Acts 21:13 - Homilies By P.c. Barker

A tender heart to a strong conscience.

It might be thought that Paul had already sufficiently run the gauntlet of warnings touching the consequences of going to Jerusalem ( Acts 19:21 ; Acts 20:16 , Acts 20:22 , Acts 20:23 ; Acts 21:4 , Acts 21:11 ). If his resolution could have been altered, or his conscience stilled an hour, this was the hour. But, instead of showing any symptom of being "in a strait betwixt two," even in an hour of such tenderness, it is now that "his heart is fixed." The needle points unerringly and without a quivering deflection, and moral resolution touches the point of moral sublimity. And we may justly sound here the praise of conscience; for in advancing degrees, we see—

I. THE PRAISE OF CONSCIENCE , IN ITS ATTITUDE IN THE PRESENCE OF DANGER .

II. THE GREATER PRAISE OF CONSCIENCE , IN ITS ATTITUDE IN THE PRESENCE OF AFFECTION .

III. THE GREATEST PRAISE OF CONSCIENCE , IN ITS ATTITUDE OF COMPLETE SURRENDER TO THE SPIRIT OF PERFECT TRUTH AND PERFECT GUIDANCE .

IV. THE PERFECTION OF THE CONSCIENCE IN ITSELF , WHEN IT OWNS TO NO TREMBLING , NO WAVERING . There was no coldness, no hardness, no unrelentingness of heart, in that grand hour, when Paul's heart was ready to break for human affection's sake, but was a very tower of strength toward Christ as in him.—B.