Acts 18:12-17

Chapter 67

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 invitation 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 today, 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 of 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 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 perfectness. 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 of 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 of tears, hot and bitter, that have been rained out of 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 of that wondrous Cross, and take the heart through all its mystery of shame, agony, priesthood, sacrifice, 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.

Act 18:12-17

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, 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 and your 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 1 Corinthians 1:0 , 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 of 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 today 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 to 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 repor' 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 service, report with the heart. Do not take any bad man's report of any Christian service he may have attended; do not take any worldly man's report of it; do not listen to the unsympathetic 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 toiling 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 qualifications of terms and doctrines, but by our inward and often speechless FAITH. We are saved by faith, and we have no explanation 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 spiritual 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 something 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 continually occurring to change the colour and the tone and the undertone 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 Apostles 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 assemblies; 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 "intelligent" 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

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 unanimity is about, and what the sincerity implies. Sincerity is only good when rightly 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 you 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 genial of hearts. To charge him with moral carelessness is unjust, but to make many modern sluggards into Gallios is to libel 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 in it.

Yet I would chide even Gallio 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 eloquence 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 listened to him. Gallio used a phrase which brought him within lines which we wish could have enclosed him for ev. 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 notwithstanding 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 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 manhood that is being debased by its frivolity.