Bible Commentaries

Chapter53

Prayer

Almighty God, our heart is full of praise, and our tongues would bless thee in thine own house, in the morning light 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 proprietorship from God, and hold ourselves at thy gracious bidding; thou art Sovereign, but thou art also Father, the God and Father of 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 by 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 staff 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 life 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! 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 farewells; 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 is no figure in all thy universe to represent the instability of our present life! We now take hold of hands, and take hold of hearts, and as one Acts 16:1-5

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 certain disciple was there [at Lystra, see Acts 14:19], named Timothy, the son of a Jewess [Eunice, 2 Timothy 1:5], 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 1:59], 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 therefore 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 sequitur ventrem." These would be the kind of persons Paul hoped to convert. So far from being inconsistent, Paul was as emphatically opposed to Judaistic bigotry when he circumcised the Jewish youth Timothy as he was when he refused to circumcise the Gentile youth Titus [ Galatians 2:3] that were in those parts [see Acts 15:21]: 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 2:1] for to keep, which had been ordained of the apostles and elders [cf. Acts 15:1 and Acts 15:2, with Acts 15:24] 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 tender memories of the time that is gone. He who can forget old friends is no Apostle 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 question, nevertheless it cut you in your very 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 Acts 16:6-12

6. And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia [although Paul travels in the same direction, these names are introverted in Acts 18:23. Hence Galatia is the political, Phrygia an ethnographical term. The local name of this part of the region was Lycaonia (ch14); of the next, Pisidia (Antioch): the common people still spoke a Phrygian dialect ( Acts 14:11). 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 [ Acts 2:9, Acts 6:9, and Acts 20:16. The west coast of Asia Minor. At Antioch the road branched off leading to Ephesus and South-western Asia. Farther on another road branched off to Northwestern 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 [ Acts 20:6, Romans 8:9] suffered them not;

8. And passing by [G. "along the side of"] Mysia, they came down to Troas.

9. And a vision [ Acts 9:10, Acts 10:3, Acts 18:9; 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"].

11. Setting sail, therefore, from Troas, we made a straight course [ Acts 21:1] to Samothrace [ Acts 27:4, Acts 27:7], and the day following to Neapolis [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 described, responsibility is charged upon him, his inspiration and direction are familiarly and continually invoked. The Apostles 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 suggestions? 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 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 presently 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 theologies, 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 relations and operations are themselves a kind of outside Bible, which helps me to read the inner book inscribed by invisible fingers.

The action of the Spirit is as morally mysterious as it is personally 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 absorbent 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 appointed and sacred destination. The Holy Spirit is always to be 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—body, 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 patiently 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 Acts 16:13-16

13. And on the Sabbath day we went forth without the gate by a riverside [some affluent of the Strymon which is distant a day's journey], where we supposed there was a place of prayer [the proseuchæ 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 [ Acts 16:1, Jewesses, 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, of the city of Thyatira, one that worshipped God [proselyte, Acts 13:16, Acts 13:43], 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."—Chrys.]

15. And when she was baptized, and her household [ Acts 13:33, Acts 18:8, and 1 Corinthians 1:16; 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 [ Acts 16:34] and abide there. And she constrained us [ Luke 24:29. This word denotes Lydia's vehement urgency, not the Apostles" unwillingness].

The Many and the One

IN Acts 16:12 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 reference was all that was needed, for they were but days coming and going unmarked, without specialty of tone or colour—the ordinary process of time. In Acts 16:13 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 bolster 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 human 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 appreciation, 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! 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-gathering. Who would eat his festival alone? Who would have his little 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 common 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 carries up the feeling, passion, and rapture of the soul to "dancing, and music," and tumult of joy! "On such a theme "twere impious 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 little 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 disappointments, 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! 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 battling soldiers. Still, he says he would like to see the place. That is natural. That desire can be Christianized. 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 ev. There are those who love to see famous churches, and to walk stealthily and lovingly up the 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 Apostles 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-battles had been fought; where the very wine of the heart of God's love had been drunk; where angels came to take swift prayers swiftly 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.

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; the men 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 vehement scorning of the evil giber, I had forgotten that I was defending 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 Acts 16:12, in general terms; and in the thirteenth verse the Sabbath was particularized as the one day. Now we read of the women generally, and of a certain and particular woman named Lydia. What subtle little harmonies there are in this inspired Book! How part balances part! 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." Acts 16:16-24

16. And it came to pass, as we were going to the place of prayer, that a certain maid having a spirit of divination [G. a spirit, a Python. Python denotes (1) the Delphic dragon; (2) as here, any such soothsaying demon; (3) any ventriloquist. See lxx, Leviticus 19:31; Isaiah 8:19, etc.] met us, which brought her masters [the Philippian Divination Company; a common and most lucrative speculation in that sceptical and superstitious age, Acts 8:9; Acts 13:6; Acts 19:19] 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 4:41 and Mark 5:7], which proclaim unto you [the spurious "us" of the A.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 [ 1 Corinthians 10:20]. And it came out that very hour.

19. But when her masters saw that the hope of their gain was gone [note the motive of this the fir it Gentile persecution, 1 Thessalonians 2:2. 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 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. "prtors." Those having Roman military authority, as Pilate, would be more properly styled "rulers," and the Greek city judges the "magistrates"], they said, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city [G. "our city, though they are Jews." The one subject race despises 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 prtors, seeing this.] rent their garments off them, and commanded to beat them with rods [ 2 Corinthians 11:25].

23. And when they [i.e, the lictors at their command] had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely [the use of 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 Acts 16:35]:

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 of Experience

NONE can bear such testimony to the real nature of goodness as bad spirits. How the fallen angels could preach! How eloquent upon goodness and purity could Satan himself be! 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 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 word, his spirit stains whatever it touches; and the very pureness 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 representatives and servants; she is our co-minister, and we are thankful for her aid"! These temptations are not without force; they operate upon human attention and confidence today. 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 inconceivable 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 deceiving 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 pureness and nobility of the apostolic mind and the magnificent independence of truth. In the hands of the Apostles the truth did not go a-begging for patronage. When the Apostles handled this mighty theme, they did not ask any one to bear a part of the burden whose hands were not as clean as the new-fallen and untrodden 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 world 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 day, "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 impossible 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 disdains 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 drunkard 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 titillation of selfishness, as well as a gratification of the palate. We may be profitably used by crafty "masters"; we may be made a convenience of only, and we must protest against this. The selfish man would make slaves of us all. It is in the nature of selfishness to make slaves. Why do we not see these things and stand upon eternal principles? Sometimes this young Acts 16:25-32

25. But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying [G. "worshipping"] and singing hymns unto God [ Psalm 107:10-16. Although in evil case, they might reasonably be thankful for life preserved], 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 [ Acts 12:19, and Acts 27:42. 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 Apostles "declared to him their quality" as Roman citizens!].

29. And he called for lights, and sprang in, and, trembling for fear [of God now, not of Acts 27:27 and Acts 27:28],

30. fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs [G. "my lords"], what must I do to be [in order that I may be] saved ( Acts 16:17)?

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 1:36, John 1:37. The jailer's faith is turned away from 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 [ Acts 8:25, an additional clause probably suggested 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 ( Acts 16:25) 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! Think of midnight being turned into midday! 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 immediately, 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 uplifting of an eye should be the discovery of God. Pray without ceasing. Let your common meal in the house be a holy sacrament, 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, 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 difficulty. By many a type, more or less historical and literal, it sets forth our own condition and experience. The teaching of this immediate lesson Acts 16:33-40

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 with the washing before the meal is decisive against immersion. Nothing 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 which the persons washing 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 [prtors] sent the sergeants [lictors], saying, Let those men go.

36. And the jailer reported the words to Paul, saying, The magistrates have sent to let you go: now therefore, come forth, and go in peace [this "secret escape" with the night's imprisonment, and, under the circumstances, even the scourging, was the praetors" rough mode of saving the Apostles, and themselves also, from the excited mob. Paul acquiesced to go, Matthew 10:23, but not secretly, Matthew 10:14, lest the Gospel be despised, and converts be scandalized].

37. But Paul said unto them, They have beaten us publicly uncondemned, men that are Romans [see Acts 16:20, and ch22. Tarsus, made by Augustus a "free city" (commercially), could not, however, confer upon Paul the Roman citizenship. The father or earlier ancestor of Paul must have acquired this as a reward of 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] magistrates. 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 parricide to kill him."—Cic. The Lex Valeria of b.c508 , and the Lex Porcia of b.c300 , had been violated by these prætors];

39. And they came and besought [G. "gave fair words to," 1 Corinthians 4:13] 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, Philippians 1:3, 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. Wonderful 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? 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. Christianity always drives men back upon their yesterdays. The Christian can never do enough to show the reality and the inspiration 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 regenerated and inspired heart." The penitent says, "I must find 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 almightiness 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 eloquence, nor does it ask for the exercise of our intellectual patronage. 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 Christianity, not in eloquent books, but in eloquent lives? Christianity always concerns itself with the past. As soon as Zacchæus 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 entitled 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 today. Any argument in words may provoke a more or less felicitous retort in words; but a jailer washing stripes undeserved, feeding hunger unmerited, comforting hearts plunged into hopeless disconsolateness by the intention of man, and only saved from it by the grace of God, will carry the day. You cannot answer 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 theology is Divine. This must not be regarded merely as an incident in the story, but as a necessary effect of the operation of Christianity upon the human heart. You must not forget the men you have smitten, the lives you have injured, the robberies you have 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 professor does this Judas will fall backward in any Gethsemane where he may seek the modern representative of Christ. Your argument will but amuse, or at best perplex, 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 ineffable 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 reigneth; 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 we 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 bondage and of fear the soul must not be merely in a negative condition; it must be full of rapture, gladness, and sacred enthusiasm. Do not let us chide ourselves too severely upon this point, because of the diversity of temperament, and because of the complexity of physical circumstances, which operate in a subtle 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 having 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 speech 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 "earthquakes" 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 harvests half-grown and damned in their youth. So the bad man has physical difficulties, material alarms and afflictions. Following these came the discovery that the Apostles claimed the protection 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 hold of the wrong end; always mistaking the case; always prosecuting 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, mysterious, 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 find 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 beggar 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 little 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 letting the man himself go free! As long as Paul was out, what mattered 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 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 exemption, 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 gentlemen 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 comforting those who have not suffered! The dying man praying himself that his survivors may not feel his death too much, or be swallowed up of overmuch sorrow! 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 uprightness.

So the Church of Christ was first established in Europe at Philippi—see what a hold Christianity has of Europe today. 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 Christianity, but underneath all 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 buildings 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 kingdom 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 cannot tell what we are doing. The penny you gave to the little 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 animation lasting as immortality. Let us—old men, business men, young men—be associated with the planting of Christian seed, which shall be like a handful of corn on the top of the mountains today, 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 Hallelujah!