replete to overflowing. No wonder that Joses of Cyprus
was surnamed tl the Son of consolation." If he was so
filled with the spirit of the promised Comforter, then
surely words of consolation must have flowed from his lips.
" Full of faith " was this companion of the apostles, and
therefore full of the Spirit. A calm and uniform confidence
possessed his soul, gave him the image of his Master,
and won him his surname. When Stephen was stoned,
and young Saul perpetrated these enormities, some of the
brethren might wring their hands in dismay, and cry out
in bitter lamentation, that it was all over with their cause
that the morning had been overcast, and the sun would
never again shine through ; but the faith of Barnabas,
lifting him above such despondency, and fixing the
assurance in his heart that Christ would ultimately
triumph, enabled him to lift up " the hands which hang
down, and the feeble knees," and so become in many ways
BARNABAS AND SAUL. 43
and at many times a " Son of consolation." The labours
of Barnabas were greatly blessed, and " much people was
added to the Lord " not simply to the church, but to the
Lord first to the Lord, and afterwards to the church, " by
the will of God.' 7
But Barnabas felt the work growing upon his hands.
Unaided and alone, he was not a match for the crisis. He
longed that during the bright hour the harvest should be
gathered. He had none of that littleness of mind which,
in order to monopolize the praise, could not bear the
presence and labours of a rival, and he took a step which
immediately brought him into a secondary position. He
who had introduced Saul to the church at Jerusalem, and
been his good genius, soon became his subordinate col-
league, and is overshadowed by the greater soul, as
Melancthon by Luther, and Beza by Calvin. The Holy
Ghost says once "Barnabas and Saul;" but soon the order is
reversed, and it is afterwards " Paul and Barnabas." Feel-
ing that Saul was quite the man for the occasion, Barnabas
left Antioch in quest of him. He had gone from Jerusalem
to Tarsus, and thither Barnabas went in search of him.
Barnabas must have known him somewhat intimately, and
it may be had been associated with him in academic study.
Saul may have been absent from Tarsus, labouring in
some quarter of the province of Cilicia, but Barnabas at
length found him pointed out this sphere of labour as one
specially adapted to him ; and Saul consented, and accom-
panied his patron to Antioch. The eager spirit of Saul
would need no urgent solicitation. It would spring to the
scene in anticipation of earnest labours among the Hellenes
44 SAUL AT ANTIOCH IN SYKIA.
and Hellenists the renewal of the work of Damascus
and Jerusalem. And they twain laboured for a whole
year with uninterrupted energy, and drew large assemblies
round about them. Saul displayed his former intrepidity,
while his past experience must have made his dialectics
more skilful, and his own growth in the divine life must
have deepened his yearning for men's salvation.
Our object in this volume is to illustrate the oral addresses
of the apostle. Now, though the topic of his sermons at
Antioch is not formally given us, we are at no loss to infer
what it was. It must, indeed, have been the same as at
Damascus and Jerusalem, for the one kind of preaching
alone could enlighten and save. The preacher did not vary
in his themes. Christ and Christ alone, and in Him sal-
vation, only and fully, and of universal offer and adaptation,
was his unvarying subject. Speculation and hypothesis,
ingenuity and rhetoric, had no place in his addresses, but
the plain, direct, and vivid exhibition of Christ. It was
the story of salvation by the cross the life and death of
the Son of God. It was not opinion about Him, but what
He really had been. It was not what conclusions might
be formed of Him, but what He was, and what He did to
redeem the world. With this lesson Saul " taught much
people." For the population that filled the four great
wards of Antioch was numerous and motley, and gathered
from every nation under heaven.
But the twenty-sixth verse supplies us with another and
distinct proof of our statement, that Saul preached Christ,
and nothing but Christ, at Antioch. The disciples, we are
told, " were first called Christians at Antioch " not in the
CHRISTIANS. 45
holy city that reclined on the slopes of Mount Zion, but in
the pagan town that lay on the northern sides of Mount
Sylphius ; not by the Jordan, which had parted its waters
at the presence of the ark, but by the Orontes, the banks
of which were disgraced by the legends and polluted by
the scenes of the vilest lusts ; not on the spot where three
thousand on one day had been converted, but where
impurity was hallowed with religious obligation, and
luxury and dissipation held perpetual carnival. They
got a distinctive epithet from the name Christ. And
why ? Simply because that name was so often on their
lips ; because Saul preached Christ, and Christ was the
burden of all his addresses, and they believed Christ,
and so often spoke of Christ; because Christ was the
word that of all others marked them out as a class,
from their fond and familiar use of it they were natu-
rally named Christians. So effectually and repeatedly did
Saul preach Christ, so thoroughly did his preaching iden-
tify his party with Christ, that the name was imposed upon
it as a new and distinct religious class. The " disciples "
did not voluntarily assume it ; the Jews could not give it to
the "sect of the Nazarenes;" but the heathen population
catching the sound so frequently, coined the epithet as a
true and happy designation. Because they so often called
"upon His name," His name was called upon them. And
though it does not hold a place in the nomenclature of the
New Testament, yet it was well bestowed.
The name originated among non-Christians, and was
used by them. Thus Agrippa addressed Paul " Almost
thou persuadest me to be a Christian;" and Peter says to
46 SAUL AT ANTIOCH IN SYEIA.
the elect strangers of the dispersion "Yet if any man
suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed ; " the term
being that employed by the persecutors, and constituting
the principal element of accusation. " Christ came into the
world to save sinners," even the chief, and among the chief
sinners grew up this name given to His followers, and
derived from His own. What, indeed, more appropriate
than to name after Christ that body of men of whose creed
Christ was the core ; of whose prayers Christ was the plea ;
of whose praises Christ was the burden j of whose preach-
ing Christ was the theme ; of whose life Christ was the
pattern , of whose actions Christ was the law j of whose
hopes Christ was the foundation ; of whose hearts, indeed,
Christ was the one occupant ? What more natural than to
term Christians the people who learned from Christ as
prophet, and bowed to Christ as king ; who looked up to
Christ as advocate, and forward to Christ as Judge ; who
enjoyed pardon through Christ's blood, and sanctification
through Christ's Spirit ; whose weekly holy day was Christ's
or the Lord's day; who "named the name of Christ" in
their sacred rites of baptism and the Lord's Supper ;
who regarded the presence of Christ as the glory of their
assemblies, and anticipated fellowship with Christ as the
crown and consummation of spiritual bliss? Thus the
name arose as a matter of public convenience or necessity,
in consequence of the numerous accessions to the church
at Antioch, and the special prominence which the name
Christ had in all their own services, and in their
intercourse with the population swarming around them,
in those theatres and baths, or thronging those mag-
JESUITS. 47
nificent colonnades the resorts alike of business and
gaiety.
And is not the title appropriate still ? He was Christ
the anointed One; they, too, have "an unction from the
Holy One." O that those who bear it verified it in every-
thing so living, speaking, and acting in the spirit of
Christ, as to compel the world still to " take knowledge
of them," and to name them after Him whom they so
strikingly resemble Christians, because of their avowed
and visible connection with Christ. Are not they rightly
called Christians whose life springs from their being in
Christ, whose ambition is to be like Christ, whose work is
for Christ, and whose hope is to be with Christ for ever?
Who then of those who " call on this name " would say
"I am of Paul," or "I of Apollos," or "I of Cephas?"
let every one say I am of Christ, and never forget that
he has said it. Let the coinage of other titles cease
Let names and sects and parties fall,
And Jesus Christ be all in all.
May we not anticipate the time when names assumed from
leaders, or taken from forms of government and ritual, or
drawn from points of history or from local origin and pre-
dominance, shall merge in this grand catholic designation ?
Yet strange it is that the other name of the Eedeemer
should give title to a class of men whose history has been
notorious for audacious intrigue and villany; that those
who have named themselves from Jesus, should have been
distinguished by unparalleled chicanery and the most
subtle and delusive casuistry, so that Christians called
48 SAUL AT ANTIOCH IN SYRIA.
after Christ shrink from Jesuits who have so vilely
appropriated the name of Jesus nay, who style them-
selves the Society of Jesus, as if they were bound to Him
by a closer tie, or were self-devoted by a deeper consecra-
tion. Strange it is to use this pure and loving name as
identified with men whose arts and ambition have so often
troubled Europe ; who have wielded the highest and most
dangerous power without being suspected ; whose versatile
genius has had innumerable modes of action and forms of
diplomacy ; sometimes editing learned tomes, and some-
times compiling disgusting and prurient directories ; equally
at home in drawing a will and penning an erudite and
ponderous preface; as well skilled in negotiating an ex-
pedient marriage as in contriving an opportune death;
holding the royal stirrup while they are grasping and
giving away the crown ; creeping when they dare not walk ;
now the wriggle of the snake, and now the spring of the
panther; ready at any moment to obey orders to betake
themselves to any region, no matter how distant, and
carry out any policy, no matter what peril and labour it
involve; drudging in the kitchen when they may not
discourse in the library ; assuming the livery of a menial,
if it is not convenient to wear the robe of a confessor;
making a wife their tool or a concubine their decoy ; con-
trolling education with a witching devotedness to youth;
outwitting the sharpest and defeating the boldest ; spread-
ing a net whose invisible meshes catch and hold the
stoutest and most wary; most charming when they are
most malignant; smiling the most serenely when their
purpose is most deadly; "which devour widows' houses,
LUTHER AND LOYOLA. 49
and for a pretence make long prayers;" banished from
every country, and yet found at home in each of them ; per-
secuted, and still thriving when to all appearance extinct;
detected, but never disconcerted ; often counterworked,
though always in the end unbaffled ; permitting a defeat in
one quarter, to secure a greater triumph in another; furnished
with a hundred eyes, and putting forth a hundred arms ;
all things to all men ; possessed, in short, of a craft and
might which kings could not cope with, and before which
popes themselves have helplessly trembled. Luther and
Loyola represent progress and check, action and reaction,
in the same epoch of the ecclesiastical world.
IV. SAUL IN CYPRUS.
ACTS xiii. 1 12.
THE world was yet in the shadow of death, though light
had shone upon Judaea. Idolatry and polytheism were
everywhere vice and misery life without peace, and death
without hope. A thousand altars smoked in honour of a thou-
sand divinities, and the richest fruits of genius were images
and temples. There were gods of the hills, and gods of the
valleys ; gods of the streams, and gods of the groves ; gods
of the earth, and gods of the ocean ; gods of the sky, and
gods of the underworld of death. The sacred sculptures
bore upon them the oak of Jupiter and the myrtle of Venus ;
the eagle of Juno and the owl of Minerva ; the trident of
Neptune and the bow of Apollo ; the lance of Mars and
the wand of Hermes. There were erroneous and conflicting
notions of duty dubious and degrading ideas of destiny.
How shall a sinner be just with God, was a question
which could not be solved, and the relationship of man to
futurity was unbrightened by life and immortality. That
there is no God at all, but highest nature working divinely
and impersonally, was the thought of some; that every-
thing is God, or a necessary evolution of his nature and a
portion of him, was the dream of others. That the present
system is bound up in fate, was the conjecture of one
class j that it is the offspring of chance, and without super-
PROPHETS. 51
intendence, was the vanity of another class. Grecian tastes
and studies, Koman roads and conquests, arts and laws,
commerce and literature, could not impart the requisite
spiritual benefit. " The world by wisdom knew not God ; "
its population " became vain in their imaginations, and
their foolish heart was darkened." Shall not, therefore,
the glorious gospel take a step westward towards Europe,
and at length fix itself in its heart and capital ? Glorious
promises were nearing their fulfilment " the isles shall
wait for His law."
After Antioch, Cyprus is formally visited. Antioch had
indeed become the metropolis of Gentile Christendom,
and it was faithful to its position when it organized the
first formal missionary enterprise. It had in it certain
prophetSj or living depositaries of sacred truth. The pro-
phets in the New Testament stood to the early churches
nearly in the same relation as do our printed Bibles to our
modern churches. They spoke by authority and without
error, and gave to their audiences such details as occur in
the gospels, and such illustrations and precepts as are
found in the epistles. They were the " men of their coun-
sel" present oracles, whose "lips keep knowledge." It
would seem as if missionary labour had been occupying
their attention, and had been the theme of their earnest
and united service and fasting. These religious exercises
might have had such an end in view perhaps the inquiry
who shall go for us, and where shall the first experiment
be made ? At this crisis the Divine Spirit, who fills and
informs the church, said " Separate me Barnabas and
Saul for the work whereunto I have called them." The
52 SAUL IN CYPRUS.
two teachers were at once designated by the imposition of
hands; not ordained simply as ministers, for they had
ministered already ; nor yet elevated to the apostolate a
promotion not within human power, nor could the prophets
impart an office higher than that held by themselves : the
river cannot rise above its source. The call of the Holy
Spirit was a separation from their brethren and their
settled labour. The work to which they were set apart was.
that missionary tour recorded in the following chapters
from Antioch to Cyprus ; thence to Perga and Antioch in
Pisidia ; thence to Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, and back
through these towns; then by Pamphylia, Perga, and Attalia
to Antioch, where they gave the church which had sent
them a report of their labours. Barnabas and Saul were
sent of the church, and they were sent of the Spirit : the
Spirit nominated, but the church installed them. Their
qualification was the gift of the Spirit ; but money to defray
necessary expenditure was the contribution of the church.
The church prayed for them, too, ere they left. The mis-
sionaries were to do His work, and they prayed Him to
bless it ; to speak His truth, and they prayed Him to seal
it ; to build up His church, and they prayed Him to pros-
per it ; and to fill up His reward, and they prayed that His
beauty might rest upon his servants.
Evangelistic work hitherto had been sporadic in nature,
the mere result of circumstances, or the prompting of
spiritual instinct. The church had made no direct effort
to carry the truth abroad ; it thought more of conserving
it than of spreading it. The spirit of Judaism still
reigned. It did not go in quest of proselytes, but pro-
FIRST MISSIONARY VOYAGE. 53
selytes might come to it. No ship left Judsea carrying
Bibles to Tarshish, or missionaries to the ends of the earth.
It might accept such as sought it it did not go out and
seek them. But Antioch has the signal honour of sending
out the first heralds of the cross. It felt what were the
wants of the world, and sought to supply them. The
Spirit selected Barnabas and Saul, and the church cheer-
fully separated them for the work. The two preachers, so
commissioned, and so well furnished too, left the city,
passed down to its seaport Seleucia, nigh the mouth of
the river, and set sail for Cyprus, an island about a hun-
dred miles distant to the south-west, and the summit
of whose hills might be seen by them from the moment
they embarked. The vessel which carried them bore in
the highest sense the fortune of the world. As she flew
through the waves, and the opposing current sent the
white spray over her, the two strangers felt that her course
was not fleet enough for their earnest anticipations. They
were inagurating a new era, and commencing a work
which should be repeated in many an age and in many a
country, until every people shall have its sanctuary, and
every tongue be enriched by its version of the scriptures,
and the world bow to the happy and universal reign of the
Lord Jesus. Cyprus was chosen for good reasons. It was
the birthplace of Barnabas, and the gospel had already
got a footing in it, being carried out to it as to Antioch by
them "who were scattered abroad upon the persecution
that arose about Stephen." Barnabas must have known
something of the manners and characters of its population ;
and, judging that his native isle was somewhat similar in
54 SAUL IN CYPRUS.
these respects to Antioch, he might anticipate as great
success in the work of the Lord. It was as natural for Bar-
nabas to visit Cyprus, as for Saul to go to Tarsus, or labour
in Cilicia. Besides, it was "men of Cyprus" who had
brought the word to Antioch, and they would love their
island home, and long to see the faith of Christ proclaimed
in it.
The evangelists landed at the nearest port, that of
Salami's, on the east of the island, and commenced opera-
tions. There were many Jews in Cyprus it was close
upon their own country, and was a garden of rare fertility
and beauty and when Augustus leased its copper-mines
to Herod, crowds from Palestine had settled in it. Salamis
had a number of synagogues, while other towns usually
had but one. There Barnabas and Saul preached the word
the revelation of Jesus Christ, the doctrine of salvation
"by the cross of Christ. It is also to be borne in mind that
numerous proselytes must have been in those synagogues,
for paganism had greatly lost its hold, and the unsatisfied
spirit of many sought refuge in Judaism. While there
was profound indifference on the part of the majority, there
was also with others a restless searching after some other
and higher object of confidence and homage. Thousands
were powerfully attracted by the purity and simplicity of
the Mosaic faith and worship, for it presented so noble and
striking a contrast to the crude idolatries and licentious
indulgences round about them. Such minds were the more
easily impressed by the gospel, for they would find in it a
history without parallel, doctrine that spoke to their inmost
longings, and ethics that realized the loftiest ideal of human
PAPHOS. 55
obligation and destiny. Preaching in the synagogues
reached this class ot the community, besides bringing truth
into contact with the Jewish mind. A preference was
given to the Jews in the delivery of the message the
ancient heritage of the Lord is first saluted with the
gracious offer. How could it have been otherwise? It
was impossible even in the apostle of the Gentiles to
throw off the attachments of blood and kindred ; and when
he remembered what he had felt against Christ, and knew
from himself what so many of his brethren must feel, too,
his spirit kindled at the thought, and his life's labour, as
well as his " heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel,
was that they might be saved." John was "their minister"
the relative of Barnabas in a variety of ways serving
them and making arrangements for them ; their pioneer,
assistant, and subordinate colleague.
Barnabas and Saul visited many places, and went
through the whole isle as far as Paphos on its western
shore, and above a hundred miles from Salamis. The
Eoman proconsul was at Paphos, a place infamous for its
temple and dissolute worship. It has been remarked that
Luke employs the proper term for this officer one, indeed,
that would not have been applicable many years previously,
when the island was governed by an imperial legate or
proprsetor. But Cyprus, originally an imperial province,
had before this period been handed over to the senate. At
Paphos the gospel came again into contact with the magic
of the East. Already it had confronted Simon at Samaria,
who professed himself a convert for the sake of initiation
into a knowledge or possession of what he deemed its occult
56 SAUL IN CYPRUS.
powers ; and here it met Bar-Jesus, who sought to oppose
it with selfish and quick-witted hostility. Such Jewish
impostors, false prophets by old Hebrew statute, abounded
in the empire; trading in imposture, pandering to the
wily or to the weak-minded. Through that superior reli-
gious knowledge which every Jew possessed, or by that
quackery which esoteric associates kept secret among
themselves, or even by mere trickery and vulgar fortune-
telling, they often contrived to obtain both secret and open
influence over ignorant, inquisitive, or superstitious minds.
Many of the higher classes among the Jews practised these
arts, as is shown by the abundant references of the Talmud.
The nation which refused Christ's miracles was imposed
on by jugglery. It would not have the sun, as he rose
upon it and it chased the meteor, flitting through the
marshes. It listened not to the divine oracle, and it now
crouched to those "that peep and mutter." It spurned
away the truth, and there fell upon it a " strong delusion
to believe a lie," to give heed " to profane babblings," and
occupy itself with " foolish and unlearned questions." The
religious instinct sought gratification; and having rejected
its appropriate pabulum, but still hungering and clamouring
for bread, it got a stone. Throughout the Koman empire
religious conviction was shaken ; the state-worship no
longer impressed; spiritual delusions were breaking up,
and in this transitional state impostors found ample scope
for the exercise of their ingenuity, and profited by it.
The " deputy of the country " was in these circum-
stances, and Bar-Jesus son of Jesus or Joshua, "was
with him" had attached himself to his court, and pro-
ELYMAS. 57
bably exercised no little sway over him as a confidential
adviser. The proconsul was a "prudent" or intelligent
man, one that thought for himself; he had apparently thrown
off the religion of his country, but had adopted none other.
He had seen the folly of idolatry, and may have revolted
at the filthy Paphian worship, consecrated lust. He had
ceased to adore " gods many, and lords many," but had
not done homage to the one Jehovah ; the altar of Venus
no longer charmed him, and yet was he haunted with the
inquiry "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord?"
The old faith was gone, but it had not been succeeded by
a newer and better creed. His soul was groping in dark-
ness, scarce knowing what it yearned after, and uncertain
where and how to find the object of its desires. To a mind
under such painful and distracting apprehensions, any
doctrine claiming divine authority is welcome, and the
theology of this Jewish magician must have to some extent
commended itself. It brought with it the great truths of
the unity and spirituality of the Divine Being a refresh-
ing doctrine to a mind wearied out with the very names of
numberless divinities. But he was not satisfied, and the
same desire that brought him under the power of Elymas,
and upon which Elymas had traded, led him to send