gold, or apparel." Apparel is mentioned as being an article
highly valued in the East ; " changes of raiment " being a
common present, and no little money being often expended
on them. It was not theirs, but them, that the apostle
coveted not what they had, but what they might come to
be. He cared nothing for what the world desires; gold
would have been but a burden ; and a well-filled wardrobe
was no object to the pedestrian traveller. Food and raiment
were all he needed, and he did not always get them; for he
was often " in hunger and fasting, in cold and nakedness.' 7
He could not sometimes procure the barest necessaries of
life ; and if he was at any time unable to work, he must
have been sorely pinched. What cared he, therefore, for
wealth or finery? He did not demand, far less expect,
pecuniary enrichment. Souls were his hire ; his highest
compensation was in winning men from sin and Satan.
His reward was in heaven, under the eye of the Master,
and inaugurated by the Master's greeting. What a con-



UNSELFISH LABOUR. 345

trast to many of the " grievous wolves," who make a gain
of godliness, and strip the flock of their fleece as they prey
upon them ; whose object is selfish ease and indulgence at
the expense of their victims who are as infatuated as the
Jews at Horeb, when they brake off their golden earrings,
and made a lavish contribution of them for the beloved
calf. The apostle acted in the spirit of the aged Samuel.
When the form of government was changed, Samuel,
who had been judge for so long a period, took farewell
of the people in the memorable appeal " Behold, here I
am : witness against me before the Lord, and before His
anointed; whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I
taken? or whom have I defrauded ? whom have I oppressed ?
or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine
eyes therewith ? and I will restore it you. And they said,
Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast
thou taken ought of any man's hand. And he said unto
them, The Lord is witness against you, and His anointed
is witness this day, that ye have not found ought in my
hand. And they answered, He is witness."

But he not only asserts his disinterestedness, he produces
positive proof, in which all of them must at once have
acquiesced. For he appeals to their knowledge "Yea,
ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto
my necessities, and to them that were with me." The fact
was patent, quite as well known as the fact of his residence
among them. Not only did he work to supply his own
wants, but the wants of them that were with him. His
generosity was, therefore, unchallenged ; he laboured to
support his colleagues as well as himself j for his was the



346 PAUL AT MILETUS.

energy of a master-mind in things of business, as well as
in spiritual functions. And he could say These hands
have done it these hands, stained and peeled by the
manipulations of his daily industry. What a noble appeal !
corroborated also by what he writes to Corinth at the
period referred to. From Ephesus, during the time that
"these hands were ministering to his necessities," he wrote
his first epistle to the Corinthians, where he says " Even
to this present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are
naked and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place,
and labour working with our own hands." In these words
there is a very touching allusion " We have no certain
dwelling-place." It reveals the longing of one conscious
of advancing age and the approach of its infirmities. His
apostolate demanded a continuous journeying, and he was
not unlike his Lord who had not "where to lay His head."
But as years passed on, his unsettled life began to be felt
more than previously as a self-denial. Age comes to like
repose. Many a one who has spent his youth as way-
wardly as the butterflies which he chased in the fields,
and whose manhood brooked no control, is glad to creep
in his old age to the workhouse. The sailor who, braving
the battle and the breeze, has roamed for half a century,
and been as unsettled as the waves on which he toiled
and fought, finds his desired haven in the palatial asylum
provided for him by the nation. They who have no certain
dwelling-place are usually under stigma, and vagabond is
synonymous with lawless ; while the steps of a labouring
man homewards, avoiding the haunts of temptation and
intemperance, are usually steps heavenwards also. Men get



BENEFICENCE. 347

tired of wandering repose is coveted ; and the apostle was,
as a man, no exception, though his journeys were made
in God's name, and for the purpose of dispensing God's
blessings. The rest he sighed for soon came to him two
years' detention at Cesarea, and as many at least in Home.

The conclusion of the address is in the same strain. "I
have showed you all things, how that so labouring ye
ought to support the weak ; and to remember the words of
the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give
than to receive." I have showed you all things as to
all things; or rather in all ways. By the weak must
be understood not weak in faith, but simply the poor,
needing support from the fruits of the industry of their
Christian brethren. The apostle showed this taught and
enforced it, yea, exemplified it in his own conduct. Their
labours were not to be solely for themselves, but in gene-
rous sympathy with others: so labouring as I did, and
with the end which I had in view. In the same spirit he
afterwards wrote to them "Let him that stole steal no
more : but rather let him labour, working with his hands
the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him
that needeth."

Such generosity is truly Christian. It is the spirit of
Him who " came not to be ministered unto, but to
minister;" the spirit of that brotherhood which He has
formed, and the basis of that eulogy which He pronounces
at last. For oneself and for no one else, for oneself
in everything, for oneself in thought, labour, and enjoy-
ment as if this were either happiness or the image of it
that is in utter antagonism not only to Paul's example,



348 PAUL AT MILETUS.

but to the divine Master's maxim "It is more blessed
to give than to receive." The saying is not recorded,
for, if all that Jesus said had been recorded, " the world
would not contain the books that should be written."
Many sayings of the divine Teacher must have been in the
mouths and memories of the early church ; those precious
sentences, as terse in expression as pregnant with thought
winged words, wafted through the churches like the
seeds of the thistle-down through the air. The apostle
had formerly uttered the saying, and now he bids them
remember it. The term " blessed " was a favourite one
with the Lord. The Old Testament had ended with
threatening and a " curse," but the New Testament opens
with beatitude and promise. Blessing is Christ's work,
"blessed" is His epithet, as in the sermon on the Mount.
The Saviour does not cast any slur upon receiving. No,
it is good to receive, but it is better still to give. It is good
to receive, for we are needy in want of all things ; and all
we have God gives us life, and breath, and all things: good
to receive, for He has offered His best gift in His Son,
and seals it by His spirit : good to receive, for we need
pardon, holiness, life, joy, and spiritual maturity. Our
prayer is for more gifts, and for a fuller receptivity. "Open
thy mouth wide" is the command, "and I will fill it" is the
promise. But though it is blessed to receive, it is more
blessed to give. It shows that you have, and can part with
what you have ; that you have been blessed, and, in being
blessed, are made a blessing to others. Receiving makes
us happy, but by giving we impart happiness a work
which is noble and godlike. In giving we are doing what



MOKE BLESSED TO GIVE. 349

God is doing, and blessed must be such an imitation of
Him the cistern parting with the waters poured into it
from the fountain. Creation depicts the same doctrine:
the sun shines not for himself, the clouds pour down their
showers upon us, the flowers shed abroad their perfume,
and the earth yields her increase. Selfishness is wholly
unlike God and the works of his hands ; love is the law of
nature as well as of grace, and is on all sides divine. An
old commentator has remarked, that the rich man in the
parable had no need to form the resolution of building a
larger storehouse for his increasing goods, for " the poor
man's belly should be the rich man's granary." " I felt
more pleasure," says a distinguished seaman, who had
bravely borne himself during a wreck, " in restoring an
infant only three weeks old to its mother, than ever I felt
in the proud moment of victory." Even Julius Caesar
could say, that no music was so sweet to his ear as the
requests of his friends for assistance ; and Mark Antony,
when in the depth of adversity, could remark that he had
lost all save what he had given to his friends. So true is
it universally that what men keep they lose, and what they
part with they retain, and that the highest happiness is
to create and diffuse it. There was a family reduced to
penury by a series of disasters, and no one was told of it.
Pieces of furniture were quietly parted with, that the
little ones might not break the mother's heart by crying for
bread in vain. But there was no appeal made, save to
Him who heareth " the young ravens which cry." Sus-
picions were at length aroused, for the children were
seen to gather and devour the crumbs which fell from the



350 PAUL AT MILETUS.

hands of their playmates. The curious eye of a neighbour
watched the movements of the father, and saw him gather
in the dark such husks as swine do eat, and carry them
stealthily home. A chink in the window revealed the
household revelling in the coarse and unsatisfying fare,
over which the provider reverently asked the accustomed
blessing. The story was confidentially imparted to a
benevolent friend, who at once and anonymously sent by
an untraceable channel a handsome relief. The joy of the
family that evening, on receiving from Providence what
they deemed an answer to their prayers, was beyond
telling, though in years of future prosperity they were glad
to tell it, but it was not equal to the blessedness of the
kind bestower ; even though their joy was similar in nature,
though not in degree, to what was felt in the home of
Bethany that first night which he who had lain three days
in the grave spent with his sisters after his resurrection.
The joy of a benefactor is an image of the happiness of the
divine Wonderworker, whose moments of ecstacy after a
miracle compensated Him for daily scorn and privation
the joy He still feels when He sees of the travail of His
soul and is satisfied. The happiness of the saint who has
received and is before the throne, is far inferior to that of
Him who has given it and is upon the throne. No new
emotion is this blessedness, it is as old as the patriarch
of Uz "When the ear heard me, then it blessed me
and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me; because
I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him
that had none to help him. The blessing of him that
was ready to perish came upon me ; and I caused the



PAETING PRAYER. 351

widow's heart to sing for joy." How unlike those words
of the Lord Jesus to the heathen proverb, " Silly the
giver, happy the getter."

The tender and solemn discourse was followed by a
prayer. In praying with them, he knelt down that unusual
posture being a token of his fervour, and how much he was
overcome by the scene. The usual posture for prayer was
standing, both in the Jewish church and in the early
Christian church. In special circumstances, as those of
Solomon at the dedication of the temple, Daniel in his
chamber, Peter on the housetop, and Stephen in the act of
martyrdom, kneeling was naturally resorted to. But in
the public assemblies they stood, being commanded "to
stand up " to engage in devotional exercise in the days of
Ezra ; and our Lord alludes to the same custom when he
says, " when ye stand praying." Those whom the apostle
addressed were profoundly agitated by his last words
" They all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed
him ; sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake,
that they should see his face no more. And they accom-
panied him unto the ship." They saw him on board,
and they could not but stand on the beach and behold
with tearful eyes the vessel unfurl her sails j and there
would be tokens of recognition and farewell exchanged
again and again as the distance widened, till the hull
sank out of view, and canvass and spars lessened into a
speck, and at length disappeared.



XIV. PAUL AT JEKUSALEM.



SPEECH FROM THE STAIRS OP THE GARRISON.

ACTS xxii. 130.

THE departure from Miletus had been a scene of great
tenderness and sorrow. The sacred historian says, " After
we were gotten from them," literally, after we had been
torn from them. They could not bear to separate after
such a sermon, such a communion, and such a wondrous
deed of resuscitation. It had been a revival, and the life
stimulated by that preaching and fed from that sacrament,
was imaged out in that miracle. They looked upon the
preacher and life- restorer, and could not keep their eyes
off him ; took another wistful look, and yet another, for
"they should see his face no more." " They all wept sore,
and fell upon Paul's neck and kissed him," unable to
restrain their grief as the memory of his past labours and
trials pressed upon them, followed by the thought that
this was a last farewell. Could he have held out the
possibility of return, had he but said that he should make
an effort to come back, their misery might have been
moderated. But to see his face no more threw over them
the pall of death, it was as if they had stood by his
sepulchre. Depart on thy old mission, pursue thy path of



JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM. 353

threatened dangers, thou brave and gentle heart ; shadows
are closing around thee and thickening before thee. Fare-
well, and again farewell !

The weather was propitious, and the ship ran that day
before the wind forty miles down to the fertile island of
Coos; the next day it reached Rhodes, famed for its
Colossus, or huge statue of Apollo, at its harbour, and
thence entered the port of Patara a maritime city a short
way to the east of the mouth of the river Xanthus. The
vessel proceeded no farther, but " finding a ship sailing
over unto Phoenicia, we went aboard, and set forth." On
the voyage they sighted Cyprus, and " passing it on the
left hand" that is, to the east, " sailed into Syria, and
landed at Tyre, for there the ship was to unlade her
burden." While the crew were employed in discharging
the cargo, Paul and his companions were also busy "finding
disciples;" having sought them out, "we tarried there
seven days." These disciples, who may have seen the
apostle at an earlier period, when he " went through
Syria," urged him not to proceed to Jerusalem. They
knew from supernatural intimation what dangers awaited
him, and they implored him to avoid them. But his
martyr-spirit would not listen, and both parties as they
separated offered prayer on the beach to God. Taking
ship, they came to Ptolemais called Acco in the Old
Testament, and now St. Jean d'Acre and remained one
day. On the morrow they travelled by land to Csesarea,
a distance of about forty-four miles, and took up their
abode with Philip the evangelist, one of the seven deacons
appointed at an earlier period, and whose four virgin

z



354 PAUL AT JERUSALEM.

daughters enjoyed the gift of prophecy, as Joel had
predicted of the latter times.

During their sojourn at Philip's house, a Judean pro-
phet named Agabus joined them "And when he was
come unto us, he took Paul's girdle, and bound his
own hands, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So
shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth
this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of
the Gentiles." This prophecy and its dramatic accom-
paniment produced a deep effect on the whole company,
and they unanimously besought Paul to pause in his
journey : u Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep
and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be
bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of
the Lord Jesus." He was not to be deterred by any
danger from what he believed to be the path of duty.
He wished to carry to Jerusalem the collections made in
the Gentile churches, in the hope of healing the division
between Hebrew and heathen believers. He had assumed
what he regarded as a sacerdotal function, being the
" minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the
gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might
be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost." The
Gentile churches were his oblation prepared for Pentecost,
a living " tribute of a free-will offering." He was ready
not to be bound only, but also to die. He did not court
martyrdom, but he did not shrink from it. The prospect
of it did not alarm him, for he had risen far above the fear
of death. Faith achieves what philosophy fails to do.
The calm and contemplative Hobbes was often terrified



ARRIVAL AT JERUSALEM. 355

at the idea of martyrdom, lest the Leviathan he had so
laboriously created should devour him. The great mind
of Samuel Johnson lay under solemn terror many a day
at the thought of death. Vexation and disappointment,
affecting their vanity or their ambition, have also killed
not a few. On the other hand, the leonine heart of the
German reformer approached that of Paul, but Paul
made no boast. Luther ^avowed that he would go to
Leipzig, though it should rain Duke Georges for nine
days, and that he would enter Worms though there should
be as many devils in it as there were tiles on the roofs
of its houses. The humble spirit of the apostle did not
indulge in such hyperboles ; he had neither the natural
buoyancy nor physical robustness of the hearty Saxon.
As they proceeded to Jerusalem, it is said, " We took up
our carriages," or, as the Geneva version has it, fl trussed
up our fardels " packing up the luggage necessary for the
journey. Arrived at Jerusalem, they were gladly welcomed
by the brethren, and seem to have dwelt with Mnason of
Cyprus, an old disciple a disciple from the beginning, or
from the commencement of the new dispensation, perhaps
a personal follower of the Lord. Paul lost no time in
visiting James and declaring "particularly what things
God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry,"
and James and the elders, when they heard such a
report, "glorified the Lord."

But what course should be now pursued ? The apostle
of the Gentiles, spite of all his efforts to win them, was an
object of extreme dislike to the Jewish zealots " the many
thousands which believe, and are all zealous of the law."



356 PAUL AT JERUSALEM.

James proposed a compromise to which Paul assented.
We enter not on the question whether Paul did right in
submitting in such a matter of formal ceremonial to the
Mosaic statute; whether he did not venture beyond the
legitimate range of his own principle of becoming " to the
Jews as a Jew." Suffice it to say that the unforeseen
result was -the peril of his life and the visit to Home, on
which his heart had been set, but which was accomplished
in a way which he had not anticipated.

Some of the Asiatic Jews, that is, from Ephesus, imagined
that he had profaned the temple by bringing an Ephesian
into it, whom they had seen with him in some parts of the
city. A tumult was easily raised during the feast, and the
apostle was dragged out of the temple, for his enemies
would not pollute it with his blood. The military governor
of the city, during the festivals when popular commotions so
often broke out, had his men under arms in the neighbouring
fortress of Antonia which jealously overlooked the temple,
and on a report of the emeute being carried to him, ran
at once "with soldiers and centurions" to the spot and
rescued Paul, after he had been roughly handled and
beaten. Would not the scene appear to Paul like a repe-
tition of that in which he had taken so prominent a part
the martyrdom of Stephen? It was simply because the
mob was without weapons that the apostle survived ; and
they still pressed so violently upon him, that he was lifted
up the garrison stairs by the soldiers, " lest he should be
torn in pieces." As he was about to enter the barracks of
the fortress, he said to the chief captain, " May I speak
unto thee?" who, surprised at hearing himself addressed



THE STAIRS OF THE FORTRESS. 357

in this language, replied, " Canst thou speak Greek ? "
Claudius Lysias had evidently taken him for the ringleader
of a recent rebellion. The answer of the apostle satisfied
him, and, as requested, he permitted him to address the
furious rabble. One wonders at the permission, but the
manner and aspect of the prisoner must have showed that
he was no rebel, that he was not fitted to be a political or
military leader, that he had neither the hardy frame nor
the browned aspect of a guerilla chieftain. The apostle
had spoken in many a place, but never in a scene of
such excitement the stricken deer turning to the hounds
whose tongues were lapping her blood in anticipation.
He had preached in the synagogue amidst clamour, and
had declaimed on Mars-hill to a sneering and indifferent
audience, and he would have gone into the theatre at
Ephesus had his friends not dissuaded him. But now in
Jerusalem, with the temple in view the sacred spot of
his people and himself under the shadow of the smoke
which arose from the great altar, after an assault in which
he had been rudely jostled and savagely struck, his clothes
torn and his cheeks streaming with blood, he calmly faces
his infuriated foes; and without trepidation, and as if
there had not been but a step between him and death a
few moments before, "beckoned with the hand unto the
people." He had spoken to the chief captain in Greek,
but he now addressed them in the Hebrew tongue the
Syro-Chaldaic which they were now in the habit of
speaking as their mother-tongue. They expected him to
address them in Greek, and might be able to understand
him, but " they kept the more silence " when he bespoke



358 PAUL AT JERUSALEM.

their attention in a Hebrew preamble. They took it as a
national compliment, and their fury at once subsided before
the words of the orator who stood above them upon the
stairs, the tribune behind him, and beside him two soldiers
to whom he was " bound with two chains."

Thus he begins " Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye
my defence which I now make before you. I am myself
a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia it is true, yet brought up in
this city at the feet of Gamaliel, educated according to
the strict doctrine of the law of my fathers, being zealous
toward God, like as ye all are this day. 1 was one
who persecuted this way unto the death, binding and
throwing into prison men and women, as also the high-
priest bears me witness (he being still alive), and all the
council from whom, having received letters also to the
brethren, I was journeying to Damascus for the purpose of
bringing those who were there to Jerusalem in fetters, that
they might be punished. And it came to pass, as I was
journeying and drawing near Damascus, about noon, sud-
denly from heaven there shone a great light round about
me. And I fell to the ground, and heard a voice calling
to me Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? and I
answered Who art Thou, Lord ? and He said to me I
am Jesus the Nazarene whom thou persecutest. And
the men who were with me saw indeed the light, and were
terror-struck, but they heard not (understood not) the
voice of Him that was speaking to me. And I said
What shall I do, Lord ? And the Lord said Arise and
proceed to Damascus ; there it shall be told thee of all the
things which it is appointed thee to do. But as now I



ADDRESS. 359

did not see on account of the glory of that light, being
led by the hand by those who were with me, I came to
Damascus. And one Ananias, a devout man according to
the law, having a good report among all the Jews who
dwelt there, coming to me and standing over me, said to
me Brother Saul, receive thy sight (look up). And the
same hour I looked up upon him (received my sight). And
he said The God of our fathers has foreappointed thee to
know His will, and to behold the righteous One, and to
hear the voice of His mouth ; for thou shalt be a witness
for Him to all men of what thou hast seen. And now