Acts 16:33-40

Chapter 58

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 ev. 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, winter no storm, and the Cross itself no hopeless death! 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 of 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 grave 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 a great cloud behind." Show them that thy mercy endureth for ever; 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 children have joy, they found it in heaven. Where there is gladness of soul may there be brightness of wisdom, breadth of character, solidity of conviction, so that the joy may not be for a moment, but for the whole space of life. 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 before them with ease. Thank God! with God we have omnipotence. We can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us; so that we, who are feeble in ourselves, are strong 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 present existence. The Lord make our weakness strength, turn our ignorance 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 of thy wisdom and the riches of 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.

Act 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 [prætors] 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 ch. 22. 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.c. 508, and the Lex Porcia of b.c. 300, had been violated by these prætors];

39. And they came and besought [G. "gave fair words to," 1Co 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!