost had been poured out, and from that time great
interest was felt in the whole subject of spiritual influence. From
time immemorial superstition has grown in Ephesus, and to add
one superstition to another came quite easy to the sophisticated
minds of the Asiatics. Christianity was another department of
magic. It seemed to succeed well in the hands of Paul and his
colleagues, and it might be worth while to incorporate it with
Ephesian mysteries. At all events, the men who had practised
exorcism, or the art of casting out, were willing to try it, and the
trial is related in this passage.
Even the Jews of Ephesus were tainted by this superstition. As
we see from the 14th verse " there were seven sons of one Sceva,
a Jew, and chief of the priests, ' ' which ' ' took upon them to call
over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus."
We must not dismiss the men as impostors. They were deluded,
¦but not necessarily wicked. They wanted to do a good work, and
so far we must credit them with a good motive. You and I are
most concerned in finding out the modern meaning and present-
day force of the narrative. A wonderful testimony — the more
wonderful because unconscious — is here borne to the power of
Christianity. Such testimony is of high corroborative value. The
outsiders had been looking on, wondering how the new magic
would act. They said nothing about it, but when occasion served
they endeavoured to practise it ; and so much to the world's testi
mony, unconscious or reluctant, to the potent power of Christian
action. The Ephesians did not say, ' ' This argument is cumula
tive, cogent, and unanswerable, therefore we yield our intellectual
citadel to the holy siege. " They uttered no words, but looking
on they saw wonder after wonder, and when the Apostles were not
there they tried to conjure according to the apostolic necromancy,

NECROMANCERS AND EXORCISTS. 281

as they regarded it. That is being done to-day. If Paul had
failed, the Ephesians never would have tried the new art When
the seven sons of the chief of the priests tried to repeat the proc
esses of Paul they unconsciously certified to the practical influ
ence which Paul had exercised in Ephesus.
The thirteenth verse sums up a large mass of evidence ; it is a
condensed history of Christian triumph. The Ephesian necro
mancers and exorcists had seen the most stubborn of the devils
dragged out of their heart-caves. For years they had been trying
to silence this evil spirit and that, and the evil spirit had mocked
them, chattering back in broken speech the boldest words of a
timid audacity. But in this instance the most reluctant and stub
born of the spirits had been dispossessed, and the Ephesians, with
out saying to Paul, ' ' You are right and we will follow you, ' ' tried
to turn Paul's art into a department of Ephesian mystery. Much
is expected of Christians to-day, as much was expected of Paul in
his time. Never did the public arise and say to Christ, ' ' You
really must be excused if you cannot cast out this one particular
devil" They expected him to cleanse the very hell of the heart
There must be no break-down ; there must be no saying,
" Hitherto thy power can go, and no further." He must walk
through the very centre of the burning hell, and work miracles
where miracle had never before been worked. It is exactly so
with Christians to-day. They are expected to keep the whole ten
commandments and to add all other possible commandments to
them, and if they fail to touch the very uppermost line in the
heights of virtue there are men at the foot cruel enough to chide
them for failure, to mock their pra}'ers, and turn their aspiration
into reproaches. Necromancers may fail in their momentary
trick, but Christians must be kept up to the mark. Christians are
never allowed to tamper with law, pureness, commandment, moral
authority. Divine or human exaction — they are scourged to the
mark. What is the meaning of this ? Rightly understood, it is
the sublimest tribute which can be borne to the moral nobleness
of .Christian faith. They who would but laugh a careless laugh
over a necromancer will denounce bitterly any Christian heart that
fails to give in its life the Amen to its own prayer.
Add to that thought the one which arises in connection with the
endeavour of the seven sons of Sceva to cast out evil spirits.

232 ACTS XIX, 13-16.

Wherein did they fail ? They failed at every point. They came
into the ministry in a wrong way ; and that is always an explana
tion of failure of the worst kind. How did they come into the
ministry in a wrong way ? The answer is given in the thirteenth
verse. " They took upon them," — that is the explanation.
When men take the ministry " upon them" it fails in the last
outcome in their hands. No man must go to war in this battle
on his own account or at his own charges. This ministry is not
something which a man may elect in preference to something
else. The ministry is nothing if it is not a burden, a necessity, a
fire in the bones, a spectre that will not let a man sleep at mid
night till he has given his answer in a vow to serve it. There are
those who would tell us that if we give our ministers better incomes
we shall have better men. God forbid. Such teaching is the ruin
of true ministry. When a man begins to calculate that he can
have so much in the ministry and so much out of it he is not
called to the ministry. This is a vocation, not a profession ; this
is an inspiration, not a calculation.
They — the seven sons of Sceva — knew nothing about the Name
with which they conjured. Instead of saying, " We adjure you
by Jesus Christ whom we love," they said, " We adjure you by
Jesus whom Paul preacheth." The sacred influence will not pass
through such negative or non-conducting connections. That is
one of the noblest tributes that can be paid to the dignity and
heavenliness of Christianity. It will not have anything to do with
any other thought ; it will not be incorporated; it will stand by
itself and by itself alone. There are many persons who would be
glad to amalgamate Christianity with something else. But Chris
tianity will not be amalgamated. This is new cloth that will be
put upon an old garment without making the rent worn. This is
new wine that will be put into old botties without utterly tearing
them to pieces. Christianity will not mix. Christianity will not
consent to be part of an eclectic philosophy, saying, " You can
add a little of me to a little of Aristotie and other great teachers
and inventors of ethical systems. ' ' Christianity wants the world
to itself. It would be more popular if it were more neighbourly.
If it could sit down with other philosophies and confer with them
upon equal terms it might receive a little caressing and a littie pat
ronage and a more immediate recognition. But no ; it must

PREACHING FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, 283
cleanse the house, drive out all revelry, and reign alone. Can we
wonder that it is not the popular religion ? The wonder would be
if it were.
How much modern meaning there is in the expression, " We
adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth." There was no doubt
about the subject of Paul's preaching. If you asked the seven
sons of one Sceva, a Jew, whom Paul preached, they would answer
you instantaneously and without qualification, ' ' He preached one
Jesus." This is a tribute to the honesty and consistency of Paul.
Here is a certificate signed by seven unexpected but trustworthy
signatories. We are urged to-day to preach the Christ whom the
Puritans preached. That exhortation is not without deep mean
ing ; but a man may stand in the pulpit and say to his hearers,
" I adjure you to serve the Christ whom the Puritans preached,"
and his hearers will return the answer of indifference or the reply
of mockery. A minister may go further and say, " I adjure you,
by the Christ whom the Apostles preached, to save yourselves, ' '
and the word would have no power ; the powder might blaze, but
there would be no ball to take effect A man might go even fur
ther and say to nineteenth-century hearers, " I adjure you, by the
Christ of the New Testament, to believe," and the nineteenth
century would know nothing about such a Christ. What then is
the secret of force ? How is the Christian man to suit his age and
arrest it ? By preaching the Christ whom his own heart knows
and loves — not by preaching a Christ whom somebody else once
preached with great effect, but the Christ known to him, loved by
him, so that he can at any moment stand up and say, " Once I
was blind, now I see, and a Man called Christ opened mine eyes,
and it is to my Christ that I call you. ' ' Paul uses an expression
which some persons cannot think is in the New Testament He
uses the expression, " My gospel." Every man has his own con
ception of God, his own hold of the Gospel, his own reading of
truth, and he must preach that. If I have to preach a Christ
whom another man preached I have to commit a lesson to memory
and to be very careful lest I stumble in the verbal recitation ; but
if I preach a Christ born in my own heart, the hope of glory,
living with me day by day, talking to me on the road, watching
me whilst I sleep, meeting me in new converse when I awake,
showing me the mystery of sin and the greater mystery of grace ;

234 ACTS XIX. 13-16.

if I have communion with him, deep, loving, ardent fellowship —
then I can preach without learning a lesson, my whole life must
break into argumentative eloquence, and men must be constrained
to say, " He has been with Jesus and learned of him." O Church
of the Living God ! do not refer the nineteenth century to books
written in the seventeenth, or even the first, century, except as
incidental illustrations and corroborative testimonies. The only
Christ any age can listen to is the Christ which the preacher him
self knows, loves, and serves.
The answer returned by the evil spirit is the answer which every
age will return to professional necromancers and moralists. ' ' The
evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know ;
but who are ye ? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped
on them, and overcome them, and prevailed against them, so that
they fled out of that house naked and wounded. ' ' Exactly what
every ministry is doing that adjures or conjures in a secondary
way. The answer of the spirits was argumentative ; so is the
answer of the spirits to-day. The answer of the spirits was vio
lent ; and the answer of the spirits is violent in every age, when
they are charged or appealed to by unauthorized assailants. These
seven sons of, Sceva are living to-day. Here is one of them. A
man who indulges himself in some way and then seeks to exorcise
the spirit of intemperance in others. He gratifies every appetite,
never cuts with a knife right into the indulgence which pleases
him ; but looking over his own indulgence, as over foaming wine,
he bids some other man be self-controlled. What wonder if the
drunkards of the land should throw back in the face of the Church
its calls to sobriety ? They are mocking calls. He only has
power over his age in this direction who says, ' ' I should like to
drink this — to take this ; I could take so much and let it alone,
but for your sake I set it down. Now be sober !" That man is
not preaching a total abstinence which somebody else practises,
but a self-control which he has imposed upon his own appetite.
The seven sons of Sceva have seven sisters, and the whole fourteen
of them are living to-day. They are living, for example, in that
person who reproves worldliness and practises religious vanity. If
the Christian is not consistent with his own principles, what wonder
that the nineteenth century should laugh at his preaching ? It is
quite right 0 evil spirit, if I might speak to thee, black, damned

BEAMS AND MOTES. 285
thing, go on, mock the preachers, mock the Christian assemblies,
twit them with their inconsistencies and vanities and follies, never
let them alone ! O hell, be the ally of Christ ! There is a relig
ious worldliness as well as a worldliness that does not debase the
name of religion by calling it in as a qualification. Shall we who
have a beam in our eyes be preaching about the mote that is in
the eyes of other men. You will hurl the ten commandments at
the head without effect if you do not go along with them. The
world can laugh even at Christian theology when marked out in
abstract propositions, but when Christian theology is incarnated in
personal godliness, individual holiness, when the Christ that is
preached is not only a historical Christ but also a living, present,
and personally-known Christ, the age will begin to wonder, and
there is a wonder which may end in prayer.

LXXIL
PRAYER.
Almighty God, there is no night in thy city. Thou dwellest in
eternity. Through Jesus Christ thy Son, we are children of the light, we
have nothing to do with darkness ; our souls are birds of the morning,
and we are called in the Holy One to shine as the sun in his strength.
Jesus Christ is the Light ot the world, and we, too, are named by that
great name. We have no light of our own. The light which shines in
our life is borrowed from the original and infinite lustre. We have noth
ing that we have not received, every good gift and every perfect gift
cometh down from the Father of Lights. Thou hast called us to a religion
that is a revelation. Thou hast not called us to secrecy and mystery, but
to openness and far-sounding gospels, clear as the voice of love, and
pleading as the tones of prayer. May we know to what we are called and
by whom we are called, and knowing these things make us strong in the
grace that is in Christ Jesus, that we may show forth unto all men that
we are children of the light and not of the night. Make thy book an
open secret tons. May we feel its mysteriousness, and yet rejoice in its
light and sympathy. Restrain the curiosity that would become profanity,
and help the faculty that would search in reverence for thy word and thy
truth as for hidden treasures. Thy book opens before us like an im
measurable sky ; it is full of stars, it is full of suns. May we walk in its
many lights, take upon us its many colours, and have in our character the
mystery that can only be explained by nobleness of conduct. Feed us
with the bread of heaven. It is the food of the soul ; without it we die.
Lord, evermore give us this bread. Lead us by the river of God, which
is full of water. Give us a sense of infinite wealth in Christ, so that all
poverty, all death, all darkness, and all sense thereof may be destroyed
in us. Thou hast crowned the week with thy goodness ; thou hast spread
our table for us ; thou hast sent the gift of sleep night by night to tired
eyes ; thou hast surrounded us with securities not easily violated ; thou
hast given us love one tor another, so that life lives in life, and love
answers love, and a glad music unites the whole. This is the daily miracle
of daily providence. Now would we give one another to thee in Christ
Jesus. Nourish us, comfort us, speak to us the word we most require.
Make the strong man stronger by added tenderness. Make the working
servant more industrious by rekindling the lamp of his hope. Heal those
that are ready to perish ; show them what life is and what is death, and
speak unto them from thine own heaven, and comfort such with the tem-

ANNOTATED TEXT, 287
porary healing of time or with the eternal healing of immortality. The
Lord be with those who are not with us. David's place is empty ; the
father is not with the child ; the mother is unwillingly absent ; the little
child is disappointed at not being here ; the man of business has gone a
long journey ; some are on the sea, and some in tar-away lands. The
Lord bring all around us in spirit, sympath}', and religious expectation,
and let the feast-board be enlarged until all for whom we ought to pray
sit down and eat and drink abundantly of the Lord's provision. We put
ourselves absolutely into thine hands. When we are in a great sea of
tumult we would not put out a hand to save ourselves. Come to us and
the waves shall he as solid rocks. Relieve the heart that is much plagued
about the prodigal, the vow breaker, the little child, the life yet undirected
and uncentred. Take all our affairs into thine hands, for thou who
didst plant the lily and teach the bird its song, and make all things beau
tiful in their season, canst, and wilt, arrange all our little concerns, and
make us laugh with rare, great joy, because thou hast made all things
work together for good. We say our prayer at the Cross, and when we
clasp our hands we put them around the body ot him who died, the Ju$t
for the unjust. Amen.
Acts xix. 17-20.
17. And this became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, that dwelt at
Ephesus ; and fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus
was magnified.
18. Many also of them that [now] had believed [those in whom the
" fear" had wrought repentance and faith] came, contessingand declaring
their [previous] deeds [" tricks"].
ig. And notafewof them that practised curious ["vain"] arts, brought
their books together, and burned them in the sight of all : and they
counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces ot silver
[drachmae, about ^£^1875],
20. So mightily grew the word of the Lord and prevailed.

THE SACRIFICIAL FIRE.
THERE was a kind of religious indignation in the man who
was possessed by the evil spirit He was made stronger
than all the seven men who conjured with a Name which they did
not know and love in their hearts. Nominal faith is always com
ing to grief. It has no backbone ; it carries only a painted fire ;
there is no iron bullet in its gun. The devil is always real, and
the more real when he pretends to be an angel of light His

ACTS XIX. 17-20.

cannon is full of iron. Hypocrisy only adds to the reality of
devilism. It is not so with Christianity. Christianity is powerless
if insincere. If I may so put it, I may say that Christianity when
it ceases to be sincere ceases to be Christian. That is the difiiculty
of the Church. It is the difficulty of keeping up sincerity. Sin
cerity is sacrifice, and it is difficult to find fire every day for the
altar, and to climb upon it and lie down in its hot centre and be
burned in the sight of heaven. It is so much easier to do a trick ;
to read a word— so much easier to say a prayer than to pray.
There the enemy has the advantage over us. He has nothing
but the meanest work to do. When he mocks he is religious ;
when he sneers he is at church ; when he helps himself he
serves the only altar he ever kneels before. It is so differ
ent with the followers of him who made the Cross the sym
bol of discipleship. They are watched at every point When
they fall below the line of passion they fall into criminal luke
warmness. God will have nothing tepid in his Church — fire,
and only fire ! Christians, who are really such in their
hearts, have, therefore, a hard time of it in the world. But is
there any humiliation equal to that inflicted upon a man by the
devil he vainly tries to expel ? Look at the text for an answer.
Such an unvanquished devil mocks the impotent exorcist, laughs
at him, sneers at him, leaps upon him, bites him, and sends hira
home a sad sight ! Such was the faith of the ' ' seven sons of one
Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests." A sermon that has to
expel devils must not be a recitation but a sacrifice, not words but
drops of blood. Hence it is so hard to preach ; easy to write
miles of empty sentences — hard to cut the whole heart into littie
pieces — into Gospel syllables. But this can be done by thy
power, thou Spirit of Pentecost !
What result followed a clear conception of the majesty of the
name of the Lord Jesus ? The answer is given in the seventh
verse : " The name of the Lord Jesus was magnified." That
which could hardly be seen before grew, expanded, and unrolled
itself until it filled the whole arch of the skies, and nothing could
be seen but the splendour of its own light These are the results
which could be secured to-day if the cause were equal to the effect.
Was this a merely sentimental adoration on the part of the Ephe
sians ? Clearly not. Practical issues were realized. A clear con-

OPEN CONFESSION, 289
ception of the sublimity of the name of Jesus Christ affects the
whole circle in which we stand. It clears that circle of all im
purity ; it fills that circle with light ; it lifts that circle up to
heaven. But a very painful process first takes place. Let us see what
that process is? In the eighteenth verse we read : "And many
that believed came and confessed." That is the great social con
sequence. The enemy comes in and lays his books on the church
floor, and says over them, " These, one and all, are lies." You
can forgive men who speak thus frankly. There might be more
forgiveness if there were more frankness. Think of educated men
ransacking their libraries and bringing out of their secret places all
documents that were more or less tainted with falsehood, and bear
ing them right into the centre of Christian society, and saying,
" These are lies !" That is what must be done. But that is only
one side of the case. How sublime the force which constrains a
man to confess that his life has been a lie ! We have seen in our
last study that Christianity would not mix with any other religion.
The practical proof of that is in the instance now before us.
When the Spirit of Christ enters into a man it says to him, " You
must make no mistake about me. I never eat with idols ; I never
share the house with strangers ; I am always master and never
servant. You must go up and down, though it cost you the
remainder of your life, confessing, acknowledging, and begging
forgiveness. You cannot swallow the lie ; you must expel it, and
take the shame of its proclamation, and then we can begin anew.
Marvel not that I say unto thee, thou must be born again." So
many of us want our immoralities simply to rot within and pass
away by processes of decay ; but Christianity says it must not be
so. Out with them ! Name them ! Brand them ! Burn them !
Drop them with iron hand right into the hell they deserve, one by
one, each with its own curse upon it like a load that will never
permit it to rise again through the billows of flre. What wonder,
we may ask again and again, that Christianity makes so littie prog
ress in the world ? It hinders its own way ; it blocks up its own
path ; it will make men so good that men hate it. Were it a
notion, an intellectual theory, a mental idol, a branch of contem
poraneous culture, it might have the Primate's chair ; but it is a
new' birth, coming through crucifixion with Christ and the regen-

290 ACTS XIX, 17-20.

eration wrought by the Holy Ghost ; and therefore Christianity is
by so much the self-hindering religion, but, for that very reason,
the religion that never needs to be patching up its own work and
doing it over again. It works slowly, surely, finally ; setting on
the top stone wherever it lays the foundation.
Confession never stands alone. You will find that confession
was followed by sacrifice. ' ' Many of them also which used curi
ous arts brought their books together and burned them before all
men ; and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thou
sand pieces of silver." That is the Cross ! We cannot have
merely sentimental confession — that may be but a variation of the
original guilt. Christianity always says, " This is the way to the
Cross: walk ye in it" The sacrifice was expensive; the men
lost their trade ; and that is the last thing a man is willing to lose
in an earthly direction. The men gave up business. Christianity
shuts up many commercial institutions. This, therefore, let us
repeat for the sake of the grave lesson it conveys, was not a senti
mental confession, but a sacrifice of daily and stated income. The
days of the text were not days of printing, when ten thousand
copies of the Ephesian letters could be struck off in so many
hours. The letters were copied from the stone by hand. The
copying of the letters was itself a profession by which men sus
tained their families. Some of the letters had been copied by
ancient members of the household, and had been handed on from
sire to son, and there were those who kissed the precious docu
ments as heirlooms of the family. These documents were taken
into the open air and burned in the sight of all men ; and if some
of them appeared to be dropping out of the fire they were taken up
and thrown into the middle of it. This was not playing at life.
How tremendous in energy, how sublime in pathos, the force
which could operate upon men's hearts so as to issue in this un
paralleled sacrifice ! The men at Ephesus who took part in the
surrender are to be regarded with honour. It is easy for us to
look upon a fire which is burning other people's books ; but
Christianity has done nothing for us until it has lighted exactly
the same fire in our houses. Do not wonder you are not quite
happy in your mind — you have not had a fire ! Do not be sur
prised that you are dyspeptic theologians, analyzing your notions
and rearranging your ideas, and asking yourselves vexatious ques-

UNRESERVED RENUNCIATION. 291
tions which are only meant to contribute to your own vanity.
You have not had a fire ! Until we have reached this point we
can have no heaven. ' We know the trade is evil, but we do not
shut it up. We compound for the continuance of the trade by
giving tithes to the Church. We know the money is got by a
species of swindling and public deception and trickery, but we
double our pew subscriptions and keep the infernal machine grind
ing for us. Then we find fault with the preaching or with the
Church, and we suddenly find that we must be ' ' abreast with the
times," therefore must leave the Church and take to other ways of
thinking. O thou whited sepulchre ! O thou lying spirit ! You
must burn down your place of business. I should not wonder if
many a joint stock company has to be thrown into the blaze, and
you may have to give up your director's fees. I should not won
der if some part of the Royal Exchange would have to be thrown
in also. I do not say this must be so ; I am sketching rather a
large possibility than stating a solemn fact. But the lesson is the
same, though the incident and the illustration may vary ; and that
lesson is that until we have had a fire in the house and in the heart
it is blasphemy to be painting our notions in red letters and hold
ing them up to the heavens as if they were acts of sacrifice. There
are those who are going to renounce strong drinks and are going
to be abstainers out and out, but — they are going to keep some
thing in the house for callers ! No ; you must have a fire ! The
" something" you are keeping for visitors will remind you of its
existence, and say seductively to you, " It is now a long time since
you had anything of my kind ; you are stronger now and better,
and have learned the manly art of self-control. Now let us renew
our alliance. ' ' You must have a fire, if you are to succeed. If
you mean to play with yourself, then have no fire. If you mean
to see how near you can go to the edge without falling in, then I
have no speech to make to you. I began by supposing that you
were earnest in asking me to help you fo save your life. There
are those who intend giving up all evil things, but they do not
exactly see why they should waste so much property by burning
it ; so they will hide it away in a secret drawer. I read nothing of
that kind in the sacred record. There must be no secret drawers,
nothing excepted, no reservations, but a dragging out of every leaf
and tilde and iota, and a complete and final conflagration. Again

292 ACTS XIX. 17-20.

and again, let us say, what wonder that Christianity makes such
little progress in the world ? Of what avail is it that we keep our
curious arts and our curious books, and yet buy a weekly sermon
to sleep over on Sunday afternoon ? That is not the Cross.
What is the whole issue ? The answer is in the twentieth verse :
"So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed." The
" word " had it all its own -Way. Devils ran out of the path lest
they should be killed, and all bad things said, ' ' Pity us, and spare
us," but the great fire devoured them. We must have root and
branch work. There must be no parleying with the foe. We
must have no sympathy with men who teach that Christianity is a
string of notions much resembling a string of unconnected beads.
Christianity is crucifixion, self-dethronement, self-hatred, trust in
Christ, death with Christ, resurrection with Christ ; it is not a
notion, but a sacrifice. Lord Jesus, why didst thou make thy way
so hard in the world ? We would take thee into our houses along
with other great men, and give thee high place at the table ; but
thou art a hard man, reaping where thou didst not sow, and asking
every one of us, the daintiest as well as the roughest, to stretch out
his hands and his feet and be nailed to the Cross, and open his
side to the sharp spear. If thy religion were something else we
would like it, we would wear it, we would try to . make it the
fashion of our time. But who can make the Cross a fashion, or
make crucifixion popular ?

LXXIII.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, we have heard ot thy mercy, and therefore our hope is
yet alive. We dare not look at thy law ; we have broken its letter, we
have grieved its spirit, we have trampled upon its purpose. We are not
here to turn the altar into a place of self-defence, but to say with our in
most heart, "We have all sinned and come short of thy glory." We
know what sin is, though we cannot tell. We have felt the darkness of
that night-shadow, and it is deep and cold and full of fear. We have felt
the warm shining of thy grace upon our souls, and in it there has been
morning brightness, vernal promise, summer glory, and an abundance of
pardon. Thou dost not pardon grudgingly ; there is no upbraiding to
follow the gifts of thy heart. We live in thine answer to our prayer, and
thou art pleased to live in our love, thou art grieved by rebellion ; we
. pain thee by our wandering ; the heavens are black with astonishment,
and the earth trembles, because of amazement, when thou dost upbraid
us for oft-repeated ingratitude and sin. We stand at the sacred Cross as
thirsty men stand before springing waters. There is no other hope. It is not
a Cross of letters and words with meanings we can fully tell, but a great
love-Cross, a great altar whereon is seen the •itery heart of the heart of
God. We may not speak about it without humbling our own power of
speech and mocking ourselves, because of the emptiness of our noblest
terms. There is no speech for the love of the Cross ; we must be
dumb with gratitude, silent because of adoration, filled with joy that
trembles because of its infinite fulness. Give us the heart purity that
sees God. Thou wilt not give us the tongue that can tell about
thee, but we do ask lor the heart that sees thee, looks right into thy
beaming face, and reads with holy insight the innermost thought of the
Cross of Christ. We bless thee that no man can take the Cross of Christ
from us. The blood is always there ; it cannot be sponged out, nor hid
den, nor covered up with all the nights that ever darkened upon the earth.
It is thy testimony, it is the tragedy of heaven, it is the answer that we
can only need now and then — the great, secret, deep, marvellous answer
that men may not trifle with in many words or thoughtless speech. We
have seen the Cross, and we must now see it evermore. The sight is
graven upon our heart ; the Lamb of God in his great agony must forever
be before the eyes that have once beheld him. We think of thy love in
the house and on the roadside, and in the market-place ; in the chamber
of affliction, up the hill of difflculty, and down in the valley, sultry and

294 ACTS XIX. 21-41.

imprisoning. Thy love is an angel that never sleeps. Thy gifts are
flowers that know no winter blight. Thou dost evermore beset us behind
and before, and lay thine hand upon us and hold us up by thy mighty
grace. We are the living to praise thee. We have seen the grave and
demanded its victory ; we have looked upon death and mocked him to
the face — ghastly indeed, but overthrown. Death is swallowed up in
victory. This is the triumph of the Cross. May we abide in Christ, live
in Christ ; may our life's music be taken from Christ, and may we find
that the surest places in all the wide universe are the places where he sets
his feet. The Lord gather from this assembly to-day all special praises,
all particular songs, all individual utterances, for every heart has its own
hymn within the public hymn, deeper and higher than the public psalm.
Send blessings upon the old, that they may forget the winter of age and
feel the breeze of the coming heaven-spring. Send messages to little
children, that they may think life is all sunshine, and keep back the care,
the anxiety, as long as thou canst. The Lord hear us, poor weary pil
grims, grouped around the Cross ; pity us, lift us up ; give us to know
that we live in the love of God, and not in the caprice of men ; and, abid
ing under the roof of that sanctuary, give us to know that the storm can
never put out our fires, and that in the darkest night there is a brightness
which the pure heart can see. Amen.
Acts xix. 21-41.
21. Now after these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit,
when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem,
saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome.
22. And having sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto
him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.
23. And about that time there arose no small stir concerning the Way.
24. For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made
silver shrines of Diana, brought no little business unto the craftsmen ;
25. whom he gathered together, with the workmen of like occupation,
and said. Sirs, ye know that by this business we have our wealth.
26. And ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost through
out all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people,
saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands :
27. and not only is there danger that this our trade come into disrepute ;
but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana be made of no account,
and that she should even be deposed from her magnificence [better, " that
the temple be disesteemed and the splendour ot the goddess impaired."
Demetrius forsees the injury, but not the destruction of Diana's worship],
whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.
28. And when they heard this they were filled with wrath, and cried
out, saying. Great is Diana of the Ephesians.
29. And the city was filled with the contusion ; and they rushed with

ANNOTATED TEXT. 295
one accord into the theatre [ruins ot which building, constructed to hold
over 25,000 spectators, still remain], having seized Gaius and Aristarchus
[xx. 4 ; xxvii. 2 ; Col. iv. 10 ; Philem. 24 ; Caius ot Macedonia is not else
where mentioned], men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel.
30. And when Paul was minded to enter in unto the people, the disciples
suffered him not.
31. And certain also of the [G. " Asiarchs" . the ten annually elected
.presidents of the provincial games and sacrificial rites were thus named.
They defrayed the enormous expenses of the games which were held dur
ing the whole of May (hence called Artemision), and they retained the
honourable title 'when past the presidency] chief officers ot Asia, being his
friends, sent unto him, and besought him not to adventure himself into
the theatre.
32. Some therefore cried one thing, and some another ; for the assem
bly was in confusion ; and the more part knew not wherefore they were
come together. [Yet they were unanimous for assembling, v. 29.]
33. And they brought Alexander [i Tim. i. 20 and 2 Tim, iv. 14]
out of the multitude [or better, some of the multitude instructed Alexan
der], the Jews putting him forward [compare v, 9]. And Alexander beck
oned with the hand [moved his hand up and down], and would have made
a defence [G. " apology"] unto the people.
34. But when the)' perceived that he was a Jew, all with one voice,
about the space of two hours, cried out. Great is Diana of the Ephesians.
35. And when the town clerk [an official who wrote, kept, and read
publicly, when required, the statutes and judgments of a Greek democracy]
had quieted the multitude, he saith. Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there
who knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is temple-keeper [G.
" temple-sweeper." Ci. Psalm Ixxxiv. 10] ot the great Diana, and ot the
image which fell down from Jupiter [must therefore be supposed to have
been saved when Herostratus burnt down the old temple on the night
when Alexander the Great was born. This image had many breasts, and
tapered to its base].
36. Seeing then that these things cannot be gainsaid, ye ought to be
quiet, and to do nothing rash.
37. For ye have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of
temples nor blasphemers of our goddess.
38. If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen that are with him have a
matter [a charge] against any man, the courts are open, and there are
proconsuls [there would be only one, in each province. The meaning is,
proconsuls (judges) as well as courts, are provided by the state] ; let them
accuse one another.
39. But if ye seek anything about other matters [not yet defined by
statute], it shall be settled in the regular [legislative] assembly.
40. For indeed we are in danger to be ["run the risk of being"] ac
cused concerning this day's riot, there being no cause for it ; and as touch
ing it we shall not be able to give account of this concourse. [The re-

296 ACTS XIX. 21-41.

viser's Greek text is here corrupt. The "not" is obviously a copyist's
repetition, and " this day's riot,'' involves an ungrammatical transposi
tion of the Greek order of words, quite without N. T. precedent. Trans
late : " For we run the risk of being accused of riot concerning this day,
there being no cause whereby we may give an account of this concourse."]
41. And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly. [^' So,"
says Chrysostom, " he quenched their rage, for what kindles easily is
easily put out."]

OLD COMPLAINTS AND NEW REPROACHES.
THE application of these words to present-day life is a task
that might be assigned to a child. The speech of Deme
trius is a speech that was made yesterday in every centre of civiliza
tion affected by Christian ideas and demands. Demetrius never
dies ; his word is to be heard in every tongue ; he is present in
great force in every Church, and present as representing two very
special and remarkable phases of life. In the twenty-seventh verse
he puts these two phases before us in the most vivid colouring.
With the subtlety of selfishness he puts the case with comical
adroitness. He knows the value of a little piety. How it
flavours the appeals that are made to man's fears and to man's
commercial fortunes ! See how religious he becomes quite sud
denly ! If it were a mere matter of trade he would not have
troubled himself about it He could have lifted his noble self
above all market-place considerations and reflections, but — " not
only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought ; but also that
the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised." The
second was the thought that afflicted his pious heart ! The mere
matter of losing a few silverlings in shrines would never have ex
cited him beyond a momentary flutter, but to see the great temple
of the great Artemis despised was more than that godly soul could
bear. Said I not truly that Demetrius never dies ? Was it not a
wise word — wise because consistent with facts — that Demetrius is
present in great force in every centre of civilization affected by
Christian ideas and claims ? What was the reality of the case from
the first point of view? " A certain man named Demetrius, a
silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small
gain unto the craftsmen." Trade was injured ; " no small gain"
was destroyed ; the weekly takings had gone down to nothing. If

PERSECUTION A PROOF OF POWER. 297
Paul had preached abstract ideas and lived in a painted theology,
and clothed himself in clouds " rolled " a thousand miles above
the air, Demetrius would have made shrines for him if he had
ordered them, but a preacher that comes down upon the earth,
walks in the common dust, thunders upon immediate iniquity and
visible falsehood, may get himself into trouble. We have escaped
all this. Modern preachers are never in trouble ; they tell the
false dealer that after all if he did not deal in that he would deal
in something else. The preachers might preach a whole year
upon the evils of intemperance, but ii those who deal in strong
drink were to find their takings going down very considerably, the
preacher would soon hear of the circumstance and find himself in
volved in no small trouble. That is one reason why a modern
institution, known to us all, is often persecuted, opposed, de
nounced, and vilified. It is not an institution of ideas and propo
sitions, and theological placards, propounding curious problems
for curious minds, but an institution that stops people from going
in to spend money on bad counters ; and Demetrius comes out
and shakes his indignant fist in its face. He is quite right. I
thank God for it, personally. You may circulate what books you
please if you do not interfere with the profitable circulation of
corrupt literature — you are quite at liberty to walk upon both sides
of the street ; but if the literature that is eating out the morality of
our young people is interfered with, is arrested in its baleful prog
ress, then you will be caricatured, travestied, spat upon, con
temned, laughed at My brethren, rejoice when such persecution
befalls you. It is a sign of true success ; your blows are taking
effect. Demetrius will not fail to let you know how your work is
going on. Do not believe yourselves about it ; you see things
through painted glass, and report that the orient is white and the
day is coming when there is nothing of the kind on the road. Do
not take the Christian's word for progress ; he means to speak
truth ; from his own point of view he speaks nothing but truth,
he is honest and upright, but he does not know the reality of the
case. Demetrius knows it I want to hear Demetrius when he
calls the men of the same craft together and says, " Sirs, ye know
that by this craft we have our wealth," and " this our craff is in
danger to be set at nought— what shall be done ?" Then the war
is going well ; the fight is at its highest point of agony ; press on

298 ACTS XIX. 21-41.

— another stroke, another rush, and down goes Demetrius, and all
his progeny fall into the pit to keep him profitless company.
What ho-d journal have you, as a Christian Church, ever shut up?
What place of iniquitous business have you ever bought and washed
with disinfecting lime, and within its unholy walls set up the altar
of Christ ? What property do you buy ? Where do you follow
and out-bid Demetrius, driving him back, and back, and back ?
Is he in the thoroughfares of the capital cities of the world, or is
he not ? We are afraid to build churches too near one another ;
we study one another's feelings about that I would God the
thoroughfare five miles long had churches on both sides of the
street, one after another in great godly rows, phalanxes of moral
strength, sanctuaries into which the poor and the weak and the
weary might run, with great hospitable doors standing open night
and day. Show me the thoroughfare in any great city in the
world in which Christian churches have pushed back evil institu
tions and made them take up their quarters in narrow streets —
back, back to the river' s edge and into the river, if possible. To
see such a city would be to see the beginning of heaven. Christ
would almost have to inquire for his own address if he came back
to earth ; he would need some one to point out his dwelhng-
places ; they are quite back ; they are put up on sufferance ; they
are watched with suspicion ; they are left to decay ; and if any
adventurous spirit should propose to paint them, clean and repair
them, such proposition would be received as a new assault upon
the purses of the people. Demetrius will let you know how the
work is going on. Do not let us deceive ourselves and trifle with
facts. Who dares assail an evil institution, an effete society, and
obsolete secretariat and pension ? Preach abstract ideas, rewrite
" Paradise Lost," add to it " Paradise Regained," publish them
both in sumptuous editions, and Demetrius is M'ell content He
never suffered much through blank verse, he rather likes it ; it
sounds as if there might be something in it, but that something is
not a thunder-bolt.
The next phase of the case as put by Demetrius is infinitely
more humiliating. The temple of the great goddess Diana is in
danger of being despised. How shall we name that particular
phase of the situation ? It is best represented by the words a

RELIGIOUS PANICS.

religious panic. The temple was in danger. That is the language
of to-day. We have set up societies for the purpose of defending
Christianity. All those societies represent, with few exceptions,
some degree of religious panic. The temple is never in danger —
that must be our faith. If it is a temple that can be put in danger,
it is a temple made with hands and must go down. Hear the
great challenge of the Master : ' ' Destroy this temple and in three
days I will raise it up." What panics we have seen ! What
godly godless excitement, as if truth could ever be in danger ; as
if some blind Samson could catch hold of the pillars of heaven and
shake down upon us the contents of the sky. What a sky we live
under if you think it can be shaken down ! Some time ago a
number of highly learned and morally and spiritually distinguished
men issued a volume entitied, "Essays and Reviews." It was
the doom of Christianity ! It was the end of the world ! Edition
after edition was published — for sceptical books enjoy a circulation
whilst orthodox books enjoy a slumber. The Church likes to buy
heterodox literature; it looks like being "in advance of the
times. ' ' From what I can understand of the case Christianity has
come forward since the day of the publication of " Essays and
Reviews, ' ' and the smell of fire has not passed upon it. What
excitement there was ! What panic in religious halls and on relig
ious platforms ! and yet Christianity, quiet as light, pure as the
living breeze that blows among the snowy tops of the hills, has
gone forward on her beneficent career without ever having bought
a copy of the volume that some people earnestly thought was to
have taken her life. There was no need for panic. Some time
ago a bishop, who was born to take an inventory of things, and to
reckon them up within the four comers of the multiplication table
—a small universe and hard to lie down upon— began to suggest
that it was impossible for seven-and-twenty thousand men to stand
upon six square inches ! What a panic there was ! It was the
end of the worid, this time! "A man," as Mrs. Carlyle well
said, " with a littie silk apron on had undertaken to find fault with
the Pentateuch." She took it wisely ; she was in no panic. She
looked at the " apron" and despised the arithmetic. So far as I
can understand, the Pentateuch seems to be very much where it
was. Why these panics ? Why these causeless distresses ? We
want to get at truth and fact and right, and if any man can help us

ACTS XIX, 21-41.

in that direction he is not an enemy but a friend. I would rather
teach that the men of true science are all men of a Christian spirit
They may not be so advanced as others ; they may be sadly want
ing in this or that department of theological culture and knowl
edge, but wherever I find a man whose supreme purpose is truth
and reality, I find, not an enemy, but a fellow-worker. We ought
to have a religion that cannot be put in danger. No man can
touch my religion. If our religion is an affair of letters, forms,
dates, autographs, and incidents of that kind, then I do not won
der that our cabinet is sometimes burglariously entered and cer
tain things filched from it I do not keep my religion in a
museum ; my Christianity is not locked up even in an iron safe ;
my conception of GOD no man can break through, nor steal.
You cannot take my Bible from me ; if you could prove that the
Apostle John wrote the Pentateuch, and that Moses wrote the
Apocalypse, and that the Apocal}'pse should come in the middle
of the Bible and not at the end, you have not touched what I hold
to be the revelation ot God to the human mind and the human
heart. Let us leave all such questions to be decided by the very
few who are capable of gathering together the evidence, adjusting
and distributing it, and founding upon it wise critical conclusions.
What we, as the common people, have to be sure about is, that
God has not left himself without witness amongst us ; that God has
sent great messages of law and love and light and life to every one
of us ; that God's revelations do not depend upon changing gram
mars, but upon an inward, spiritual consciousness and holy sym
pathy, whose insight is not intellectual but moral — the purity of
heart which sees God. When all the assaults have been concluded
there remains the tragedy of human life ; when all other books
have been published, there remains another publication to come
forth — the Book that can speak to conscious sin, to blinded peni
tence, to broken-hearted, sobbing, supplicating contrition. The,
Bible speaks to my own heart as no other book speaks ; it knows
me altogether ; it is a mirror which reveals me to myself ; it is a
voice which calls me out of myself ; it is a friend that will quietly
sit down beside me seven days, because my grief is very great, will
wait until its turn comes, and then will speak in silvery tone, in
tender accent, so winningly, so graciously, so lovingly. It hath a
history, it hath a psalm, it hath a song, it hath a tongue, it hath a

THINGS UNASSAILABLE. 301
fire. It proves its own inspiration by its grasp of human life, by
its answers to human need.
The town-clerk laid down the principle that ought to guide us.
He did not know probably how good a philosophy he was pro
pounding. The town-clerk said, " Seeing then that these things
cannot be spoken against, ye ought to be quiet. ' ' That is what
we say about our Christian teaching. There are some things
which cannot be " spoken against" so far as my own experience is
concerned. The brevity of life, the certainty of death, the reality
of sin, the present hell that burns me, the need of a Saviour who
needs no saviour himself — these things cannot be "spoken
against" ; therefore, those of us who feel them to be true " ought
to be quiet ' '

THE PARACLETE.

THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT.
JESUS CHRIST taught the doctrine of regeneration by the
Holy Spirit, and St Paul, " an apostie of Jesus Christ by the
will of God," taught the complemental doctrine of a direct
personal witness of the same Spirit to the soul that had become
renewed, — " the Spirit itself heareth witness with our spirit, that
we are the children of God." In a sense, then, which is evi
dently as probable as it is consolatory, the act of regeneration is
succeeded by the act of confirmation ; which, indeed, would seem
to be the Divine method even in nature itself, seeing that not only
did God create the heavens and the earth, but he followed each act
of creation with the assurance that it was ' ' very good ' ' ; thus, as
creation was followed by approval, so the higher act of regenera
tion is attested by a special witness and seal. It is quite true that
the works of nature are continually vindicating their own good
ness, and it is not less true that spiritual sonship is its own witness
in the presence of all men ; yet the soul which has passed through
the agonies of penitence and reconstruction — having known all the
sinfulness of sin, and felt that self-redemption is as impossible as it
is blasphemous — needs just that word of tender assurance and
comfort which is expressed in the doctrine of the Witness of the
Spirit It is not enough that great events be merely accomplished,
as if by a great strain which has taxed every power ; their accom
plishment is often followed by a wonder that stuns the beholder ;
a wonder so great indeed, that it is not unlikely to settle into
doubt and fear unless the mind be well fortified and watched ; and
so a beneficent revolution may collapse and leave behind only
memories of disappointment and pain. Take the case of the New

304 THE PARACLETE.
Birth : a man has been born again, a new world is round about
him, new impulses animate his conduct, new hopes enlarge and
brighten his future, — the probability is that the very completeness
of the change (seeing that he is limited and embarrassed by the
old physical conditions) may be attended by perilous excitement
In view, then, of such possibilities, an extension of the Divine
ministry is required : re-creation must be followed by assurance,
benediction, clear and tender witness that the change is a reality,
not a dream, and that all exigencies are more than provided
against by the infinite sufficiency of God. So the mind is stayed ;
superstition is warded off, and the fear which often succeeds parox
ysms of joy, is not allowed to descend upon the newly-born and
newly-illumined soul.
Thus, the Witness of the Spirit brings with it the most gracious
and nourishing comfort, in which sense it may be well to consider
the doctrine for a moment In all the great experiences of life we
need a voice other than our own to give us confidence, and to
complete the degree of satisfaction which begins in our own con
sciousness. For current action in common affairs we may be
strong enough without external encouragement ; even our mis
takes in such affairs may be a part of our education ; but when
life is sharpened into a crisis, and the whole world seems to have
become our assailant, we need something more than is possible to
our unaided powers. Even where by a violent strain we could
encounter opposition single-handed, it is most strengthening and
comforting to have the support of a second witness. There are
times when we need to hear our own convictions pronounced by
the voice of another ; we know they are right ; death itself could
not affright us from their avowal ; yet when we hear them spoken
aloud by a friendly voice, we seize them with a still firmer grasp,
and strengthen our heart in God. Let that second witness be
greater than ourselves, and his testimony will bring with it propor
tionate comfort ; let him be the wisest of men, and still the con
solation is increased : let that witness be not a man but God him
self, and at once we are filled with peace that passeth understand
ing, with joy unspeakable and full of glory ! According to this
view of the case the renewed man is entitled to talk to himself in
some such fashion as this : — " I know that I am bom again be-

THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 305
cause of the complete change of my convictions, sympathies, and
habitudes ; old things have passed away and all things have be
come new ; still I am often tempted, and often sorrowful on
account of sin ; when I would do good, evil is present with me ;
I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see an
other law in my members, warring against the law of my mind,
and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my
members ; yet through all my conflict there comes a voice which
tells me that my Divine sonship is a fact, but that not until resur
rection has done foi' the body what regeneration has done for the
soul can I have perfectness of spiritual release and enjoyment ;
this is the witness of the Spirit which calms me with ineffable tran
quillity." The witness is not that the whole work is done, but
simply that it is beguri ; and after all, that is the great difficulty.
As to progression and sanctificatioh there is a great law of move
ment ; but how to re-establish life itself was the question which
astounded and baffled the universe. Possibly, men may be occa
sioning themselves grievous pain by mistaking the scope of the
witness : they may be expecting too much all at once ; it is not
that we are already in heaven, but that we are the children of
God, that the Holy Spirit testifies in the experience of regenerated
men. Still, the very divineness of this comfort clothes the witness with
the severity of inexorable discipline. Apostolic teaching will not
allow man to settle down into the enjoyment of spiritual comfort, as
if sonship had no responsibilities. " Know ye not that ye are the
temples of the Holy Ghost ?' ' Will any man make the temple of
the Lord a temple of idols ? Will the Holy Ghost share the heart
of man with the spirit of evil ? There is to be no balancing be
tween the comparative advantages of two rival dominions, for " no
man can serve two masters." We are to walk in the Spirit ; to
mind the things of the Spirit ; and to bring forth the fruits of the
Spirit Otherwise there can be no comfort ! If there is sweetness
in the mouth, it is the taste of stolen honey. The comfort is not
a spiritual luxury, a genial condition of feeling which has no rela
tion to moral health,— it is the assurance of a true standing before
God, the summer which descends out of heaven from the Spirit of
righteousness. The apostolic doctrine is that the promises of God

3o6 THE PARACLETE.
should move the heart towards more and more purity ; thus St
Paul says, " Having these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse
ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holi
ness in the fear of God." That is, do not let your comfort from
heaven be lost upon you, but let it encourage you towards the
very highest progress possible to earthly conditions ; if you are
living trees, the sunshine will help you to grow; if you are dead
plants, it will hasten your corruption. A terrible thing to have
the witness of the Spirit as to newness of life, if men do not grcrw
in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ ! God's
purpose as to character is growth. Let the sacred germ lie dormant
in the heart, and the witness of the Spirit will decline in vividness
and emphasis, and the germ itself will perish beyond all possibility
of restoration : " For it is impossible for those who were once
enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made
PARTAKERS OF THE HoLY Ghost, if they shall fall away to renew
them again to repentance" ; "If after they have escaped the pol
lutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and over
come, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning."
Their spiritual state is not to be described by mere negations.
No man can blaspheme so consummately as the man who once
knew how to pray; therefore, says the Apostle: "Pray without
ceasing, ' ' because to ' ' cease' ' is to recall the dominion of the
devil. Once interrupt the communion of the soul with the Father,
and the soul may never be able to resume the fellowship : then
(the Apostie would say) " Pray without ceasing," if you would
enjoy the permanent witness of the Spirit Thus the argument
arising out of Divine comfort in the human soul points steadfastly
towards discipline, ' ' If we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the
Spirit" ; "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the
body, ye shall live" ; " They that are after the flesh do mind the
things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, do mind the
things of the Spirit," — a high law of discipline given for the pres
ervation and ennoblement of the sons of God upon earth.
Yet with all the comfort is there not an aspiration hardly distin
guishable from discontent, and with all the discipline is there not a
secret but most gladdening hope which makes it easy ? The ex-

THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 307

planation is found in the fact that the present enjoyment of the
Spirit is but an earnest, — a gift beforehand, — a pledge of the
coming fulness. In his Epistie to the Romans (viii. 23) St Paul
speaks of those " which have the firstfruits of the Spirit" ; and in
his other epistles he uses equivalent expressions: thus— " After
that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
which is the earnest of our inheritance" ; " Now he that hath
wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto
us the earnest of the Spirit" ; " Whereby ye are sealed unto the
day of redemption." What can be meant by such words but that
the spiritual life is a continuous progression, receiving, with its
widening capacities, richer gifts of the wisdom and holiness of
God? The Church by mistaking the "earnest" for the "ful
ness," runs the risk of stating incomplete truths as final revela
tions, and then follows a sensitiveness lest the enlargement of its
own dogmas should involve an offence to the Spirit of truth,
utterly forgetting, in its unreasoning veneration, that self-correc
tion is a moral necessity of spiritual expansion and enlightenment
The "earnest" of the Spirit constitutes a lien upon the future
service of the receiver ; if the service be unperformed, the " ear
nest" will be withdrawn ; whereas, if the service be lovingly ren
dered with the whole might of the heart, the measure of the gift
will be filled up even to the sanctification of the " whole body,
soul, and spirit" The Church is in its infancy as to realization
of spiritual blessing. It is, too, so much engaged in controversy,
that it can hardly be preparing itself for the completion of the holy
promise. By mistaking the part for the whole it is in danger of
settling itself into premature satisfaction, as if it had exhausted the
possibilities of prayer ! Will it be uncharitable to suggest that
the Church is too much engaged in that worst and most cankering
of all worldliness, the elevation of one sect above another, and the
angry defence of forms which are but transient conveniences ?
What is delaying the outpouring of the fulness of the Spirit ?
There is, indeed, a still sterner inquiry, which cannot be put with
out emotion, yet it may not be honestly suppressed : Is not the
Presence of the Holy Ghost in the Church less distinct to-day than in
the apostolic age ? Without encroaching upon the function of the
preacher, it may be well to urge this inquiry, and so force the
Church in the direction of self-examination or penitence. Cer-

3o8 THE PARACLETE.
tainly there is not much appearance of pentecostal inspiration and
enthusiasm in contemporary Christianity. Can modern piety
enrich its history with such a passage as this : — " When they had
prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together ;
and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost" ? Or this : " And
they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with
other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance' ' ? Is the Church
baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire ? (Matt iii. ii.) Is
it honourable to escape the challenge involved in such inquiries by
suggesting that such manifestations were confined to the eariy
Church ? It was after those manifestations that the Apostle Paul
described the measure of the Spirit already given as an " earnest,"
and if only an earnest where is the fulness which there is not room
enough to receive ? Christianity is nothing if not spiritual ; yet
its spirituality is not to be shown by its adroitness in substituting
refinements of wickedness for the gross vulgarities of crime, but in
that heavenly-mindedness which can neither be tempted by vanity,
nor disturbed by such accidents as shake the world of the atheist
With a felicitous accommodation of himself to human ideas, God
speaks of the gift of the Holy Ghost in terms of measure and
quantity; hence we read of "firstfruits," "earnest," "double
portion," — terms which do not impair the personality and unity
of the Holy Ghost, but describe rather our human realization and
enjoyment of his presence. We may be said to receive more and
more of the sun as noontide approaches, and to receive a ' ' double
portion' ' of the spirit of every author whose writings we study wilh
admiring affection. Now, why has not a Church eighteen hun
dred years old a fuller realization of the witness of the Holy Ghost
than had the Church of the first century ? Has the Church accom
plished all the purpose of God, and passed for ever the zenith of
her light and beauty ?
It is true that believers in the Holy Ghost have been guilty of
the opposition of fanaticism, which is probably more mischievous
than are the assaults of disbelief. Macedonius openly degraded
the ministry of the Holy Ghost to a level with the ministry of
angels ; and Pelagius, whilst professing the Holy Ghost, actually
disowned his grace. On the other hand, Montanus not only
claimed to reproduce the phenomena of Pentecost, but to repre-

THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 309
sent in his own person a larger effusion of the Divine Spirit than
had ever been realized in the history of mankind. After Montanus
arose his disciple, TertuUian, who claimed for his master at least
an equality of inspiration with St Paul. In the great African
schism, distinguished by the name of Donatism, the most arrogant
claims to exclusiveness of inspiration were asserted ; and the
Paulicians, of the seventh century, insisted upon a spiritual pre
eminence not less vain and impious. What has to be found, then,
is the point between hostility and superstition, — the doctrine of a
simple and joyous communion with the Father and with his Son
Jesus Christ. How, then, are men to know that they enjoy the
witness of the Spirit ? Partly by the anxiety with which they put
the question, and partly, too, by the occasional comforts which
suffuse the soul with inexplicable gladness, but mainly by the
daily sacrifice of loving service, and the disquietude of an unut
terable and enrapturing expectation which sometimes touches the
very point of agony. How is it, nevertheless, that men who do
enjoy this holy witness have to confess many sins, and to humble
themselves in the deepest abasement because of many omissions ?
Were the inward witness genuine and reliable, surely the heart
which received it would be incapable of coldness or disloyalty
towards God, would it not ? But as a matter of fact, no heart has
attained to the high estate of unblemished and incorruptible piety ;
of what value, then, is the spiritual witness ? Can any man be
both good and bad at the same time ? This is a question which
requires a special exposition and argument, which shall be given
immediately;

IL
THE HUMAN SPIRIT LIMITED BY THE
HUMAN BODY.
EARLY in this discussion we said, Man has a body but he is
a spirit. We have now reached a point in the argument
where it becomes necessary to get some understanding of the
hindrances which the physical constitution of man throws in the
way of his spiritual progress. It is too obvious that the body and
the spirit seldom act in common and happy consent ; yet it is
supremely difficult to say which is right and which is wrong in any
strife that may arise between them. The spirit may seek release
from some of its highest obligations by an unjust reproach of the
body, and the body may complain of the ignoble and mischievous
uses to which it is put by the spirit. So there is a war in every
man, a war which enfeebles and, probably, vitiates the whole nat
ure. What, then, is the reality of the case in the light of script
ural evidence as interpreted by human consciousness and experi
ence ? It is quite certain that the body does limit the capacities
and functions of the spirit. Taking human life as a whole, and
having regard to infancy, disease, sleep and occasional prostration,
it is more than probable that half the time of the spirit is engrossed
by the body. When, therefore, seventy years are spoken of as the
limit of human life, the body must be regarded as having de
cidedly the larger share of the lease, and from this very circum
stance the body must charge itself with great influence and respon
sibility. The spirit may wish to work all the twenty-four hours
of the day, but it must deny itself that the body may have needful
rest In like manner the spirit may desire to free itself of the
limitations of time and space as known to us, and to penetrate
with reverent boldness into things that are hidden from sense ; but
the body detains it here with a vulgar force which chafes and hum
bles the soul. Fierce passions thrill along every nerve ; unholy
appetites madden the senses ; the very blood seems to be set on

HUMAN SPIRIT LIMITED BY HUMAN BODY. 311

fire of hell ; the question is, whether in the midst of such excite
ments the spirit is sitting in its hidden place like an injured angel,
mourning the corruption and waywardness of its companion, or
whether with subtie, though unexpressed consent it is not really
the cause of the riotousness which it affects to deplore ? It would
certainly be most convenient if we could at once set down the
criminal side of life to the credit of our untamable flesh ; but
would it be just ? Can spiritual discipline be so perfected as act
ually to subdue and even sanctify the flesh ? Or, after all that is
possible to spiritual discipline, will there remain a fleshly despot
ism which can only be destroyed by death itself ? These ques
tions are discussed by St Paul in the most candid and fearless
manner, especially in a very graphic passage in his Epistle to the
Romans. The seventh chapter of that epistle presents a very com
plete summary of the strenuous contention in which all earnest
men are engaged ; it is a universal spiritual biography ; the Apos
tle therein showing that when any true man speaks distinctly the
innermost secret of his spiritual experience, he becomes a citizen
of the world and an interpreter of human nature in its totalit}'.
Let us look carefully at the minute and persistent analysis : —
" T had not known sin, but by the law : for I had not hiawn lust,
except the law had said. Thou shalt not covet." The sudden change
to the first person singular which takes place here (ch. vii. ver. 7)
gives very keen interest to the statement, taking the question, as
it does, out of the region of mere speculation, and investing it
with all the vividness of actual experience. But what is it that docs
" covet "? Is this " desire'' a bodily or a spiritual act ? An an
swer seems to be furnished by the fifth verse : ' ' For when we were
in the flesh, the motions (incitements) of sins, which were by the
law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
And yet this is hardly an answer, for are we not " in the flesh"
still ? The meaning may be that though we are ' ' in the flesh' '
we are no longer under its dominion, but are conscious of a new
and better mastery, that is to say, the control of a spiritual director.
Human life is begun in an animal condition. The animal has, so
to speak, the first chance upon human destiny. Possibly the ani
mal nature may never be subdued ; the spiritual kingdom may
never supersede the fleshly dominion ; and consequentiy the man

312 THE PARACLETE,
will always be "in the flesh," and will always be victimized
and befooled by the importunity of sinful incitements. How is the
animal tendency in human nature to be assailed ? By a spiritual
law. The law may not succeed, still there it is, as a new fact in
life, bringing with it new chances and new responsibilities. Whilst
the lower nature is seeking nothing beyond its own gratification, it
suddenly encounters opposition in the form of a law which author
itatively says, " Thou shalt not covet." At once the flesh has to ad
just itself to this definition of liberty ; that is to say, the flesh must
set itself in a distinct relation to it, a relation of acquiescence, or
of open and violent disregard. The Apostle accepted the former
position, and therefore declared himself to be no longer " in the
flesh," in the sense of obeying and gratifying all its desires.
There was set up within him a new and holy power which held his
passions under beneficent control, and thus the body was degraded
from mastery to servitude. But the body did not accept the deg
radation without resistance ; on the contrary, sin took a still
firmer hold of the flesh, and wrought in Paul all manner of con
cupiscence ! Who can accept the limitation of enjoyments
without rebellion? The flesh can never do so. Its only idea of
liberty is license. To say to it, " Thou shalt not," is to infuriate
all its passions, and to add to its strength the violence of despera
tion. Still, this must be done, or the motions of sins in the
flesh will "bring forth fruit unto death," and at all risks death
must be escaped. So, then, the Apostle would argue, we are in
the flesh yet not of it, as we are in the world itself yet superior
to its maxims and vanities, — and even the letter, " Thou shalt
not," is superseded by "newness of spirit" How, then, does
the controversy stand ? Thus : — ¦
' ' // is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. . . . To
will is present with me ; but how to perform that which is good I find
not : for the good that T would T do not : but the evil which I would
not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it,
but sin that dwelleth in me." Here is a strange but most positive
duality, the proof of which is in the consciousness of every man.
Commentators appear to have misspent much industry upon the
exegesis of these words. Are they not fulfilled in the experience of
every one of us? Is not every man's life a self-contradiction?
We smile at the notion of a man talking to himself, yet all men

HUMAN SPIRIT LIMITED BY HUMAN BODY. 313

do this very thing, and must do it, in obedience to a sovereign
law. What expressions are more common than, " I reproached
myself," "I corrected myself," "I blamed myself," "I was
angry with myself,"— confessions of self-reproof which are much
more numerous than confessions of self-complacency. The ques
tion to be determined by every man whose self-complaining is
honest, is simply : What is the direction of my will ? As soon
as Paul was able to say, "To will is present with me," he was
also able to add that his evil deeds were not done by himself, but
by "sin that dwelleth in me." So there may be in a man a
power in some respects superioV to his own will, dragging him
into forbidden ways, and blotting the most carefully-written pages
of his highest life ! What, then, is the consequence as to Divine
judgment 1 Will God visit the overborne man with frowning and
wrath, or will he come to the struggling soul with benediction and
succour ? The question is answered by St Paul himself : 
" There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in
Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit";—
they are in the flesh, yet they do not walk after it ; whenever they
seem to have yielded to it, they have been momentarily dragged
from the sanctuary of their delight, and their soul is inflamed with
indignation and sorrow. But if a man be divided against him
self, can he stand ? St. Paul answers, that he is not divided
against himself ; he himself is wholly on one side, hence he says :
" It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me ;" what
evil he did was done against his will, and therefore he denied that
his spiritual individuality was involved.
Where, then, is responsibility ? The responsibility is entirely
towards God: "Thou knowest our frame; thou rememberest
that we are dust." Where social offence has been committed,
social responsibility has been incurred ; but the question of social
offence does not rise in the Apostle's argument, which lies wholly
between himself and the idea of Divine sanctification which has
been shown to him by the Holy Ghost. The man cannot reach
his ideal. His most vehement prayers fall short, and his severest
self-discipline is incomplete. He seems to be within reach of the
prize, yet misses it by less than a hair's breadth. Out of all this,
there comes complaining which is very bitter, and there sets in a
war which turns life into a spiritual tragedy, — " O wretched man

314 THE PARACLETE.
that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? I
thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the
mind I myself serve the law of God ; but with the flesh the law of
sin." But no man can serve two masters ! True ; nor does
Paul attempt this impossibility,' — he himself stxvtd one master, yet
another mastery had laid hold of his outer and inferior self ; that
is to say, the flesh on which was written the condemnation of
death. A more thorough understanding of the influence of the body on
the mind would modify the fearfulness of many honest spirits, and
create a tenderer charity in all social judgments. Religion is
affected by temperament It is not equally easy for all men to
pray ; nor is it equally easy for all men to hope ; and the reason
simply is, that it is not equally easy for all men to live. Life is
one thing to the man who never had an hour's pain, and another
thing to a man who never knew the joy of health. The sanguine
temperament and the bilious temperament will express religious
convictions in two almost totally different languages. The one
will have long sunny days of gladness, and the other will walk
through life covered with clouds and oppressed with burdens, and
possibly the one might be to the other a temptation and an offence,
because of the want of a common language of' interpretation and
sympathy. Summer must be a great m}'stery to winter ; and the
fern, thriving in the moisture and shadow of its cool grot, must
wonder how the rose can bear the hot sun on its face all the day
long. It should be pointed out that the difference which is seen
so conspicuously under the action of religious sentiment, is after all
not a religious but a natural characteristic ; that is to say, religion
does not change temperaments, but works through them, and takes
its tone and colour from their distinctiveness. The man whose
spiritual life is gloomy, will be found to be gloomy also in busi
ness, and even his family love may be tinged with a melancholy
which may often cause it to be misunderstood and underralued.
Such reflections as these, arising out of the most obvious facts,
should lead to the exercise of a nobler judgment of human life.
We do not know through what suffocation some poor broken
hymn of piety may have struggled ; and we may give the loud
songster credit for religion which ought to be given in no small

HUMAN SPIRIT LIMITED BY HUMAN BODY. 315
degree to the healthiness of his lungs and the redness of his blood.
Under all circumstances it should never be forgotten that the minor
as well as the major key is part of the music which expresses the
gladness of all things.
Then the body is to be treated as an incorrigible criminal, and
to be held free of all discipline and subordination ? No. The
Apostle Paul is never more precise and emphatic than when he
states the course which every follower of Christ is bound to pursue
in the matter of physical control. The proof of this might be es
tablished by the most copious citations from his writings ; for ex
ample : — " They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with
the affections and lusts" ; " Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof ";
" Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might
be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin " ; " Glorify
God in your body' ' ; " As ye have yielded your members servants to
uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity ; even so now yield your
members servants to righteousness unto holiness " ; " Mortify
therefore your members which are upon the earth " ; " Now the
works of the flesh are manifest, which are these ... of the which
I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they
which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."
When Paul explained the anomalousness of his moral condition,
in the seventh chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, was he not
describing his pre-Christian state ? Did he undergo the same con
flict after he had been crucified with Christ ? It would distinctiy
appear that he did, and consequently that the seventh chapter of
the Epistie to the Romans is part of his actual Christian experi
ence. What other can be the meaning of his exhortation, " unto
the churches of Galatia," viz : " Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall
not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the
Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh ; and these are contiary the
one to the other : so that ye cannot do the things that ye would' '
(Gal. V. 16, 17). A collation of these passages will show that
even the renewed life is a daily conflict, and yet that he whose will
is strenuously on the side of holiness will be accounted victor in
the strife, even though he may be weakened and impeded by
many bodily infirmities. Judge a man by the lower side of his
nature, and there may be found room enough for taunting and

3i6 THE PARACLETE.

discouragement ; but judge him by his best efforts, his purposes,
and his sacrifices, and on all the ruggedness of his difficult way
there wfll be seen a light which could have come from heaven
only. The Christian is not in heaven, yet he is often judged as if
he were an angel. Faults and slips on his part are aggravated
into great sins, and men who point them out imagine that to in
dicate the failings of others is to exemplify perfections in them
selves. But what of that great prayer of the Apostie' s, found in his first
Epistle to the Thessalonians : — " And the very God of peace
sanctify you wholly ; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul
and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ ' ' ? The answer is, that it is a prayer. Prayer is the
ideal rather than the actual life ; it shows what we would be rather
than what we are ; and it calls up every disciplinary act to the
highest point It is in the religious life what high and urgent
aspiration is in other objects and services. The painter who de
sires (prays) to reach perfection will excel the sloven who never
knew the compulsion of a pure ambition ; so he who desires,
with all the vehemence of unceasing prayer, that his body may be
preserved blameless unto the coming of Jesus Christ will, as a re
ward, be enabled to realize the highest possible degree of self-con
trol and chastity. That is the great and beautiful life which con
fesses its faults and turns each of its mistakes into a reason for
more critical self-watchfulness ; and that is a poor and superficial
existence which declines all hard tasks and all severe exposures,
lest so much as a flaw, should mar the polish of its respectability.
It should be remembered, too, that higher holiness always brings
with it higher sensibility, so that where once an evil action could
be looked upon without self-reproach, now even a questionable
thought, in its most transient passage through the mind, leaves in
the heart a sting of shame and self-hatred. That is proof of growth.
It is worth while to say these things, because they may help others
towards a godly cheerfuln^ess in passing through the sharp discipline
of a life which is assailed and torn through the weakness of the
flesh.

III.
GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST CONSIDERED
AS THE GOSPEL'S CULMINATION.
TO understand the meaning of the proposition that the cul
mination of the Gospel is to be found in the gift of the
Holy Ghost by Jesus Christ, it will be needful to get at least
some general notion of what is known as the Gospel scheme, —
scheme, novel as may appear this application of the term, for the
gospel has a distinct though often a hidden or unprojected
method ; that is to say, it is not a mere congeries of assertions and
emotions, but a vital system of thinking and service though with
next to nothing of framework or technicality. In other words, the
gospel is stateable in distinct and progressive propositions, and
consequently it can be treated methodically for expository and
argumentative purposes. This is what we mean in applying the
word "scheme" to the gospel, and it is of such scheme that we
now propose to get a general notion.

In the first place, the Gospel proceeds upon a most distinct and ex
ceptional theory of human nature. If this theory be mistaken or
disputed by the student, there will be a succession of difficulties
and angry controversies along the whole of that historical and doc
trinal line which terminates in the cross of Jesus Christ No point
in that line can have its proper relation and value assigned if this
theory be unknown or unaccepted, a fact which shows that the
doctrine of human nature as held by the Gospel is fundamental ;
that is to say, is neither tentative norc potential, but absolute and
unchangeable. Herein is one of the permanent difficulties of
Christianity — namely, that its students too generally approach it
upon the Divine rather than upon the human side. Thus, they

31 8 THE PARACLETE.

begin with the cross ; they invert the natural and self-explanatory
process ; and in doing so, the mind becomes unbalanced by the
pathos of the spectacle, and is tempted to suggest that surely
something less awful might have sufficiently met any exigency that
could have arisen in the growth and discipline of moral life. In
this way a prejudice is set up. The inquirer is troubled too
much to be able to look calmly at the whole argument ; the
shadow of the awful cross accompanies him and darkens all subse
quent study : he owns himself at a loss to imagine the fundamen
tal theory of a movement which has culminated in so distressing a
catastrophe, and thus he comes upon the mystery from a wrong
level, and probably may be either revolted by its extravagance or
tempted to regard it as a merely dramatic agony. Instead of be
ginning with the cross, he should have begun with himself : that
is, with human nature. Undoubtedly the gospel theory of human
nature is one which involves severe and unmitigated accusation ;
so severe and unmitigated, indeed, that if we did not already know
every step of its progress we should wonder how such a theory
could be succeeded, argumentative]}', by anything short of perdi
tion. What is that theory ? It is expressed with infinite simplic
ity and terribleness by Jesus Christ in one word ; according to
the teaching of our Lord, human nature is — "lost," At this
moment we are not asking whether the Gospel theory is true or
untrue ; we are merely asking what it is. Let us keep to this one
point closely, resisting every temptation to mix up with it some
thing for which we are not yet ready. We must completely un
derstand the impeachment before we accept or reject it
Christianity teaches that all men have erred and strayed like lost
sheep : "all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every
one to his own way"; it insists that all men are morally alike :
" there is none righteous, no not one ;" it pronounces mankind
to be " dead in trespasses and sins." Never, even for one
moment, is it tempted to relax the severity of its charge, so as to
modify what it has to offer in the way of salvation. It acknowl
edges the- accidentally or temporarily beautiful aspects of human
life, but, fundamentally, includes it in one condemnation, that it
may afterwards recover it by a common process. We speak of
the fall of Adam, and baffle ourselves by wondering what that Fall
was, and what it can have to do with the men of to day. Instead

THE CULMINATION OF THE GOSPEL. 319
of talking of the fall of Adam, let us think of the self-revelation of
Adam ; and in place of the word " Adam," let us take the generic
term Man. We know ourselves more thoroughly through our sins
than through our supposed excellences. Adam would never have
known sin but by the law, and not to know sin is not to know the
whole capacity of human nature. Every man must fall for him-
self that he may have his own measure of self-revelation. We
may indeed be shocked or grieved by the fall of others, but not
until our own hand has touched the forbidden tree, and the poison
has mingled with our own life, can we tell how much is concealed
in that greatest of all earthly mysteries — the human heart Every
man (according to the Christian theory) has done substantially
what Adam did ; whatever there may be of difference is merely
nominal and accidental. But it is precisely in this region of acci
dental differences that the supreme difficulty of Christian appeal
and persuasion is found. We distribute offences into primary and
secondary orders, conveniently and properly enough for social
purposes, but involving a profound fallacy when regarded as suffi
cient and ultimate. " Sins" is itself a misleading word, unless
specially limited ; it invites comparisons, it calls attention to lights
and shades which modify each other, and it so exaggerates one
class of enormities as to make another almost respectable. For
" sins" say sin, and then degrees and modifications are abolished.
So long as a man limits the inquiry as between himself and some
other man, he is incapable of handling this great controversy ; more
over, such a limitation (except for merely social purposes) is itself
an offence, for we are not at liberty to separate ourselves from the
race, and to set up isolated humanities. All men are branches of
a common root, and are to be spoken of in their corporate quali
ties and powers. Individuality there will of course always be ;
but even individuality presupposes a common life. By typical in
stances we are to learn the nature and scope of the entire mass.
We must look beyond the mere names of Adam, Cain, Noah,
Abraham, and Moses, and think of the whole quantity man, which
they partially represented, if we would know our own nature, and
turn to right meanings and uses the current of human history.
" But /did not fall in Eden !" says the objector. No ; but you
would have done just as Adam did had you been placed in the
same circumstances, and therefore you did (not historically but

320 THE PARACLETE.
morally) do the very thing that was done in Eden. There is noth
ing but meanness in the suggestion that you would have done
better than Adam. Consider the case again, and you will see that
the only other thing beyond meanness is a charge against God
himself. Adam represented God's own idea of manhood ; to sup
pose that he made you a stronger man than he made Adam, and
yet that he risked the destiny of the whole race upon the weaker
man, is undoubtedly to bring a grave charge against the Divine
administration. But the charge recoils upon the accuser. He
ought to be a very pure man who suggests that if he had been at
the head of the race mankind would have been in a happier posi
tion to-day. He compels attention to himself, and forces from
society an inquiry into his quality, disposition, and achievements.
And if he be mean, covetous, hard, unsympathetic, selfish, he
gives but a poor guarantee that he would have been a better Adam
than the first ! More than this : if there is so much as one weak
point in him, whatever be the stern strength of other sides of his
character, through that one weakness he would have perished in
the great struggle. And who is there who will declare himself ex
empt from every weakness, and claim for his own character the
actual perfection of God ? We know precisely how such a claim
would be treated by the common-sense of mankind, — it would be
ridiculed with laughter rather than with anger, so thoroughly would
men understand its monstrousness and insanity. When men are
every day touching forbidden trees, breaking holy laws, giving
way to evil tempers and desires, and proving to themselves the
need of incessant watchfulness lest they stumble irrecoverably ; and
when it is being shown by the most tragical and startling instances
that there is but a step between life and death, honour and dis
honour, heaven and hell ; it is, to say the least of it, irrational and
indecent to suppose that the first man was weaker than ourselves.
A terrible thing to have been the first man I "\^'ithout experience,
without history, without an equal, without a footprint on all the
road, — this was itself a temptation, or a sorrow which could not
put itself into words.
Do not instances of personal nobleness — heroism and sacrifice
in all their varieties and degrees — contravene the theory of human
nature on which the gospel proceeds ? Surely such instances ought
at all events to modify the accusation which Christianity brings

THE CULMINATION OF THE GOSPEL. 321
against human nature ! The gospel distinctly answers that such
instances confirm the accusation instead of impunging or disprov
ing it In reference to such instances, the gospel would first of
all examine the ostensible nobleness in a dry and pure light, and
show how far it was merely apparent, how far it was relative, and
under what pressure it would utterly break down ; and in the next
place, the gospel would properly ask why such nobleness is excep
tional, or how it comes to be so marked as to draw any attention
to itself, and whether this would be so were human nature funda
mentally sound and true. Moreover, if the argument of num
bers be introduced (a fallacious argument generally, but in this
case utterly vicious) the gospel will logically insist that the proofs
of its own theory are, taking the whole world into account, in
numerably more than can be quoted by its opponents. The gos
pel will continue the argument by denying that any one man
(whose judgments must of course be affected by the necessary
limitations of his personality) can know human nature in its
totality ; and will follow up the denial by protesting that human
nature is, in its own degree, quite as much a revelation as is the Divine
personality itself. Day by day the progressive man is more and
more fully revealed to himself ; men must likewise be revealed to
one another ; and even after the widest collation of instances there
will always remain a further something — distinctiy felt, but too
subtle for the treatment of words — which further something is the
very essence of what we know as the nature of man. It would
appear to be commonly thought that whatever mysteries becloud
the Divine identity, we can undoubtedly see and measure the
whole quantity of human life ; but that is the very thing which is
denied, and certainly is the very thing which is contradicted by
the best psychology and metaphysics. Who is there that is not
often self-surprised by the course of his own thoughts, volitions,
and sympathies ? A new self would seem to come every day, or
foretokenings of a self other and better than we now realize ; so
much so that our whole being is yet unmeasured, or we have not
yet come into full possession of ourselves ! What, then, if it be a
mistake to suppose that we can test the whole question of human
nature exhaustively, and if the principal fact in our history be the
fact of an ignorance hardly relieved by the illumination of twilight ?
The gospel distinctiy says that human nature is to be revealed to

322 THE PARACLETE.
itself, and that the proper revelation of its moral condition is to be
found in such words as ' ' corrupt, ' ' " lost, " " dead in trespasses
and in sins. ' ' Suppose that this revelation is not believed by
mankind ? Such disbelief would be a strong presumptive proof of
its truthfulness ; for what man is predisposed to believe evil of
himself, or to do other than resent every suggestion of impotence
or dishonour ? And if the gospel have any propositions to make
to man, the probable truthfulness of its first unwelcome disclosures
is infinitely increased by the fact that it would simply stultify itself
by first setting up a needless but most proper and righteous antag
onism, and then offering what it supposes to be the greatest of
all blessings for the acceptance of mankind. Who would accost a
man with unfriendly and even scurrilous epithets in order to con
ciliate his attention or get a lien upon his confidence ? On the
other hand, what physician would be credited if he trifled with the
gravity of a disease merely to create false hopes, or to get some
temporary advantage from his patient ? Looking at these con
siderations, and other reflections from which they are inseparable,
the probability would appear to be that the disbelief of mankind
would be a strong presumptive proof of the truthfulness of the
gospel theory of human nature.
' ' It would appear, then, ' ' the dissatisfied reader may say,
" that we must not go to the gospel for a high estimate of hu
manity ; it will try to humble us by the most emphatic as
surances that we are 'lost,' ' deaid,' and 'corrupt,' but it will
never speak of our greatness and value as men." Precisely
the contrary is the case ! Instead of making these decla
rations a ground of contempt, the gospel says that notwith
standing these things man is worth saving ! How great, then,
must be its estimate of the value of human nature ! Given any
state (even though only imaginative) which can be described as
"lost," "dead," and "corrupt," to find out the appropriate
treatment Who can hesitate to answer that the appropriate
treatment is destruction ? Yet the gospel says — " No : the ap
propriate treatment in the case of mankind is salvation." So, in
this very gospel which was supposed to treat human nature with
contempt, is found an estimate of its worth unparalleled for
benevolence and hopefulness. And consistently so, if the script
ural testimony be carefully studied throughout Nowhere in that

THE CULMINATION OF THE GOSPEL. 323

voluminous testimony is there one derisive tone, or one signal of
Divine contempt ; everywhere there is poignant grief, yearning of
love over the prodigal, a cry as of bereavement and loneliness, the
lament of a broken heart Still, not one word of the accusation
is withdrawn or softened. The .impeachment is, so to speak,
written upon the whole front of the heavens, that the universe
may be confounded with astonishment in learning the ingratitude
of man, — yet God cries out for his child, and follows up the
mystery of sin with the higher mystery of forgiveness. Compare
this with the poor flatteries which other theories of human nature
have addressed to mankind ; the selfish compliments which have
been paid to the genius and strength of man ; and say whether
viewed simply as an intellectual conception the highest tribute
ever paid to human nature was not paid by One calling himself
the Son of God, who avowedly came into the world to seek and to
save that which was lost Have the flatterers of human nature
ever suffered anything on its behalf ? Consider what the flattery
of human nature is, and at its very core will be found the idolatry
of self. No wonder that men who live in an atmosphere of
mutual applause resent the violence of a theory whose primary
principle is that there is none righteous, no not one ! The fiist
destructive ambition of man was to be as God, and to this day he
is falling over the same rock, and madly kicking against the same
pricks. He is very sensitive as to his dignity. You wound him
when you tell him of his weakness, and yet you cannot so far
delude his consciousness as to get him beyond a changeful and
troubled joy even when you most effusively assure him of his
glory and strength ; even then a ghost dilutes his wine, and chal
lenges him to a battle which he knows must end in his own death.
The gospel reads the riddle to him : with loving frankness it re
veals his failures, and shows him that all outward blemish is but
an imperfect expression of his inward corruption. It does not tell
this with harshness or with the slightest refinement of cruelty, but
with the explicitness of incorruptible honesty, and with a tender
ness which means that presently it will have something better to
say. What that something is we shall now endeavour to define :
meanwhile, to the charge that Christianity takes a low view of
human nature, the Cross of Christ is the answer of God.

324 THE PARACLETE.

II.
It will be seen that the gospel has (taking the objector's word)
by its very extravagance brought a heavy responsibility upon itself
by proposing to deal remedially with a nature which it has with
persistent austerity described as "dead," "corrupt," "lost,"
" born in sin and shapen in iniquity" ; it should have spared its
epithets if it had any misgiving of its strength, for by this free, and
almost riotous, use of condemnatory words it has determined its
own tests, and there can be no escape from their judgment
What can be more incautious (not to say unjust) than to exag
gerate a disease, and then boastfully to propose remedies which
are monstrously inadequate ? And what can be more cruel than
to dilate upon the horrors of an affliction for which it is known
that cure is impossible ? If from this moment — now that it has
been allowed to state the case in its own way — the gospel forget
one item of its impeachment, or prove itself (as weakness always
does) more energetic in condemnation than in the provision of
adequate help, it will not only provoke the most indignant re
prisals, but be justly chargeable with the most atrocious cruelty.
We are, therefore, if in earnest in this argument, intensely excited
to know the precise remedy which the gospel has to propose, and
we have been prepared, by its own condemnatory tone, to receive
the proposition with aggravated and resentful jealousy : nor do we
apologize for this, for men ought not to allow themselves to be
first damned with the most odious epithets, and then to be trifled
with by speculative suggestions or empirical nostrums. As the
gospel has come to the point on the one side, so it must at once
come to the point on the other. The question which urges itself
after hearing the indictment is — Does God himself believe it ? Or,
has he magnified the disease that he may glorify himself by an
easy and inexpensive arrangement on his own part ? We shall get
the answer in the proposed remedy. What is it ? This : " God
so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life." Now (even from an imaginative point of view) it maybe
fairiy claimed that how awful soever the impeachment, this answer
transcends it in solemnity and pathos. At this moment we are

THE CULMINATION OF THE GOSPEL. 325
not affirming either this or that theory to be either true or false ;
we are simply getting hold of a case as it is outlined in history,
and our submission on strictly literary grounds is, that the im
peachment of human nature was so terrible that it seemed to defy
everything like an answer or a mitigation, and that this answer,
found in the love of God and expressed in the mediation of Jesus
Christ, fills up and overflows the measure of the occasion, and is
the sublimest sentence in the literature of mankind.
A very curious question, however, arises out of the construction
of this answer. Is there not an abrupt and most unsatisfactory
turn in the language ? We are told in the first place that God
loved the world, and in the second place we are told the exact
degree of his love ; but, strange to say, that degree is not
measured by God himself but by the gift of his Son ! We do not
read that God so loved the world that he gave himself, but he so
loved the world that he gave some one else ! A great gift, no
doubt (the greatest, indeed, to any giver), but still secondary, and
bringing with it many difficulties which would appear to be in
superable. It will be seen that a case of this kind, involving
humiliation so deep and other consequences so disastrous and in
tolerable, could not be met by any degree of mere consent on the
part of the Son. Consider what is involved in any arrangement
by consent of parties : however full the degree of the consent, it is
evident that the Son, if an inferior Person, could only regard the
salvation of the world as an idea which had been suggested to him
by the Supreme Mind, and which had, either by force of argu
ment or force of sovereignty, laid such hold upon his understand
ing and affections that he yielded to it, and for the time being be
came the very slave of this great thought Now such arrangement,
regarded from a human point of view, must be seen to be pain
fully insecure. An idea of this kind, so vast in its scope and so
costly in its execution, cannot, in the very nature of the case, be
realized derivatively and secondarily. Such realization may be
attempted, indeed, but the attempt must end either in blasphemy or
madness. If Jesus Christ could have had an idea suggested to him
then he was less than omniscient ; if he was less than omniscient
he was less than God ; and if he was less than God he was exposed
¦to all those counter considerations which modify and rearrange
finite judgments, and which, therefore, might impair his resolu-

326 THE PARACLETE.
tion to be the instrument of the world's salvation. But what if he
was so inspired and ruled by the Almighty as to render his faith
fulness invincible ? Then he was no longer a voluntary agent A
man may be overborne by inspiration as well as by meaner forces ;
and to whatever extent he is under the dominion of influences
which he can neither understand nor control, he loses sympathy
with those who do not share his elevation, and, in fact, cuts him
self off from their approach and their petitions. The term inspira
tion is, of course, variously understood and applied, and therefore
it may be worth while to point out the exact sense in which it is
used in this argument. In a sense far from inconsiderable every
man is divinely inspired ; some men (as the highest thinkers,
whether philosophers or poets) are specially inspired ; a yet smaller
number of men (as Isaiah and Ezekiel) have been the subjects of
an inspiration more peculiar and distinctive still. Our contention
is that in not one of these senses was Jesus Christ inspired, but
rather that he himself was the actual Inspirer of these very men !
To say that he was inspired is to put him into a secondary posi
tion ; because if inspired he was of course inferior to the Being
from whom he derived his inspiration. Say rather that Jesus
Christ was self-inspired ; that his whole ministry was self-originated
and self-directed ; and though he is thus argumentatively set in
finitely above the race which he redeemed, he is yet left in full
possession of that power, which happily is inseparable from God,
by which he can with infinitely pathetic condescension stoop to
the meanest of his creatures. In saying that such a Being is un
approachable we do not, even theoretically, destroy his abihty to
do on his side what without his aid is impossible on ours. He
can come to us ; he does come to us every moment ; thus the
thing which may be even unthinkable in theology is one of the
continual and necessary facts of daily human experience. When
we say that the sun is unapproachable, we do not mean that
his light cannot come down to the meanest of human habita
tions. Is there, then, a serious discrepancy between the first part of
this marvellous answer and the second ? If we take Jesus Christ's
estimate of himself we shall see the answer in another light
Speaking of himself he said, " I and my Father are one" ; if only
one in sympathy and purpose he was in reality saying nothing, for

THE CULMINATION OF THE GOSPEL. 327
this is a commonplace which applies to many human covenants
and enterprises ; any holy angel could have said the same thing,
and even some devoted men might use the very words. If, how
ever, we regard the words as expressing not only sympathy but
equality, we come at once to a new and satisfactory reading of the
answer now under discussion ; thus : God so loved the world that
he gave himself in human form, Emmanuel, that whosoever be
lieveth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. How
far, then, is this reading supported by other Scriptures ? Is there
any evidence to show that Jesus Christ claimed originality and
voluntariness for his own interposition ? If he derived the idea
from God, and held it (with whatever tenacity) as a suggestion
only, he would be careful to give God the glory in terms so dis
tinct as to render any reference to himself, that was not guarded
with jealous rigour, an act of profanity and blasphemy. What,
then, do we find to be the tenor of apostolic teaching as to Christ's
part in the proposed scheme for the salvation of the world ? A
few citations will show this clearly : — " The great God and our
Saviour Jesus Christ who gave Himsel'f for us" (Titus ii. 13,
14). " Our Lord Jesus Christ who gave Himself for our sins"
(Gal. i. 4). " The Son of God who loved me and gave Him
self for me" (Gal. ii. 20) " Christ Jesus who gave Himself a
ransom for all " (i Tim. ii. 6). There is no qualifying clause,
as, for example, "at God's suggestion," or " in deference to a
higher will " ; the terms are simple, unencumbered, and absolute ;
and therefore the following paraphrase of the answer would seem.
to be wholly, justified — "God so loved the world that he gave
himself, embodied in the form of Jesus Christ, that whosoever be
lieveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life ;" and
herein is it true that "he that hath seen me hath seen the
Father" ; and, " it is not I that do the works, but the Father that
dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." A mystery, indeed, on
every side, not to be dispelled wholly by any explanation, yet so
to be expounded as to prove, without one broken link in the
evidence, that when God so loved the worid as to give his only
begotten Son, he so loved the world as to give himself.
But Jesus Christ was a man ? Undoubtedly : to forget his
manhood is to forget half the gospel, and to overlook one of
the reasons which originated the scheme of saving the worid. It

328 THE PARACLETE.

is in the highest degree remarkable that when God proposed to
come to earth to save the children of men, he did not attempt to
improve the plan upon which man was originally made, but on
the contrary he reproduced it so completely that Jesus Christ was
actually known as the second Adam. This should be remembered
as a proof that the first Adam fully represented manhood as it ex
isted in the Divine conception, and was not set forth as the type
which was to be matured by the progress of ages. Jesus Christ
was ' ' made in all points like as we are' ' ; as much as to say, that
God could not have added another element or feature to his
original idea of manhood, without having completely changed it
and really made something other than man ; and therefore when
he purposed to constitute a new head of the race, he actually
made it on the first plan. But whereas the first man was made
only in tlie image and likeness of God, the second man was God
, himself, the Lord from heaven. Jesus Christ adopted a remark
able method in the treatment of his own humanity ; he challenged
men to destroy it, and he would raise it up again in three days ;
he said that it was his Father who did the works, at the very mo
ment that he was in the act of doing them himself ; he said that
he came from God and went to God. So the alphabetic letter
says : "I am but a form, a medium ; I do not give wisdom ; the
Spirit which I represent gives life and understanding ; the wise
man uses me, and so does the fool, yet how different the spirit of
the one from the spirit of the other ! When the eyes of your
understanding are enlightened you will see me as I really am, and
then, having seen me, you have seen my spirit and meaning also."
The treatment of his personal humanity which Jesus Christ
adopted was more needful and important than may at first sight
appear. Why did he so carefully separate it from Godhead ?
Why did he show his exhaustion, his hunger, and weakness to the
men who were round about him, and openly say that he had not
where to lay his head ? Because it is in human nature to worship
itself, and to look no farther than the range of its own power and
wisdom. From the very beginning this has been its temptation —
" Ye shall be as gods." On this ground, therefore, it became
him who was the second Adam, and the head of a new race, to
define the proper limits of human nature, to separate the formal
from the essential, and to be for ever pointing men away from the

THE CULMINATION OF THE GOSPEL. 329
physical and the visible to him who is a Spirit, and must be wor
shipped in spirit and in truth.
Jesus Christ was so careful to assert his proper humanity, that
he called himself by no less singular a name than ' ' the Son of
man" — a name which is not only most distinctive, but one which
by its very delicacy admits of easy perversion and impoverishment
Its meaning would be destroyed were it a son of man, or the son
of a man. The fact is, the name so precisely expresses what it was
intended to convey, that it cannot be rearranged or varied in any
degree without sustaining injury and dishonour. If we want
God's idea of man we must go back to the creation of Amad
(" God created Adam [man] in his own image, in the image of
God created he him"), and then the name " Son of man" will be
equal to son of Adam, and the meaning of the name will prob
ably be that Jesus Christ was, merely as regarded his bodily mani
festation, what the son of Adam would have been had the estate of
innocence been retained. That is to say, he was God's ideal of
humanity realized in all points ; as human as any other ¦vsxi.nyet
without sin, really and properly human, touched with a feeling of
our infirmities, and in all points temptable though invulnerable.
A beautiful condescension this, on the part of God ; coming all
the way to us, and actually laying hold of our very nature. And
a marvellous answer to the difficulty of sin ! An answer after this
fashion — " Sin has brought human nature into captivity and
death, and so far has tc all appearance successfully challenged my
Divine dominion ; I first set up humanity in my own image and
likeness, and sin has defaced the work of my hands. But the day
shall be surely turned upon the enemy : through this selfsame
humanity shall come redemption and immortality, and the serpent
shall be crushed by the seed of the woman, — the Son of man shall
be the Saviour of man, and human nature shall thus be pro
tected from the charge of weakness and failure." So it can only
be a false theology which puts into a secondary place the proper
human nature of Jesus Christ We separate ourselves from his
most helpful influences by magnifying his divinity at the expense
of his humanity ; and by our very eagerness to worship his God
head we exclude that subtle and tender sympathy by which he
seeks to get his first hold of our confidence and love. We are,
too, tempted to narrow the term Godhead, and to set up Unitari-

330 TIIE PARACLETE.
anism on another than the common basis ; that is, we are so
vigorous in our assertion of the proper Deity of Jesus Christ, that
we overlook both the Father and the Spirit. Probably the prin
cipal reason why the humanity of Jesus Christ is not acknowledged
with sufficient distinctness and honoured with appropriate homage
is, that the very term ' ' human nature' ' has lOst its true meaning ;
it is not thought of as God's o'.vn highest idea of earthly existence
— a translation of himself into form — but as something almost self-
created, corrupt, contemptible, and worthless. This is not God's
view, nor is it a view which is held with God's approbation. At
best it is but the accidental condition of human nature, — a rough
and tragical episode, revoltingly and mournfully true within certain
limits, — not the Divine idea which is yet to be reclaimed and
vindicated, and covered with glory ineffable and everlasting.
When we see human nature as God meant it to be, pure, strong,
loving, wise, clothed with its original dominion, and moving up
he immeasurable altitude to which it is called in the purpose of
God, we shall see how lofty is the titie Son of man, and that to be
a ma7i is to stand at the right hand of God.

III.
Upon these two points our conception of the gospel scheme is
tolerably clear ; at all events we know that as a matter of fact it
presents a distinct and expectant theory of human nature — a
theory so obviously sui generis as to be substantially original, and
originality on such a subject is equivalent to a revelation — and
proposes to meet the human condition which it describes in terms
so graphic and humiliating by a method which, if true, is, on the
face of it, transcendently sublime, — the incarnation, the sacrifice,
the resurrection and priestiy mediation of God the Son. But,
how to bring this method to bear ? Not only how to bring it to
bear as one great act, for the time being eclipsing everything else
and smiting the universe with a terrible surprise, but how to .give
it nearness and influence in all lands and in all ages even until
time shall be no more ? Just now we were excited to know how
such a condition of human nature as had been described could
possibly be met by obviously adequate remedifes, and we have at

THE CULMINATION OF THE GOSPEL. 331

this point precisely the same excitement arising out of the inquiry :
How can this work of Jesus Christ overflow the limitations of time
and space, and extend its advantages to all generations and all the
habitable places of the earth ? It is clear that the continued
bodily presence of Jesus Christ could not have met the case, and
that besides falling short of it, would have created difficulties not
only insuperable but most mischievous. Who would have believed
in his proper humanity if he had lived five centuries and five
more, and then add a thousand years, and promised to live as a
man for ten thousand more ? By the mere lapse of time he would
have destroyed all confidence in his claim to be regarded as
" made in all points like as we are," and would, in his professed
humanity, have become an infinitely greater mystery than in his
claim of equality with God. How then, according to the gospel
theory, whether true or untrue, did he propose to secure duration
and universality for his work ? This is the brilliant and astound
ing answer — He ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill
all things. All things, all time, all space, all hearts, all kingdoms
and masteries. ' ' Therefore being by the right hand of God ex
alted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy
Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear." The
inquirer will be able to say whether the sublimity of the second
answer equals the sublimity of the first, or whether the gospel
scheme outwits itself by the creation of difficulties which it can
only meet by impotent expedients. Has that scheme created an
ideal Christ which it cannot universalize ?
By the inspiration of the Holy Ghost there is a human ministry
of the gospel in the world. Men are especially called to that
ministry by the Holy Spirit ; they are qualified by appropriate
gifts ; their living word is accompanied and confirmed by the
power of God ; their hearts are quickened by an enthusiasm which
can find no sufficient expression but in the proclamation of the
truth as it is in Jesus. The Holy Ghost creates a Church — com
panies of men who live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, pray in
the Spirit, and bring forth the fruits of the Spirit ; men who are,
the temples of the Holy Ghost, and whose union is a continual
testimony to the power of Jesus Christ. That they are despised
and rejected of men is true, but true only in so far as the fact
connects them with the history of the Lord, whose name they bear.

332 THE PARACLETE.
Unquestionably the Church is at a discount in the world : to be
long to it other than nominally, is to provoke opposition and
sneering ; to be earnest in the cause of the Cross, is to invite the
charge of fanaticism or the insinuation of hypocrisy. Still, the
Church lives, and its ministry is resuscitated from age to age. A
continual resurrection thus supervenes, and the morning freshness
reappears in spite of all the centuries and their impairing power.
By the action of the selfsame Spirit, the Atonement is saved from
all the disadvantage of merely historic distance, so that, to the
spiritually earnest man, the Cross of Jesus Christ is as near to-da}',
as if the crucifixion had just transpired. Herein, truly, is a mar
vellous thing, that men are now preaching Christ crucified. What
do they know about the crucifixion ? Yet they preach it as if
they had but just left Golgotha after seeing the blood of Jesus ;
and no story so deeply moves the human heart, or so mightily stirs
the energies of mankind, as the story which takes us back nineteen
centuries, and translates itself out of a strange tongue.
Now, mark the effect of this Spiritual ministry upon the doc
trine of Human Nature and the doctrine of Incarnation and Sacri
fice just stated. We have been told that human nature is " lost,"
" dead," and " corrupt," and by the very fact that it is so it is
clear that its condition can be effectually reached only by Spiritual
influence, — that is, by influence that is superior to the nature on
which it acts, and that is quickening or life-giving,— " And so it
is written. The first man Adam was made a living soul ; the
last Adam was make a quickening spirit" "The letter killeth
but the Spirit giveth life." " It is the Spirit that quickeneth ; the
flesh profiteth nothing ; the words that I speak unto }'0U they are
Spirit and they are life." Surely, such provisions wonderfully
fulfil the conditions on which the gospel theory proceeds ; the
theory is rescued from the fate of mere intellectual abstractions,
and applied in the direction of revitalized and sanctified human
nature, and so is shown to be founded upon reality and adapted
to experience. Still, there is the inquiry, Can this quickening
power be brought to bear upon human nature without the inter
position of material instruments ? And to this inquiry the script
ural answer is distinctly in the negative. Human nature could
not, in its lost condition, be communicated with directiy by abso
lutely spiritual agents. Its ears were waxed heavy that they could

THE CULMINATION OF THE GOSPEL. 333
not hear, and its eyes were made dim and sightless by unrestrained
transgression. Then must the Almighty thunder if he would be
heard, and spare not his lightnings if he would be seen even in
roughest outhne : the " still smaU voice" would be wasted music.
There must first come that which is natural, afterward that which
is spiritual, — first the earthquake, the fire, the sounding storm
beating on the mountains and sending the horror of darkness and
a noise of trouble through the valleys ; and then must come the
sweet peace of a spiritual ministry — a harmony too exquisite for
the ear of the flesh, but ravishing the soul with refinements of
music indistinguishable from the praise of heaven. We have more
than once in the course of this essay claimed that this is precisely
what has been done in that administration of human affairs which
culminated in the gift of the Holy Ghost ; and this brief review
enables us to reaffirm that the gospel theory is, even in the most
subtle and delicate points, consistent from beginning to end with
itself, and is therefore presumptively true. It can only be with a
feeling of grateful surprise that we observe how graciously it has
been provided that this entire scale of revelation, so to speak,
should be available, in all gradations, to mankind as much to-day
as at any period of the history of Christianity. To preach the high
doctrine of the Holy Ghost to the heathenism which surrounds the
piety of the most enlight^ed countries would be simply to speak
an unknown tongue, and, indeed, to speak the language of heart
less irony. So also with lands which are visited by the Christian
evangelist. He may begin his ministry with the words, ' ' God is
a Spirit," but he will soon find that he will have to take his
heathen hearers through almost literally the course which runs
-through the Old Testament and the New, and terminates in the
gift of the Holy Ghost To the heathen must be spoken the
commandments, and revealed the exacting " law, " which more
than anything else can teach man the poverty of his moral re
sources. The alphabet and the picture-book will be found indis
pensable by the missionary. Then will come the narrative of
Jesus Christ's outward life,— miracle, parable, and startiing word-
then the pr^torium and the cross— then the Holy Ghost There
is no escape from this hne : it is, as we have endeavoured to show,
the line of intellectual growth and of social development, as dis
tinctiy and unchangeable as it is the line of spiritual training and

334 THE PARACLETE.

progress. On the other hand, to be preaching the " first princi
ples" to congregations who have been listening to Christian expo
sition for a lifetime is to the discredit either of the preacher or the
hearer. Perhaps, however, there is some excuse for the preacher,
seeing that he is conventionally compelled to address all classes in
a common speech, instead of being permitted to address each class
in its own language, and according to the degree of its spiritual
enlightenment Christian teaching regarded in its proper distribu
tion would furnish a magnificent picture if we could command the
whole in one clear view. Far away in the distance are heathen
nations taking their first lessons (in large and highly illuminated
letters) under the direction of the Christian missionary; nearer
still are little children to whom the Divine word is being spoken
in its utmost simplicity with all the aid of parable and story ; still
nearer are groups of partially enlightened inquirers who see men
as trees walking ; interspersed amongst many other classes are
persons who can be approached only through their sensibilities and
emotions, and who can constitutionally never have any strong hold
of truth apart from its most pathetic objective expression ; but at
the centre of all there should be a class of inquirers specifically
different from all the rest, — a class whose studies are far beyond
miracle, picture, ritual, and the limited " letter," intermeddling
with ' ' the deep things of God, ' ' and breathing the air of a higher
world. But how is any preacher to address all those classes when
they come together in common assembh', except in generalities
which will hardly satisfy any one of them ? To speak with edifi
cation to the last would simply be to speak an unknown tongue to
all the others, and to speak with edification to the first would be
to offer " milk" to strong men, or to fret philosophers with recol
lections, of the alphabet and primer. Out of the working and con
flict of classes so varied, and apparently so littie related (yet be
tween which there is a constant inter-transition), come charges of
heterodoxy, rationalism, mysticism, and transcendentalism ! What
wonder ? Surely the child who is in dissyOables must think the
mathematician a heretic and the metaphysician a madman for
spending his nights and days in quest of the "cosmic reason."
And probably the tyro to whom the multiplication table is a
mystery would hear of algebra with shuddering and horror. A
wise word is that, here as elsewhere, ' ' Judge not, that ye be not

• THE CULMINATION OF THE GOSPEL. 335
judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged :
and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you
again." It is a long way from the letter which killeth to the
Spirit which giveth life, and the progress from the one to the other
must always be a mystery, — a mystery to the advancing man him
self, and a mystery to those who take an interest in his growth.
Yet what great reliefs accompany the mystery ! The fruit of the
Spirit is not unintelligibleness, self-inclusion, scorn of backward
learners, and latent disdain of • human nature generally ; the fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, good
ness, faith, meekness, temperance. The better the scholar the
deeper his humility. If any man say, " I walk in the Holy
Ghost," his claim can easily be tested bythe inquiry, What are
his fruits ? "By their fruits ye shall know them, ' '

IV.
THE MIRACLES OF THE HOLY GHOST.
WE are so accustomed to connect the word " miracles" ex
clusively with the name of Jesus Christ that it may startie
us to associate it with the name of the Holy Ghost, especially if
we do so for the purpose of showing that the word is only partially
and temporarily applicable to any ministry but his own. The
miracles of Jesus Christ were well called ' ' signs' ' by himself and
by others. That is precisely what they were, and nothing more,
— outward and visible signs of great spiritual realities. If we
reverently regard them in this light we may talk freely about them,
and come to a just understanding of their import and value. No
man showed so clearly the worthlessness of miracles as Jesus Christ
showed it Beyond a very limited line he made no account of
them, and how properly so is evident enough. Jesus Christ
healed a lame man, but what of it ? Is it a great thing to mend a
bone whether by much surgery or by one quick word ? Is it not
mocking a man to raise him from the dead, when he must needs
die again in a war from which there is no discharge ? We say
that Jesus Christ suspended the laws of nature, but we forget to add
that nature showed herself greater than all her laws by resuming
everything that had momentarily been taken from her dominion.
The lame man was restored, but in the long run nature smote him
with a deadlier infirmity. The dead body was reanimated, but
nature waited and won. Let this be thoughtfully observed, as
not only explaining the cessation of what is called the "age of
miracles," but as showing the worthlessness of the physical won
ders which once made men wild with much astonishment Jesus
Christ did no physical miracle which remains until this day :
lameness, blindness, deafness, are still at hand, and the sea is as
noisy as if he had never spoken to it In effect, Jesus said about
his own mighty signs and wonders, " You see that these things do
not satisfy you. I no sooner do one miracle than you ask me to

THE MIRACLES OF THE HOLY GHOST, 337
do another, and the more miracles I do the greater is your be
wilderment, and not a whit the less is your scepticism. Now let
me tell you the meaning of what I do, and so lead you away from
the outward to the inward — from the sign to the thing signified.
I have healed, for a while, your lameness, blindness, and dumb
ness, but all your physical disadvantages will recur with aggrava-'
tion in the hour and article of death. The thing I aim at is
spiritual restoration, spiritual completeness, spiritual immortality.
I have come to give you life, and to give it more abundantiy ; and
if you miss this meaning of my miracles, your vague and tumul
tuous wonder will do nothing for you. I gave you bread in the
desert, but you must eat myself \i you would hunger no more.
My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. I am the
bread of life ; he that cometh to me shall never hunger. I have
found water for you in dry places, but you must drink the water
that I shall give you if you would never thirst again." In this
way Jesus led the observers from the mere sign to the eternal grace
that was signified. In the same manner he taught the inner circle
of his apostles the true value of astounding deeds : ' ' The seventy
returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject
unto us through thy name": Jesus answered, " Rejoice not that
the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice because your
names are written in heaven." If miracles, as that term is gener
ally understood, could have answered other than temporary and
intermediate purposes, they would have been permanently estab
lished amongst the ministries of the Church. In their place they
had a high use, but beyond it they were of no value. Jesus pro
vided for the development of true and abiding miracles by the
promise, " Greater works shall ye do; because I go unto my
Father." And in drawing the attention of the disciples and others
from the outward miracle to the inward truth, he did exactly what
he attempted when he taught the disciples to see in all outward
things some hint of spiritual meaning or care ; as, for example, in
the hlies of the field, the fowls of the air, and the impartial bene
diction of the sun and the rain. He referred to these as points
from which spiritual reasoning might start, and suggested that if
the spiritual truth of these symbols escaped the observer, the great
purpose of the type was lost. If God care for the grass of the
field, how much more will he care for men ? If he feed the

338 THE PARACLETE.
fowls of the air, will he neglect his children ? It is nothing to
admit that he gives the young lion his prey, you must go further,
and allow that in doing so he is proving that ' ' no good thing will
he withhold from them that walk uprightiy. " All these outward
instances of beauty, patience, care, and government, are but so
many superscriptions on the envelope ; the seal must be broken
by man, and the inward writing must instruct and gladden his
heart. We are not to be letter carriers but letter readers.
Bearing upon the point which indicates the spiritual uses of the
outward and visible, there are some remarkable scriptural expres
sions. The Apostle Paul teaches that " the invisible things" are
to be understood from " the things that are made ;" and the
author of the Epistle to the Hebrews — an anonymous writer of
great power in spiritual interpretation, as shown in his reading of
the Levitical ritual — says that " things which are seen were not
made of things which do appear. " The meaning would seem to
be that what we call the universe is only a symbolical expression
of a spiritual power which cannot otherwise make itself known to
us under present conditions, — but a foothold, indeed, from which
we may see only that there is yet everything to be seen. Were
either of those writers to accompany us in our physical studies he
would probably address us to this effect : What you call Nature is
only a mode of the Divine Personality ; not, indeed, that the
Divine existence is either limited by it or synonymous with it, but
it is God's first manifestation of himself to you, — his pictorial
alphabet, large enough and vivid enough to make you wonder,
and to get you to ask questions. You cannot see God himself
(neither, indeed, can you see your own self) ; but you can see this
symbol of his brightness and power, as you can see your own
figure and identify your physical individualitv. See how wonder
ful all nature is, how calm, how vast, how rhythmic ; " day unto
day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. ' '
If you could get one glance behind the veil }-ou would be blinded
by the essential light What is required of you is that you walk
h-y faith, that you live as if you saw the invisible, that you wait
patientiy for the fuller revelation. When he who is your life
shall appear, you shall be like him, for you shall see him as he is.
Now you see what you call light ; it is God's garment ; you are
amazed by the profusion which is characteristic of Nature ; not

THE MIRACLES OF THE HOLY GHOST, 339
merely a star here and there, but millions beyond all conceivable
number ; not flowers enough for one year only, but for all ages,
yet so economized that each flower is the garner of its successor ;
not one or two varieties of living form, but endless types and
degrees: all this profusion is but a hint of God's unsearchable
riches. Look at Nature in this way, and you will not err. You
know in part, and you can therefore only teach in part ; but
when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be
done away. This would seem to be the teaching of the writers of
the Epistles to the. Romans and the Hebrews, and it clearly com
mends itself as wise and modest Sir William Hamilton tells us
that a concept would fall back again into the confusion and in
finitude from which it has been called out, were it not rendered
permanent for consciousness by being fixed and ratified in a ver
bal sign. It is so with our highest idea, the idea of God ; we
should lose it, or walk for ever in confusion and vexation, but for
this alphabetic sign, the gross and palpable universe.
It is interesting to notice how in some instances spiritual
miracles were done by Jesus Christ, and in others //^j'J'zfa/ miracles
were done by the Holy Ghost. Yet in a marvellous manner the
functions of the Son and Spirit were kept from mutual encroach
ment. Look at the case attentively in order to prove this. It ap
pears that the Spirit wrought miracles which were distinctively
physical, as when Ezekiel says, " The Spirit lifted me up and took
me away' ' ; and as implied in the words which Obadiah addressed
to Elijah, " The Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee whither I know
not ' ' This same manifestation of power was seen in the case of
Philip, recorded in the book of the Acts of the Aposties : " The
Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him
no more. " These were ^(t physical miracles of the Holy Ghost ;
on the other hand, there are spiritual miracles by Jesus Christ.
For example, Jesus saw Nathanael under the fig-tree,— a circum
stance which so impressed Nathanael himself that he yielded
homage to the Messianic character of Christ. Jesus also revealed
so minutely his knowledge of the history of the woman of Samaria
that she exclaimed, " Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet"
There is a yet more notable instance of spiritual power : Jesus had
forgiven the sins of a man sick of the palsy, whereupon ' ' certain

340 THE PARACLETE,
of the scribes reasoned in their hearts. Why doth this man thus
speak blasphemies ?' ' The reasoning was not audible. Not a
word was uttered, nor was any sign made, yet " Immediately
when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they reasoned within them
selves, he said unto them. Why reason ye these things in your
hearts' ' ? A spiritual miracle truly, and far more exciting than the
cure of blindness or palsy. It should be further observed that
though the miracles of Christ were almost wholly physical, yet he
always magnified what may be called their spiritual asitect, and so
trained the observers from curiosity to worship. It is well worth
while to look at the proofs of this. When Jesus was called upon
to interpose in the storm lest the disciples should peri.sh, he re
buked the wind and sea, and instantiy there was a great calm.
But what was the meaning of the act which Jesus intended to con
vey ? Evidently this — •' ' The sea was not disorderly ; not a wave
was out of its place ; but your fears were excited, and so much
excited that only what you call a miracle could allay them. I have
therefore only quieted the wind that I might quiet your hearts, —
objectively the miracle is wrought upon the sea, but subjectively it
is wrought in your spiritual nature, — all things are for your
sakes." A great thing to rebuke the sea because of a man, in
stead of sacrificing a man to the ' ' laws of nature' ' ! And if one
sea, all seas ; and if all seas, all nature : "for heaven and earth
shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away' ' ; all things
must give way before spiritual claims and moral necessities. In
this fashion did Jesus Christ press upon men's attention the true
meaning of the mighty signs and wonders which he wrought He
went even further still in this spiritual direction, and spoke words
which may well amaze and confound mankind. When he re
stored sight to the blind man, or recovered the woman of her
plague, how did he account for the result ? Did he sound a
trumpet, and say to the astonished observers, " Behold my
power ! Look upon me with awe ! Fall down that I may tram
ple upon you' ' ? He actually made no reference to himself, but
said to each of his beneficiaries : " Thy faith hath made thee
whole!" As if they had done the miracle themselves, he being
but the medium through which they found access to omnipotence.
So, then, the physical result came through a spiritual process, and
was intended to convey spiritual meanings. Miracles were not

THE MIRACLES OF THE HOLY GHOST. 341
ascribed to faith in a merely isolated instance, but continually ; that
is to say, not by accident but on principle : " Thy faith hath
made thee whole" ; "Be it unto thee according to thy faith" ;
," He could not do many mighty works there because of their un
belief "; " How is it that ye have no faith ?" "If ye had faith
as a grain of mustard seed, ye would say unto this mountain. Be
thou cast into the midst of the sea, and it would be done" ; " All
things are possible to him that believeth." In the face of testi
mony so direct and positive there is no escape from the conclusion
that through every miracle Jesus Christ intended to educate the
spiritual nature of mankind, and specially to reward, and strengthen
the faith without which it is impossible to please God. But what
faith? Faith in destiny? What? " By faith that is in me," —
faith in Christ, — "Without me ye can do nothing" : so when
Jesus Christ credits a believing man with having made himself
" whole" by his faith, he is careful to explain that he himself is at
once the inspirer and rewarder of that wonder-working belief.
" Lord, increase our faith."*
In his self-resurrection our Lord repeated all his miracles in one
exclusive act So in the ministry of the Holy Ghost, regeneration

* "When our Lord said to his disciples, ' It ye h.s.\e faith, and doubt
not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig-tree,' but also, if ye
shall say unto this mountain, ' Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the
sea, it shall be done,' it is plain that the faith, which in this and in several
other passages, he was inculcating on them, is not to be understood of
mere belief in Jesus as the Messiah, or in the doctrines of his religion, or
of trust generally in Divine power and goodness. It evidently has refer
ence to miraculous powers, such as are not bestowed on all Christians ;
though faith, in another sense, is required of all. But in this and other
declarations of like import, there can be little doubt that our Saviour had
in view confidence in tliose admonitions and injunctions wliich his disciples
and many others of the early Cliristians from time to time received, authoriz
ing and empQweMig them to worti certain miracles. Their extraordinary
gifts were not (as those of Christ himself were) at their own command.
Even Paul, who performed so many mighty works, and, among others.
possessed the gift ot healing in a high degree, yet was not always per
mitted to exert this gift, even in favour of his dearest friends (2 Tim. iv.
20). A special commission seems to have been requisite to enable them
to exercise their delegated powers. And this was conveyed to them,—
their commission and call to perform miracles was announced to them,—
in various ways." — Archbishop Whately.

342 THE PARACLETE.
is the spiritual grace of which physical resurrection is the outward
sign. Regeneration sums up all the miracles of the Holy Ghost
The minor miracles are intellectual stimulus, prevision, the upward
movement ot the will, interpretations, tongues, groanings that can
not be uttered, manifold solaces and helps for which there are no
corresponding words ; but the supreme miracle is the new man !
' ' If any man be in Christ Jesus he is a new creature, old things
have passed away and all things have become new, " This result
has been vividly stated by St Paul in another passage : " Forni
cators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, thieves, covetous, drunk
ards, revilers, extortioners"; what can be made of such a list?
Put in a parallel 'column the kind of diflScuIty with which
Jesus Christ had to deal — halt, blind, withered, maimed, deaf,
dumb, leprous, palsied, dead, — look at the two lists together in
one view, and say which is the one upon which non possumus may
be most distinctiy written ! We know how Jesus Christ succeeded
in the latter case ; now we have to ask as to the success of the
Spirit in the former. Recall it: "fornicators, idolaters, thieves,
drunkards, revilers, extortioners, ' ' — ' ' Such were some of you, but
ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the
name of the .Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. " This is
the supreme miracle, and the proper rendering and completion of
all the miracles of Jesus Christ. This, too, is the enduring
miracle. We have reminded ourselves that all the wondrous
works of Jesus Christ were redemanded by Nature ; but in the in
stance of the Spirit's miracles we find continuance and immortal
ity. Observe how appropriate is the distribution of the service.
The human Saviour does the outward and visible work ; the
Eternal Spirit sets up the inward and spiritual kingdom ; the man
heals the body, the Spirit renews the soul. This is not only the
logic of history, it is the music of vital and indivisible consistency.
A healed leper may appear to be a greater miraclufchan a renewed
soul, but in reality, in comparison, he is hardly a miracle at all !
Which is greater, to quiet the storm, or to give peace to " a mind
diseased"? The inquiry answers itself in favour of the work of
the Holy Ghost It is remarkable, too, as showing the ever-
dwindling importance of merely outward and physical miracles,
even as wrought by Jesus Christ himself, that they are scarcely so
much as referred to in the apostolic writings. A fact this which is

THE MIRACLES OF THE HOLY GHOST. 343
full of meaning, and helpfulness in the way of interpretation, if
we lay hold of it properly. Nothing made of the miracles even by
the Apostle Peter who had seen them all ! Here and there just a
pregnant reference (as notably on the day of Pentecost — " Jesus
of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and
wonders and signs"), but soon away again to spiritual interpreta
tion and spiritual comfort ! In the Epistles of Peter there is
probably not a single reference to the mere miracles of Christ.
Yet how full are these Epistles of spiritual exposition and applica
tion ! It is Peter who speaks of " obeying the truth through the
Spirit," and of " being born again, not of corruptible seed, but
of incorruptible, by fhe word of God which liveth and abideth for
ever," — a sentence fit for the pen of John. It is Peter, also, who
tells us that " the Spirit of Christ was in the prophets," and who
insists that " the prophecy came not in old time by the will of
man, but holy men of God spake as they v.-ere moved by the Holy
Ghost" As for Paul, on whom a miracle had been wrought, the
whole of his argument is intensely spiritual, so much so that he
expounds the Christian doctrine as if no miracle had ever attested
the claims of Jesus. But the miracle of regeneration was the cen
tral fact in his ministry, as thus — " We ourselves also were some
times foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and
pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one
another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour
toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we
have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing
of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost ' ' If Paul had
been asked for miracles in proof of his apostieship, he would have
pointed to those who had believed his testimony and become
temples of the Holy Ghost,— to dead men born again, to aliens
enfranchised in the Jerusalem from above. The best miracles,
surely ! Jesus does not want to see the repetition of his signs, he
waits to be satisfied with the travail of his jw/— the sons which he
will bring to glory. Yet Paul's case is remarkable for the fact
that he never loses sight of himself, as the one great miracle
wrought by Jesus Christ He could never forget that a blas
phemer and a persecutor had been put into the ministry. And if
for a moment the merest shadow of a doubt fell upon his faith, he
instantly chased it away by reminding himself of his journey to

344 THE PARACLETE.
Damascus, " with authority and commission from the chief
priests." Paul had the witness in himself, so much so that to have
destroyed his Christianity would have been to obliterate his con
sciousness ; even if his logic could have been answered his life
would have remained. Christianity repeats this same work to-day
in supreme and undecaying power. Why deny the spring when
buds and blossoms are bursting forth on every hand ? Why
doubt the authority of Christian doctrine when the proofs are so
abundant of Christian life?
So, then, the age of miracles, supposed to be gone, is now in
the very zenith of its glory. There is indeed no more natural
sign, but there is the actual thing which was signified. Is it a
miracle to give a man new physical power, and but a commonplace
act to give him new dispositions and desires ? Is it a great thing
to open his eyes, and nothing to renew his life ? The miracle of
miracles is this : "A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit
will I put within you : and I will take away the stony heart out of
your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." When the
proud Brahmin has received the truth as it is in Jesus, and extended
the right hand of Christian fellowship to the meanest member of
the lowest caste whom he has met at the Cross, a greater miracle
has been wrought than in the healing of the lame or the raising of
the dead. To put the law " in the inward parts" and to " write
it in the heart, " is more than to fill the firmament with stars.

V.
HOLINESS.
IT would appear, then, that the great miracle is Sanctification,
variously described as Holiness, a New Creature, and a New
Man. The demand for this, on the part of Christ and his aposties,
is unequivocal, — it is, indeed, the very life of their word ; thus :
' ' Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven
is perfect"; "As he that hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in
all manner of conversation' ' ; " That ye may stand perfect and
complete in all the will of God." The Christian affirmation is
that there is a Holy Ghost, and that his function is to regener
ate and sanctify human nature : and the question arising out of
that startling statement is : How far has the Holy Ghost succeeded
in his work ? If he has completed it there must be facts enough on
every hand to prove the completion ; or if he has not fulfilled his
purpose there must be some ascertainable reason for the failure or
delay. Let us say at once that the Christian Church, as we now
know it in all evangelised countries, is as perfect as God himself
is perfect. The very statement would be received by the Church
itself, not only as ironical, but as an impious taunt. Yet the
Holy Ghost has been working in the Christian Church for many
centuries. Other miracles were done instantaneously, but this
miracle lags with stubborn reluctance. Why ? Is the word of the
Lord without power, or is the prey taken from the mighty ? We
have not to answer the mockery of bad men, or to repel the
charges of false accusers, but to meet the honest and humbling
confession of the Church itself that sanctification is a miracle not yet
accomplished. But society is better than it was, say, a century ago ? .Probably ;
but everything depends upon the exact meaning of the word ' ' bet
ter." Manners have certainly undergone a favourable change in sev
eral respects, and many gross social enormities have been outgrown,
yet society may be only outwardly not inwardly the better. Mor-

346 THE PARACLETE.
als may be artificial, and as for manners they may have been treated
merely as a branch of the fine arts. Your host no longer consid
ers himself bound to conduct you to' the point of intoxication and
helplessness in order to show the generousness of his hospitality,
but that he is therefore a better man, in the Christian sense of the
word, does not follow. The disease which showed itself in a noi
some form may be reappearing very subtly. It may be a criti
cal question in the correlation of moral forces, whether the force
" ba<;chanalianism" has not its equivalent in the force "covet
ousness' ' or " hypocrisy. ' ' Possibly enough, as every man knows,
a passion may not have been extinguished, but only, so to speak,
put further down in the heart, so that it is not so easily awakened
as it used to be, and certainly not so noisy, but still there ! A man
boasts that he is not so irritable as he was twenty years ago, but he
does not say that his self-control is used as an element of strength
in doing bad deeds with a steadier hand and a calmer effrontery.
In the old days he would have fumed and made himself heard in
angry words ; but now he waits, he strikes with cold steel. He
has replaced fury with a heartless and bitter sneer, and he boasts
that he has grown in the grace of self-control ! He gets credit,
too, from society for marked improvement. His acquaintances
who now see him under provocation, say that they have seen the
day when he would have flown into a rage for one tenth of the rea
son, and they wonder at his patience and forbearance ! They do
not know that what they praise so much is the result of calculation,
and has in it a strong infusion of malignity. Their friend has said
to himself, ' ' My opponents get the better of me when I am in a
rage ; I miss my aim ; my blows are wasted in the air ; I must
hold my temper down with a strong hand, and bide my time, and
then I can do more with one finger than I can do now with my
whole strength ; I will be cooler now." If such reasonin,g pre
cede the self-control which society applauds, the self-control is not
only vicious in itself, but is actually an aggravation of the original
offence. It may be the same with other social changes and judg
ments. The reformed drunkard no longer dishonours public de
cency, but if he has sunk into miserliness he is not a whit the bet
ter for his reformation. We change our vices and call them vir
tues. We have cleansed the skin, but driven the impurity back upon
the heart Christian men will honestly say so in speaking about

HOLINESS, 347

themselves ; they will own that in their heart of hearts there is a
root of offence and bitterness, and that beyond all their prayers
there is a shadow which can only come from the presence of the
devil. Yet the Holy Spirit has been operating in the Church for
centuries, and in the hearts of those very Christians it may be for
most of a lifetime !
We may get further knowledge if we give full liberty of speech
upon this whole subject to a cynical critic ; he shall have his own
way of stating the case, and it will be for each of the parties adjudg
ed to say how far the disagreeable observations are true. We shall
imaginatively invest our cynical critic with the largest conditions
of relationship, confidence, and insight, and thus invested he shall
find speech for himself : —
"Take my own spiritual adviser, and see what the Holy Ghost
has done for him. He is an ordained minister of Jesus Christ,
and his profession of godliness is distinct and emphatic. He goes
amongst men for a good man, and is respected in the most re
spectable ciicies. Yet look at him. When he composes his ser
mons he writes between the lines that he is a clever man, and that
no one can hear such sentences without applauding their taste,
their beauty, or their rhythm : he chuckles over their shapeliness
and grace, and is pleased, as a child is pleased with a toy, when he
hits upon some novel conceit in phraseology : he says it will strike,
it will gratify, it will be talked about, it will be declared original
and piquant His sermons are all composed for a selection of
his hearers, not for his congregation as a whole. He calls an
eclectic circle round his desk, and nods to them, and receives their
smiles, and he says, ' If you be absent when this discourse is de
livered my labour wifl be lost. I am making it for you ; I am
studying your taste and measuring everything by your judgment ;
you are my real hearers, the others are but so much padding ; if
they can get any good they must get it through you. ' He preach
es self-denial, but secretiy leaves no appetite ungratified ; he de
nounces worldliness, but insists upon 'the pound of flesh' for
which he himself has bargained ; he bears other people's trials
with elaborate and pompous patience, but yields to fretfulness and
petulance when the sting of care pierces his own life ; he will unc
tuously mourn the decay of his intellectual power, but if any

348 THE PARACLETE,
man even seem to believe him that unhappy man will be marked
and distrusted. My spiritual adviser boasts of the high respect-
abihty of his cure ; he says that the educated and tbe intelligent
are his most appreciative hearers, and it is known that he will
change any appointment to meet the wishes of the chief attendant
upon his ministry, — the parishioner who comes to church in the
suinptuous chariot, or the pewholder who dictates the decisions of
the leading bank. This is my spiritual adviser ! He will talk by
the hour to his rich visitors, and assure them that his delight is to
know his parishioners more and more intimately ; but when a
poor man calls upon him he is just at that moment going out to
an appointment, or is in the agony of composing his next brilliant
discourse. Am I to believe that this man has been baptized into
the Spirit of Jesus Christ, or that he is living under the special ben
ediction of the Holy Ghost ? You tell me that he has all the ap
pearance of being a most amiable man, and so he is when all things
go his way ; but oppose him, and you will find that his words are
no longer softer than butter. Many a man who makes no profes
sion of religion, and whose voice has no pretence of amiability,
has in reality a far more genial and noble nature. He speaks with
tender softness when all things are sunny and blooming, but he
can frown like night when his grain is reversed. I want to know
if this man is a temple of the Holy Ghost and a specimen of Chris
tian sanctification ? ' '
Again —
"Take literature as it is conducted by avowedly Christian men,
and observe what degree of holiness it represents : that literature
is professedly conducted for the ' glor}' of God,' as in the first in
stance it was projected at the bidding of conscience : the editor is
in high office in the temporal section of one church, and the re
viewer is as dignified in another ; an unpopular course, however,
is never espoused ; it is agreed that nothing be said about the cir
culation, so that the advertising agent may draw upon his imagi
nation when seeking for ' clients. ' It is a standing rule in the office
to proclaim the ever-increasing and unexampled popularity of the
publication, and to encounter the appearance of every rival with
the bold announcement that such appearance has been followed by
a twofold or a tenfold extension of its own constituency. The re
viewer determines his criticism by his liking or dislike of the au-

HOLINESS. 349
thor ; he sneers broadly at unpopular or struggling men, and kick
with great vigour the cause that is down ; he endorses the most
worthless trash if it issue from a successful or influential school,
and snubs with rude audacity the efforts of men whose very shad
ow he is intellectually unworthy to touch. And the publisher is
equal to his colleagues in duplicity and meanness. He never
speaks the truth wholly and simply ; he has meanings which are
unknown beyond ' the trade' ; he pays his advertisement by one scale
and charges the unhappy author by another ; he inserts a dozen ad
vertisements for a guinea, and then charges a guinea to the account
of each writer ; he promised me ' half profits' for my book, and
returned a statement showing that at the end of the year my profits
were exactly nothing, and I know that in the case of a dozen other
writers the result was precisely the same ; yet he rjdes in a carriage
of his own, and we have hardly the necessaries of lite ! All these
are strictly religious men. They combine in an anti-ritualistic move
ment, and denied slumber to their eyelids until a reredoswas taken
down and the table of commandments set up instead ; they hunted
one clergyman out of the diocese because of his cloudy notions re
specting the Fall of Adam, and they protested against another on
grounds which they were too indignant to explain. Are these
holy men ? Is this the work of the Holy Ghost ? When we ask
for sanctification, are these its living tokens and symbols?"
Again —
"Take the case of general business as it is conducted by profes
sional Christian men. There the one law is, ' Every man for him
self ' : the pure truth is never told ; yea never means yea, and nay
never means nay ; business is a process of sounding, tempting,
luring, compromising, and sharp practice. I bought a house, and
immediately I had paid the money I was told that one thing had
shpped the memory of the vendor — namely, that the foundations
were giving way at one corner ; and when I asked him to return
the money, he said, ' Business is business, and you should have
asked more questions,' — yet this man ' takes the communion'
regularly. I had a horse to sell in order to meet a pressing obli
gation ; I knew the horse to be sound in wind and limb, and to
be in every way good and useful. I offered it to a church-going
man, violent in the no-popery controversy, and fond of the upper
most seat in the synagogue, and he told me that in his judgment

350 THE PARACLETE.
the animal was not worth more than about half the sum I was ask
ing ; the animal was wrong in the knees, faulty in the neck, not
up to the mark in the hind quarters, and, in short, not to be
compared to a horse which he himself had almost given away. I
was pressed for money, and the man took the horse at his own
price. Next day he told his friend that he had bought the best
horse in the country, and that he would not take twenty pounds
for his bargain. Knowing this, I asked him if he was satisfied
with the arrangement, and he told me that I had just got rid of the
animal in time ! The next thing I heard of this benevolent and
public-spirited man was, that he was about to preside at the annu
al meeting of a great missionary society. What is true of one busi
ness man is substantially true of all. They vary in method, in
tone, and in several particulars, so that the one can blame the
other, and point to himself as a model of commercial honour ;
but in spirit and purpose they are in reality all alike, and all
bad." We have not restrained the speech of the cynical critic, for it is
better to know all sides of a case than to be deceived by the flat
teries of partisans. Instead of asking the cynic to bate something
of his harshness, let us take his statement exactly as it is given,
and in full view of it let us ask. Is the miracle of sanctification ever
likely to be accomplished in human life ? Its progress is slow, we
admit St Paul himself did not claim that is was completed in
his own case : "I count not myself to have apprehended : but
this one thing I do, I press toward the mark for the prize of my
high calling in Christ Jesus. " And in the same connection he
says, " Not as though I had already attained, either were already
perfect, but I follow after. ' ' As for those whom the cynical crit
ic has just described, it must never be forgotten that nowhere are
they condemned with severity so keen as in the very book by
whose precepts they profess to be ruled. It is important to re
peat the observations we have already made upon this point, to
show that it has not been left for an enemy to find out that Chris
tian professors are often inconsistent and unworthy. ' • Many walk,
of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping,
that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ" (Phil. iii. i8).
' ' By good words and fair speeches they deceive the hearts of the
simple" (Rom. xvi. i8). "These are spots in your feasts of

HOLINESS. 351

charity : clouds they are without water, carried about of winds ;
trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up
by the roots ; raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own
shame ; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of
darkness for ever " (Jude 12, 13). The cynical critic never rose
to that dignity of accusation. Lie pointed out with cruel care his
details and particulars, but where he used the point of a pin the
apostles used the edge of a sword. We thus first of all dispossess
the cynic of all claim to originality ; for in his criticism he is only
putting into vulgar terms the lofty impeachments of infinitely su
perior men. In the next place, we have to remind him that how
great soever may be the inconvenience which he suffers from the
imperfections of professing Christians, the one great sufferer in
this case is God himself. If God can be patient in the outworking
of this holy miracle, is it a great thi'ng that man should be asked to
restrain his tongue from unwise and unmerciful judgment? It
was in some such light that God stated the case of Nineveh to the
petulant and sensational prophet "Thou hast had pity on the
gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it
grow ; which came up in a night, and perished in a night : and
should not I spare Nineveh ?' ' This is the principle upon which
the sanctification of the world proceeds, — spare mankind ; spare
the tree yet another year ; do not break the bruised reed ; do not
quench the smoking flax ! God requires time for this last all-crown
ing and aU-glorifying miracle, simply because man is indisposed
towards the highest goodness : partly good he is quite willing to
be ; good for the occasion, and then at liberty to return to his old
ways ; but to be good as God himself is good is not in his heart,
for then, he thinks, his whole pleasure would die, and he would
mope and chafe under a harsh discipline, with no relief but the
promise of a remote heaven.
But this is a miracle, that any man should ever have felt any de
sire towards holiness ! Consider the view of human nature which
is given in Holy Scripture, and then hear that same human nature
pray, " God, be merciful to me a sinner," and there is the miracle
which outshines all other wonders. We need not wait for absolute
holiness, for holiness is a growth ; the miracle is at the beginning,
not at the end, — in the prayer for mercy, not in the completed
character. We hear of people in India who would rather perish

352 THE PARACLETE.
in time of famine than accept relief under conditions which would
even seem to compel them to become nominal Christians. Now,
suppose that such people could be brought to see the meaning of
Jesus Christ's cross, and to seek Jesus Christ's mercy, at //^a/ point
the miracle has been wrought, — a very wonderful miracle consider
ing the stubbornness of the original conditions. As to falling short
of the completeness and glory of perfection, there may be some
aspect of a miracle even in that failure ; for it is of the very nature
of holiness to be dissatisfied with its attainments so long as there
is any accessible point beyond ; holiness always has some further
prayer to offer ; and so long as there is any desire towards God
unsatisfied must there be a sense of shortcoming and imperfection.
But the Divine promise abides to soothe and assure the soul ;
those who are now afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comfort
ed, shall yet rest on foundations of sapphires, their windows shall
be of agates, their gates of carbuncles, and all their borders shall
be of pleasant stones (Isa. liv. ii, 12).
The Christian aspirant says that he sees holiness afar, in the fig
ure of a shining angel, and that he longs with ardent desire to seize
the prize. Then why not seize it instantly ? Because between
himself and the angel there is a wide battle-field on which a dead
ly fight is proceeding without break or pause, and the combatants
are his own passions and his own better nature. The miracle is that
he still wishes to penetrate the opposition and find his way to the
other side ; the temptation is to surrender, but he is saved from
that humiliation by the assurance that he that endureth to the end
shall be saved, and that he who overcometh shall eat of the tree of
life, and live for ever. "Holiness" isa word not easily written
on the rugged surface of human life, but it shall in the long run
be graven upon it indehbly. It is to be written upon the bells of
the horses, and to be inscribed upon the lintels and the doorposts
of human dwellings. All unrighteousness is to be driven away by
its benign power, and all weakness, and all death. It aims at no
partial empire, — at nothing less than universal dominion! It is
now the one condition of seeing the Father Everlasting : ' ' without
holiness no man shall see the Lord." It is the peculiar character
istic of the sanctuary in the heavens : "Nothing that is unholy
.shall enter therein." It is the appellation of the Inhabitant of

HOLINESS, 353
Eternity: "His name is Hoi}'." Towards "holiness" human
lite is being moved, how slowly soever, by the ministry of the
Holy Ghost, and when the end comes there will be no such mir
acle in the universe. Is this a picture ? Meanwhile perhaps it is.
But how poor the world would be but for its pictures ! They are
prophecies and promises ; inspirations towards high action and
noble patience ; and presently, even whilst men are looking upon
them, they will cease to be pictures by becoming real and im
mortal.

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