excuse." God " never left Himself without witness."
There were hosts of monitors ever pointing to Him, as they
ceaselessly reminded men of His being and goodness. He
was ever doing good. Such benefaction should have led
men to the divine Benefactor. That good was too uniform
to have come from chance ; too rich in itself, and involving
the exercise of too vast a power, to have sprung from any
created source ; and too skilfully adapted to human wants,
yea, too surely promotive of human happiness, to have been
the result of inert and mindless mechanism. The good
done and daily done, often elaborated by secret processes,
and enjoyed by men in its ultimate maturity, should have
been traced to the one source.
The preacher now particularizes " Giving us rain from
heaven, and fruitful seasons" the cause and the results.
Kain in those countries is more marked in its periods and
its beneficial influence, than with us. Every eye there
beholds the blessed change which the shower produces.
The earth is covered with verdure, and nature assumes a
mantle of living freshness. The grain rises in the blade
and the trees burst into foliage. There is heard on all sides
the music of a thousand rills. " Are there any among
the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain?" is the
challenge of a Hebrew prophet. Their Jupiter could not
create the dark cloud, and bid it distil its blessing. One
1
RAIN A DIVINE BLESSINO. 133
Being of power and wisdom and goodness can alone give rain
rains, as the apostle phrases it at the appointed seasons,
and by the laws which He has established. The vapour
ascending and floating invisibly in the upper regions of the
atmosphere, forming, as Moses describes it, " waters above
the firmament," waits the period when it shall descend
and fertilize the ground. The rain connects the three
regions, heaven, earth, and sea, which the apostle has men-
tioned. Ascending from the sea and gathering into a secret
reservoir in the heavens, thence to fall upon the earth, it
returns to the sea " into the place from whence the rivers
come, thither they return again."
And rain indicates sovereign power and goodness "it
tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men."
In seasons of eastern drought, when the earth is parched,
when " the field is wasted, and the land mourneth, and
the new wine is dried up," when the dread of hunger
appals every one, and even the dumb brutes are looking
up to heaven in stupid despair; then it is felt that man
cannot help himself, that he must only wait and long
and pray till the clouds begin to gather, for he is conscious
of being wholly in the power of a higher Will. Day
after day passes, and the sun looks down on burnt
pasture, dry channels, and a cracked and dusty soil.
At evening there are hopeful symptoms, but they are
vanished before the morning. The heavens are anxiously
scanned if the smallest speck may be discovered, and the
imagination often creates it. It is hoped that the wind
may veer, and every breath excites, and then belies such
an expectation. Spirit and energy are gone " dimness of
134 PAUL AT LYSTRA.
anguish " is seen on every countenance. Men dream
of floods, and waken to more disappointment. They can
do nothing, and devise nothing, to better themselves. No
wonder, then, that the giving of rain was associated with
divinity. It is pointedly asked in a Greek drama, when the
existence of Jupiter is denied "And who then giveth rain?"
as if this were proof beyond all doubt. In southern Africa,
where the idea of God is nearly effaced, there is still a belief
in a Supreme Power, whose awful prerogative is, not to
create men or govern them, but simply to give rain a gift
which is felt to be so necessary, and withal is conferred
or withheld in such precarious and variable times and
quantities ; the dreaded Deity is He who brings them what
they so much want, and on the gift of which they can never
count He is the rain-maker. Nay, in that dry upland
region of Lycaonia water was often scarce ; the heaven as
iron, and the earth as brass, and water fetched up from
deep wells was so precious as to be sold for money. It
was with peculiar point, therefore, that the apostle turned
his audience to God who is doing good giving rain from
heaven. This was the special token of His goodness.
And the result is, that He who gives rain, gives " fruitful
seasons." The seasons, as they revolve, tell the same lesson.
They come with perfect regularity, as the earth moves round
its orbit. And they are "fruitful seasons " crops ripening
for the sickle the vine bowed down with ruddy clusters
the tree covered with its fruits all the benefactions of Him
who is ever doing good, and " filling our," or rather " your,
hearts with food and gladness." This clause is a compacted
form of speech, the sense being that, when men are filled
CONTRASTED EFFECTS OF A MIRACLE. 135
with food, and life is sustained and prolonged, their hearts
are also filled with gladness their existence is cheered and
"blessed. " The eyes of all wait on Thee, and Thou givest
them their meat in due season ; Thou openest thine hand,
and satisfiest the desire of every living thing." The
apostle's earnest protestation scarcely restrained the people,
"that they had not done sacrifice unto them" so convinced
were they that it was a real epiphany, and so delighted
were they with the honour of it.
We may pause for a moment and look at the contrast
which Jerusalem presents to Lystra. Upon " a man lame
from his mother's womb," and now forty years of age, a
similar miracle had been " showed " at the word of Peter.
But the result was not his deification, but his imprison-
ment. His judges admit that a " notable miracle " had
been done ; indeed, " beholding the man which was healed
standing with them, they could say nothing against it ;"
but enraged by it, they " straitly threatened" the apostles
that they speak no more in Christ's name. They would
not listen to the teaching, nor bow to the wonder by which
its truth was confirmed. Their minds were hardened and
beyond conviction, and by various theories they might try
to account for the phenomenon. But the Lycaonians did
not reason, and came at once to a conclusion, which, though
wrong in its immediate application, had yet such truth in
it as shames the boasted enlightenment of the Jewish
council. Thus there is more hope of the untutored than of
the proudly civilized ; more hope of the Samoan than of the
Brahmin who must first unlearn all his subtleties, and strip
off his traditionary prejudices, before he can " receive the
136 PAUL AT LYSTRA.
kingdom of God as a little child." It was nature at
Lystra "feeling after the Lord" it was Sadducean
philosophy in the spiritual court of Jerusalem. The one
was open to proof, the other was shut up in cold and
supercilious negation. The one might blunder in its eager-
ness, but the other was wrapped in continuous and immov-
able falsehood. The one deified two men for a moment
men who had displayed the mercy and power of God, and
the error was soon rectified ; but the other humanized
divinity, looked upon the "healing" God's own work
and witness, simply as done by man; and, instead of
adoring God in it, were only annoyed at the craft and
success of a Galilean fisherman.
But a reaction soon occurred at Lystra. The enemies
of the apostle pursued him ; " certain Jews from Antioch
and Iconium " maligned and misrepresented him, and,
gaining the people over to their views, proceeded to wreak
their vengeance on him. These Jews seem to have been
both instigators, and also principal actors they stoned the
apostle, as their law enjoined for crimes of impiety. In
the city itself, they fell upon him ; a heathen country town
could not be, as they thought, polluted by such a murder.
It was not like holy Jerusalem, out of which Stephen must
be hurried before he was put to death ; but they dragged
Paul out of Lystra, " supposing he had been dead." He
who had been taken for a god was stoned as a malefactor
apotheosis followed by martyrdom. The Lystrians must
have been sorely affronted at their mistake, and they hated
him who had so honestly undeceived them. The Jews must
have told them too, that so far from being a god, Paul was
SUDDEN REACTION. 137
the foe of the gods and detested by them, that he was
in league with the dark powers, and deserved not to live.
Such revulsions are not uncommon with uneducated
and impulsive people. The islanders of Crete took Paul,
first for a murderer, and then for a deity. When the Gauls,
nigh four hundred years before Christ, invaded Italy, and
entered Rome, they found the city deserted ; but as they
entered the forum, they were met with the strange spec-
tacle of fourscore aged and white-bearded priests and
patricians ranged in order, each in his robes of state and
seated on his curule chair of ivory. At first they were
awed, as if the sires had been gods ; but no sooner did one
of them resent an act of familiarity, than the spell was
suddenly broken, and the whole body were at once set upon
and dispatched. It is said, too, that it was not till the
natives of that South Sea island where Captain Cook was
slain, discovered, by his wincing under an accidental blow,
that he was a man "of like passions" with themselves,
that they ventured to surround and stab him.
"As the disciples stood round him" in grief and con-
sternation, the apostle was resuscitated; a miracle was
wrought upon him, for at once " he rose up and came into
the city." His enemies, terrified at seeing him whom
they had stoned, drawn along the street, and left for dead,
would not venture again to assault him: their labour
was fruitless, stones were hurled at him in vain, he could
not as yet be killed. " Once was I stoned," says the
apostle, referring to this outrage ; and he reminds Timothy,
who, as a native of Lystra, may have witnessed the scene
of " persecutions and afflictions which came unto me at
138 PAUL AT LYSTEA.
Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra," adding " Out of them all
the Lord delivered me." Next day the apostle " departed
with Barnabas for Derbe." Barnabas, as being less
prominent in speech and action, had escaped injury. This
was the farthest point of the journey, and, having preached
there and taught many made many converts or disciples
they retraced their steps to Lystra, to Iconium, and
Antioch, preaching words of comfort and confirmation,
organizing the churches by ordaining elders over them,
and fortifying them against coming persecutions. Then
" they passed throughout Pisidia " and came to Pamphylia,
and preaching in Perga, descended to Attalia, where they
embarked, and sailed to the Syrian Antioch. From that
city had they commenced their travels " being recom-
mended to the grace of God for the work which they
fulfilled;" and, to the assembled church which had sent
them out, they gave a report of their labours, " rehearsed
all that God had done with them, and how He had opened
the door of faith unto the gentiles." They rested now for
a season in Antioch " abode long time with the dis-
ciples." And thus ends the first great missionary tour of
the apostle probably in A.D. 47 or the following year.
VIII. PAUL AT PHILIPPL
ACTS xvi. 6-40. 1 THESS. ii. 2. PHIL. i. 30 ; iv. 15.
THE peace of the church at Antioch was soon disturbed by
Judaists, who taught the pernicious dogma " Except ye
be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be
saved." To quell the controversy, Paul and Barnabas
were sent as deputies to Jerusalem, and Paul " went up by
revelation." A circular was issued from the assembly
which discussed the question, and carried to Antioch by
special delegates. The deputies returned also to that city,
and " continued in it, teaching and preaching the word of
the Lord." Prior to their departure from Jerusalem, the
mission of Paul and Barnabas to the heathen was specially
recognized a by James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to
be pillars." But Paul soon longed to revisit the scenes of
his previous tour, and " see the brethren in every city."
Such anxiety uniformly characterized him " the care of
all the churches " came upon him. To live and labour in
Antioch was not his vocation. Barnabas on this occasion
wished his relation Mark to accompany them, as he had
previously done to Cyprus. Paul opposed such a resolu-
tion, for the young man had deserted the enterprise,
" departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with
them to the work." The contention was sharp, and keen
feelings sprang up. Perhaps the tergiversation of Barnabas
140 PAUL AT PHILIPPI.
when he had been carried away with the dissimulation of
Peter and the other Jews, was not forgotten. Probably
Paul judged by too high a standard, was too resolute in
carrying every point, and allowed not for the inexperience
of Mark a mother-sick youth, who, however, had now
returned, and was ready to undertake what he had previ-
ously shrunk from. Alas, for human frailty ! Strange is
the record that Paul and Barnabas, who had toiled, travelled,
taught, and suffered in company, should " depart asunder
one from the other " twin stars, that had revolved round
each other, shooting off at once and for ever into different
orbits. The first journey had begun with Cyprus, and Bar-
nabas for obvious reasons chose it it was his native island.
It rejoices us to hear afterwards from Paul that Barnabas
wa& still prosecuting the missionary enterprise, " or I only
and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?"
He who had been the cause of the dispute had also fully
redeemed his character, nay, had risen high in the apostle's
favour, for he says of Mark, " he is profitable to me for the
ministry." Paul chose as a new partner, Silas, a prophet
who had come to Antioch with the decree. Shall we say
that the church sympathized with Paul rather than Barna-
bas, when we read of him on his departure " being recom-
mended by the brethren unto the grace of God," or did
this recommendation happen only because he was formally
leaving Antioch for a prolonged period?
Thus commenced the preacher's second missionary jour-
ney.
From Antioch " he went through Syria and Cilicia, con-
firming the churches." In these regions he had preached
TROAS. 141
already, when lie left Jerusalem after his first visit, as he
tells the Galatians. Taking a different direction from his
first journey, he passed from Cilicia, through the great gorge
or mountain pass called the " Cilician gates," to Derbe and
Lystra, the extreme points of the former circuit, and in the
latter town he met with Timothy, his "own son in the
faith." But the apostle had no anticipation at this period
of entering Europe, his thoughts were concentrated on Asia
Minor. He accordingly " went throughout Phrygia and
the region of Galatia" doing the Master's work, and forming
churches in towns like Pessinus and Ancyra. On proposing
an evangelical journey, he does not seem to have mapped
out the minor details, but left them, not, as the modern
phrase is, to the chapter of accidents, but to the will of God,
and to enlightened deliberation on the spot. He was led
by providence, and by the Divine Spirit. On this occasion
God had a special errand for him in the West, and therefore
the Holy Ghost forbade him u to preach the word in Asia ; "
the " set time " to visit Ephesus had not yet come. Paul and
his party arrived in Mysia, but the " Spirit of Jesus," for such
is the genuine reading, did not suffer them to go north-east
into Bithynia. The apostle was thus checked and checked
again, and brought through Mysia down to Troas, the
point of embarkation. The waves of the narrow ^Egean
now lay between him and Europe, which might be dimly
discerned under the setting sun. Did he wonder why he
had been guided to this sea-port, when he would have
wandered far inland, or gone down at length to some more
distant maritime city ? Did he not now perceive the reason
why on this side and on that side his path had been
142 PAUL AT PHILIPPI.
hedged in, till he was brought step by step to the harbour
of Troas, the scene of so many classical legends ?
If there was any doubt upon his mind, a vision dispelled
it. "A vision appeared to Paul in the night ; there stood a
man of Macedonia and prayed him, saying, Come over and
help us." The apostle could not refuse such an appeal:
"immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assur-
edly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach
the gospel unto them." That man was the representative
of Europe, and of its confessed helplessness. He appeared,
not clad in mail as one of the invincible phalanx, nor yet
draped in the stole of the academy. He stood " a man," a
sinner seeking help, and that help which the apostle was
privileged to carry with him. The valour of Macedonia,
the wisdom of Athens, and the power of Home were of
admitted impotence. The weary heart sought repose, the
guilty conscience longed for peace. Altars smoked and
victims bled in vain. Temples were dedicated, monuments
erected, friezes carved, and statues sculptured in vain.
Help was needed from a foreign source, and this Asiatic
wanderer was employed to bring it. He had no external
pretensions his "bodily presence was weak" and once
he had been stoned to apparent death. He spoke not in
the language or " audacious eloquence " of the schools, but
he brought help. He had a simple story to tell of " one
Jesus;" no ingenious allegory or gorgeous fiction, but a
plain narrative of one who had lived in privation and died
in ignominy. Yet it was help ; the one effective help which
neither philosophy nor civilization could provide. The
apostle at once obeyed the vision, set sail, and reached
LYDIA. 143
Samothracia " with a straight course." The errand was
urgent ; there was no beating up against adverse winds, no
tacking to secure the breeze, no idle flapping of the sails in
a calm. The next day the vessel dropped her anchor in
the harbour of Neapolis, which stood in the same relation
to Philippi as Seleucia to Antioch, Cenchrea to Corinth,
and Ostia to Rome. The voyage was speedy, for the man
of Macedonia was very earnest, and God " by His power
brought in the south wind." The apostle then journeyed
up from the coast and along the Egnatian road to Philippi,
and there commenced his European enterprise. On the
Jewish sabbath he went to the oratory "without the gate,"
and " spoke to the women which resorted thither," either
proselytesses, or Jewesses whose husbands were perhaps
heathens, perhaps indifferent to religious service. This
oratory or place of worship was a mere inclosure, and was,
as was common, by the side of a stream, probably in this
case the Gangites, though rivulets were numerous, and the
city itself was anciently called the " Springs." The Jews
were so few that they do not seem to have had a syna-
gogue.
What the "things spoken of Paul were" may be learned
from the result. It was no fiction or romance which " the
Lord opened the heart of Lydia to attend to." She was a
native of Thyatira, but was pursuing business in Philippi
as a seller of purple, Thyatira being famed for its dyes,
and indeed inscriptions have been discovered relating to
its corporation of dyers. She was a proselyte, and there-
fore a lover of truth, and that feeling which had made her
an anxious inquirer, and introduced her to the synagogue,
144 PAUL AT PHILIPPI.
prepared her to be a Christian, and to pass over into the
church. The divine blessing sealed the divine truth.
The Lord opened Lydia's heart while she "heard." And
where ? In the scene of duty and privilege. Had she not
shut her place of business, had she expected some wealthy
customer and waited for him to buy her vestments, that
blessing would not have been enjoyed. But she left the
city and went to the oratory, where alone the words of
truth were to be heard. And she heard was listening
did not frown at the intrusion of a stranger, or deem
his address impertinent and incredible. Neither did she
weary of it, and wonder when he should conclude. His
oration arrested her attention, and she greedily drank it in.
As she listened, she understood, glimpses of the meaning
were caught by her, and this partial perception of the truth
only increased her eagerness to catch every syllable, that
she might lose no incident in the narrative or step in
the argument. As she understood, her heart was opened.
The novelty which Paul expounded rose in power above
that Judaism to which she had conformed. It spoke home
to her conscience, and brought a message neither vailed in
the dimness of type, nor arrayed in the cumbrous attire of
ceremonial. In it God had become man to win man to
himself. In it there was an actual expiation for guilty
humanity blood shed, mediation based upon it, and a
Spirit to apply it. Mosaism was noted for its anticipations
a religion of hope ; but Christianity is based on faith a
religion of present and palpable blessing. Lydia was con-
vinced as she " attended." What she heard was what she
was feeling after, and to obtain which she had renounced
THE DIVINE BLESSING. 145
paganism. Judaism brought her nearer it, she saw it
pictured, but did not possess it ; now it was presented in
reality, and she at once embraced it.
And the heart needs still to be opened by a divine hand.
The Spirit alone can so reveal a man to himself that he
shrieks in alarm, and flees to the cross, and He alone can so
present Jesus, that the heart bounds for joy at the vision,
and surrenders itself to His grace. The things spoken may
be true and evangelical, and may be spoken with earnest-
ness and power, yet the presence of the Lord alone can impart
the blessing. The sinful heart is impervious to human
eloquence. Only He who made it and claims to know it,
can unlock it. Were there with attendance earnest prayer
for divine influence, attention, impression, and faith would
follow in order ; and if there were better preparation for the
sanctuary, there would be more benefit from it. If there
were previous and hearty invocation of the Spirit, would
He not rejoice in coming down ? Then would the " things
spoken" find a ready entrance, and the opened heart
would receive the love of the truth, grow " wise unto salva-
tion," and be moulded into the image of the Blessed. No
sooner did Lydia possess faith than, professing it, she was
baptized, and then, as a sister, she pressed her generous
hospitality on the instruments of her conversion. Paul
wrought with his own hands in other Grecian towns, in
Thessalonica and Corinth, but the kindness of Lydia for-
bade such a necessity in Philippi.
May we not, in fine, conclude that one needs not retire
from his ordinary secular occupation in order to be called of
God ? The divine vocation has often been enjoyed on the
K
146 PAUL AT PHILIPPI.
scene, or at the post of worldly duty. Moses was feeding
Jethro's flock, when the sight of the Burning Bush, and the
voice out of the midst of it, arrested him. Gideon was thresh-
ing wheat by the wine-press when the Lord called him to be
military dictator. The youngest son of Jesse was keeping
the sheep when Samuel asked for him and anointed him.
Elisha was ploughing when Elijah cast his mantle over
him. " The Lord took me," says Amos, "as I followed the
flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my
people Israel." Peter and Andrew were " casting a net ;"
James and John were "mending their nets ;" and Matthew
was "sitting at the receipt of custom," when they were
summoned by Jesus to the apostleship. Nay, as Lydia
found the pearl of great price in a distant country from her
own, so many have had similar experience in the British
colonies. The Negroes, themselves or their fathers torn
from Africa, have been brought into contact with the mis-
sionaries in Jamaica have heard and believed, have been
washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb.
As the conversion of Lydia shows the result of the
apostle's preaching, that of the jailor points out its sul
stance. A pythoness, owned by a wicked and greed;
copartnery, who brought "her masters much gain" bj
fortune-telling, followed the apostle again and again "man]
days," and was ever crying " These men are the servanl
of the Most High God, who show unto us the way of sal-
vation." Either the evil spirit, like those in the demoniac
of Gadara, was so sensitive, that he felt the vicinity of
power higher than himself, and must make a confession
or the girl had heard some of the apostle's sermons, am
THE PYTHONESS. 147
picked out the word salvation as their most frequent and