exceeding sinful only in the sin-offering of the Lamb, and
the eye of faith alone can realize the vision " They shall
look on Him whom they have pierced and mourn." Faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ faith resting on Him as
its one object. For Christ is not Saviour to any one
in reality till He be believed in. The heart must rely
on Him, assured of His claims. The link of connection
between the soul and Christ is faith the belief of the
truth about Him, and earnest and simple reliance upon
Him. Faith is thus the cardinal or distinctive grace, and
the want of it is fatal ; for the message of God is in that
case treated as a lie, and Himself as a liar. The apostle
preached Christ as an object of faith, and declared that up



282 PAUL AT EPHESUS.

till the first moment of faith, no saving change is produced
on the heart. His order was Believe Him, and then you
may know Him; believe Him, and then you shall love
Him ; believe Him, and then you cannot but serve Him,
and be one with Him : " The life which I now live in
the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave Himself for me."

Repentance and faith were his twin doctrines ; repen-
tance towards God, as He it is who loved us, though we
so heinously sinned against Him ; and faith towards our
Lord Jesus Christ, as He it is who, bearing the penalty,
is "the propitiation through faith in His blood." For
repentance and faith are united closely repentance con-
ditioned by faith, and faith urged and necessitated by
repentance. Salvation is forced by God upon no one,
and no one can accept salvation till he feel his need of it.
The first consciousness of need is the first element of
repentance. Conviction of sin begets desire of forgiveness,
and such a desire is responded to by God. He who is
most deeply sensible of what he is, who knows most truly
what sin deserves and what sin is, and who has been
alarmed by those heartquakes which it produces, and
sighs and groans under his burden he kneels the most
lowly, longs the most vehemently for the grace of God,
and cries most earnestly for pardon and peace. The
spirit so subdued and softened is prepared for the posses-
sion of faith faith resting on Him who died for sin, who
invites and accepts the weeping penitent, and gives " beauty
for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment
of praise for the spirit of heaviness." The process is



NECESSITY OF HOLINESS. 283

described in Ps. xxxii., where the royal bard sings his
own experience, beginning with the blessedness of that
forgiveness, to which he had at length attained ; but there
had been anguish and groans day and night, when sin lay
on his conscience a burning torture, and his nature was
not relieved till he made acknowledgment to God. The
tale of guilt breathed into the ears of a fellow-man eases
the bosom, and lightens its load. So when the soul owns
its condition to God, and weeps and mourns for its tres-
passes against Him, it betters itself in the very act ; for it
is the first token of confidence in Him. Prior to this
hearty and humble confession, the soul is like one in fever,
with burning skin, throbbing brow, parched tongue, and
utter prostration his "moisture turned into the drought of
summer ; " but when he opens his heart to God in earnest
trust, it is as when the fever abates, and the aching sub-
sides, and the morbid tension of the frame is reduced, and
gentle slumber gives evidence of returning health.

And fourthly, the apostle taught ethically the necessity
of holiness, and its connection with heaven as the prepara-
tion for it. He says to the Ephesians in reference to his
own preaching " But ye have not so learned Christ ; if
so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by
him, as the truth is in Jesus : that ye put off, concerning
the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt
according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the
spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man,
which after God is created in righteousness and true
holiness." And again "For this ye know, that no
whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who



284 PAUL AT EPHESUS.

is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of
Christ and of God." In both passages the apostle evidently
alludes to his previous and personal instructions " Ye
have not so learned Christ" "This ye know." When
among them he had insisted on purity of heart and life, on
entire renovation, the putting off of the old man, renewal
in the spirit of the mind, and the assumption of the new
man. This purity is called learning Christ and obedience
to the truth " as the truth is in Jesus." And he says
"Ye know" it; ye know what holiness and unworldliness
are incumbent upon you as expectants of glory.

For Christ is Master as well as Saviour, the object of
imitation as well as the object of faith. The design of
His death is to bring man back to his primeval state
"righteousness and true holiness." Pardon prepares for
holiness they who are justified are of necessity also
sanctified delivered from the power of sin as well as
from its burden are " turned away from their iniquities."
The love of sin must die within them of every form of
sin, no matter what temptation there is to it, or how pre-
valent is its sway, how lightly the world thinks of it, or
how leniently it speaks of it. The sins which the apostle
censures in the Ephesian church are yet far from uncommon
among us. Intemperance, for example ; how many jocular
and palliative names are given to it ; and impurity what
neutral, nay, graceful terms have been coined to cover its
baseness ! But Christ's authority interposes, and we dare
not tamper with sin ; the purity of heaven is before us, and
we must be made meet for it. To take sin out of us, to per-
fect us, to bring us back to what God made us this is the



THE NEW THEOLOGY. 285

work of spiritual restoration which Christ effects within
us, and which, by resisting temptation, and casting off
past habits, and imploring and cherishing grace, we are
ever to be forwarding within us. They who seek happi-
ness elsewhere than in Christ, and strive, in the indulgence
of appetite or the accumulation of this world's goods, to
create a heaven for themselves, have no part in God's
heaven, and cannot have any " inheritance in the kingdom
of Christ and of God;" for they have no relish for it,
neither the hope of it, nor yet any meetness for it. And
how, then, can they dwell in it ?

Such is a brief sketch of that doctrine which the apostle
preached in the city of Diana no novelty, but the same
truth which he had proclaimed in every place he had
visited. He knew that this was the only saving truth, to
be ever preserved in its simplicity and power ; for to add
is to impair, and to alter is to corrupt, and to improve is
to adulterate it. Restless minds have not been satisfied
with the gospel preached by Paul, but would ingeniously
modify it. What is called "the new or negative theology,"
resembling Paul's in little but in name, has been sati-
rized by an American essayist in the form of a parody on
the " Pilgrim's Progress," averring that, by the expertness
of modern engineering, the old and difficult footpath has
been converted into a railway; that the Slough of Despond,
into which "twenty thousand cart-loads of wholesome
instructions had been thrown without effect," has been
filled up with numberless tomes of French philosophy and
German rationalism ; that the burthen which lay so heavy
and galling on the traveller's shoulders till he saw the



286 PAUL AT EPHESUS.

cross, is snugly deposited in the luggage van; that the
roll, which of old was sometimes cumbersome, has been
pared down to a neat and elegant ticket ; that the Hill of
Difficulty has been tunnelled, and with the rock and rubbish
excavated from the heart of it, the Valley of Humiliation
has been tilled up ; that the defile of the Shadow of
Death is lighted with innumerable jets of brilliant gas
which itself exudes from the soil; and that the last
chilly river which Christian waded with no few anxieties
is now regularly crossed by a capacious steam ferry-boat.
The satire is too true. Are not men taught that faith in
Jesus is a vanity that a vague confidence in all-giving
Goodness is enough that sage resolution supersedes change
of heart that the old struggle between flesh and spirit
may be neutralized that the oppression of sin is a self-
created dream and burden that spiritual progress is only
daily experience and that death is but the debt of nature,
which no one can grudge to pay?

Alas! for the delusion. Still must each one feel his
guilt and look to his Saviour's cross ; still must each
one enjoy the vital change by which he is born into
"newness of life ;" still must each one battle with unsub-
dued appetites and passions, that he may be more than
a conqueror ; still must each one by himself meet death,
and only through Him that died obtain a triumph. It
is not every one that hopes for heaven who will enter
it ; for it is no accidental destiny, neither is it a necessary
termination of our career. It is by no law of nature,
as the fruit succeeds the blossom, or the insect bursts
from the chrysalis, that we come into possession of it.



OPPOSITION. 287

Christ has died to open up the path, and is Himself " the
way, the truth, and the life." Our moral nature is appealed
to, that it may credit the testimony of God. Faith, as it
secures forgiveness, reunites us to the source of life ; the
Divine Spirit imparts life to the soul and fosters it there ;
the kingdom is promised only "to them that love Him"
and faith worketh by love : " Thou wilt guide me by thy
counsel, and afterward receive me to glory." O that all
of us in humility accepted the Lord, and gave our souls
to him learned at His feet, and leaned upon His bosom
implored, possessed, and never grieved His Spirit sub-
dued every lust, and flung off every weight grew into
His likeness, and revelled in fellowship with Him felt
His presence to be our chiefest joy and strength and
were prepared " to depart and be with Christ, which is far
better." Salvation and heaven are ours only by faith like
the centurion's tears, like those of Mary, earnestness like
that of the Syro-Phenician mother, and prayer like that of
the thief on the cross. Christ, and He alone, is Saviour :
" Neither is there salvation in any other : for there is none
other name under heaven given among men whereby we
must be saved."

Thus did the apostle preach and labour. Opposition, as
usual, was stirred up against him, and on one occasion so
fierce and brutal was it, that he compares it to fighting
with beasts after the manner of men at Ephesus. " There
are," he says, writing from Ephesus to Corinth, " there
are many adversaries." He shed "many tears," for his
countrymen were his principal adversaries. He ceased not
" to warn every one day and night with tears." He had



288 PAUL AT EPHESUS.

no rest, for he taught " publicly, and from house to house."
There seem also to have fallen on the apostle other dan-
gers, which have not been recorded : " For we would not,
brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came
to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above
strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life j but we
had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not
trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead;
who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver ;
in whom we trust that He will yet deliver us." We
know not to what the allusion is. It can scarcely be to
the tumult about Diana, but to some other peril, either
sickness, or perhaps assassination all but accomplished
through what he calls " the lying in wait of the Jews."
For weeks he was a doomed man, and was so aware of it
that he despaired of life. The wonder is not that conspi-
racies were formed against him, but the wonder is that he
escaped them all. The shadow of an assassin again and
again crossed his path, daggers were pointed at him by
invisible hands, oaths were sworn against him, but he bore
a charmed life his hour was not yet come : he " must
also see Rome." And with all this earnest and incessant
toil, there was no vulgar declamation, for the apostle and
his colleagues were solemnly absolved from the charge of
being " robbers of churches or blasphemers of the goddess."
The missionary proclaimed the truth, and allowed the
truth to work its way, and it had " free course ;" " all they
which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus,
both Jews and Greeks." Nay, Demetrius declares
"Moreover, ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus,



EPHESIAN CHARMS. 289

but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded
and turned away much people, saying that they be no
gods which are made with hands."

During his stay at Ephesus, the preaching of the apostle
was aided by special miracles unusual miracles " So that
from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs
or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the
evil spirits went out of them." As we have elsewhere said
Surprising results sprang from the slightest contact with
the wonder-worker ; diseases fled at the approach of those
light articles of dress which he had touched as the symbols
or conductors of divine power ; and the " evil spirits,"
formally acknowledging his supremacy, quailed before him,
and were ejected from the possessed. These miracles, as
has been well remarked, were of a kind calculated to sup-
press and bring into contempt the magical pretensions for
which Ephesus was so famous. None of the Ephesian
arts were employed. No charm was needed, no mystic
scroll or engraven hieroglyph there was no repetition of
uncouth syllables, no elaborate initiation into any occult
and intricate science by means of expensive books, but
shawls and aprons were the easy and expeditious vehicles
of healing agency. The superstitious " characters " which
the Megalobyzi and Melissae the priests and priestesses of
Diana had so carefully patronized and made popular
amulets throughout the Eastern world, were shown by the
contrast to be the most useless and stupid empiricism.
That indeed they were so in themselves, is evident from
their structure. An old Greek lexicographer, himself a
native of Alexandria, in the fourth century, gives a

T



290 PAUL AT EPHESUS.

specimen of the gibberish Aski, Kataski, Lix, Tetrax,
Damnameneus, Aision ; adding that according to tradition
the first word meant darkness, the second light, the third
the earth, the fourth a year, the fifth the sun, and the last
truth. The construction of such recipes had risen to the
rank of a popular science.

Some Jewish exorcists a class which was common
among the " dispersion " attempted an imitation of one
of the miracles, and used the name of Jesus as a charm.
But the demoniac regarded such arrogant quackery as an
insult, and took an immediate vengeance on the impostors
"Jesus I know, and Paul I am acquainted with, but
who are ye ? And the man in whom the evil spirit was,
leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against
them, so that they fled out of that house naked and
wounded. And this was known to all the Jews and
Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus, and fear fell on them
all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified." This
sudden and signal defeat of the seven sons of Sceva pro-
duced a deep and general sensation among the Jews and
Greeks, and " the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified."
Nay more, the followers of magic felt themselves so utterly
exposed and outdone, that they " confessed and showed
their deeds." They were forced to bow to a higher power,
and acknowledge that their "curious" arts were mere
pretence and delusion. Books containing the description
of the secret power and application of such a talisman
must have been eagerly sought and highly prized. Those
who possessed them now felt their entire worthlessness ;
and, convinced of the inutility and sin of studying them,



TEMPLE OF DIANA. 291

or even keeping them, gathered them and burnt them
"before all men" an open act of homage to the new
and mighty power which Christianity had established
among them. The smoke and flame of those rolls were a
sacrificial desecration to Diana worse and more alarming
than the previous burning of her temple by the madman
Herostratus. The numerous and costly books were then
reckoned up in price, and their aggregate value was found
to be above two thousand pounds sterling. The sacred
historian, after recording so decided a triumph, adds with
hearty emphasis " So mightily grew the word of God and
prevailed."

But "no small stir" was made by the progress of
Christianity, and its victorious hostility to magic and
idolatry. The temple of Diana or the Oriental Artemis
had long been regarded as one of the wonders of the
world, and "all Asia" worshipped the goddess. The
city claimed a title which, meaning originally "temple-
sweeper," was regarded at length as the highest honour,
and often engraved on the current coinage. The town-
clerk artfully introduced the mention of this honour into
the commencement of his speech; for though the whole
province claimed an interest in the temple, and it was
often named the temple of Asia, yet Ephesus enjoyed the
special function of being the guardian or sacristan of the
gaudy edifice. And the Ephesians were quite fanatical
in their admiration and wardenship of the magnificent
colonnades. Their quarries of Mount Prion had supplied
the marble ; the art and wealth of Ephesian citizens, and
the jewellery of Ephesian ladies, had been plentifully



292 PAUL AT EPHESUS.

contributed for its adornment; its hundred and twenty-
seven graceful columns, some of them richly carved and
coloured, were each the gift of a king ; its doors, ceiling,
and staircase were formed respectively of cypress, cedar,
and vinewood; it had an altar by Praxiteles, and a
picture by Apelles ; and in its coffers reposed no little
of the opulence of Western Asia. A many-breasted idol
of wood, rude as an African fetich, was worshipped in its
shrine, in some portion of which a meteoric stone may
have been inserted, the token of its being "the image
that fell down from Jupiter." Similar superstitions belong
to various countries, such as the Palladium of Troy, the
Ceres of Sicily, the Minerva Polias of Athens, and the
Diana of Tauris. Somewhat of the same nature were the
shield of Mars at Rome, the black stone in the Caabah at
Mecca, that in the temple of the Sun at Baal bee, and the
Lia Fail, or stone of destiny, on which the Scottish kings
were for many centuries crowned at Scone. Popularly
supposed in those ancient times to be a portion of Jacob's
pillar, it was thought to be so connected with the destiny
of the kingdom, that wherever it happened to be, there
should reign the Scottish race, and though it was removed
by Edward to Westminster Abbey, where it now forms
the support of the coronation chair of the British sovereign,
the old prophecy was fondly believed to be verified when
James VI. ascended the English throne on the death of
Elizabeth.

Still further, a flourishing trade was carried on in the
manufacture of silver shrines medallions, or models of
a portion of Diana's temple. These are often referred



SUBSIDENCE OF THE TUMULT. 293

to by ancient writers ; and as few strangers seem to have
left Ephesus without such a memorial of their visit, this
artistic business "brought no small gain to the crafts-
men." But the spread of Christianity was fast destroy-
ing such gross and material superstition and idolatry ;
for one of its first lessons was, as Demetrius rightly
declared " They be no gods which are made with hands."
The shrewd craftsman summoned together his brethren
of the same occupation, laid the matter before them,
represented the certain ruin of their manufacture, and the
speedy extinction of the worship of Diana of Ephesus
" So that not only this our craft is in danger to be set
at nought, but also that the temple of the great goddess
Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be
destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth."
The trade was seized with a panic, and raised the uproar-
ious shout " Great is Diana of the Ephesians ! " " The
whole city was filled with confusion." A mob was
gathered, and seemed on the eve of effecting what Deme-
trius contemplated, the expulsion or assassination of the
apostle and his coadjutors by lawless violence, so that no
one could be singled out or punished for the outrage.
The emeute was so sudden, that " the most part knew
not wherefore they had come together." As usual on such
occasions in the Greek cities, the rush was to the theatre,
to receive information of the cause and character of the
outbreak. Two of Paul's companions were seized by the
crowd, and the apostle, who had escaped, would himself
have very willingly faced the angry and clamorous rabble
if his friends, seconded by some of the Asiarchs, or presi-



294 PAUL AT EPHESUS.

dents of the games, had not prevented him. A Jew named
Alexander, probably the "coppersmith," and, as a Jew, well
known to be an opponent of idolatry, strove to address the
meeting, probably to vindicate his own race from being the
cause of the disturbance, and to cast all the blame upon the
Christians. But his appearance was the signal for renewed
clamour, and for two hours the theatre resounded with the
fanatical yell " Great is Diana of the Ephesians." The
"town-clerk" or recorder, a magistrate of high standing and
multifarious and responsible functions in these cities, had
the dexterity to pacify and dismiss the rioters, first, by a
judicious admixture of flattery, and then by sound legal
advice, telling them that the law was open, that the great
Ephesian assize was going on, and that all charges might
be formally determined before the sitting tribunal. Such
a scene could not fail to excite more inquiry into the
principles of the new religion, and bring more converts
within its pale. After the tumult, the apostle, having
called unto him the disciples and embraced them, imme-
diately left the city.



XIII. PAUL AT TEOAS.

ACTS x. 512.

BEFORE he left Ephesus, the apostle had formed the
resolution of visiting Macedonia and Achaia on his way
toward Jerusalem. In the meantime he had sent as his
pioneers into Greece, Timothy and Erastus the chamber-
lain. But after the tumult in the city of Diana, he left
at once for Macedonia "And when he had gone over
those parts, and had given them much exhortation, he
came into Greece." It would appear that the apostle
stayed some time at Troas, where " a door was opened unto
him of the Lord." But having "no rest" in his spirit
because he found not Titus, and unable longer to endure
the suspense, he sailed by himself for Macedonia. Some-
where in this province Titus met him, and though he
says, "Our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on
every side without were fightings, within were fears," yet
he admits that the good report which Titus brought from
Corinth filled him with comfort and joy. It is probable
that at this period he extended his journey to the west,
and travelled as far as Illyricum, preaching the gospel, as
he tells the Koman church in an epistle written soon after.
In Greece, that is, southern Greece as distinguished from
Macedonia, he "abode three months." "As he was
about to sail into Syria," the Jews, unchanged in their
animosity, laid wait for him, so that he altered his deter-



296 PAUL AT TROAS.

mination, and purposed to return through Macedonia.
Seven friends accompanied him, representing the Asiatic
and European churches, and probably intrusted with the
offerings made for the poor saints at Jerusalem ; and " these
going before tarried for us at Troas." Leaving Philippi,
the apostle, after a few days' sailing amidst adverse winds
and currents, arrived at Troas, and there "abode seven
days," the last of them being a Sabbath.

The " first day of the week " appears to have been the
usual period of assembly, and no doubt was selected and
consecrated by apostolical authority. It was held in
honour of the Saviour's resurrection that event which
proved His mission divine, His mediation effectual, and
His combat with death and hell victorious. Being the
day of the Lord's resurrection, it was noted as His day
" the Lord's day," when His people meet for His worship
and His truth is expounded, His name chaunted, His
Spirit poured down, His presence enjoyed, and His death
showed forth. The place of meeting in Troas would be an
humble one, with no architectural decorations, the private