Biblical Illustrator While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul...came to Ephesus. He brought the light of the gospel to bear on every degree of darkness. On —1. The twilight of John the Baptist's dispensation. 2. The "blindness in part which happened unto Israel." 3. The gloomy midnight of superstition and idolatry. (J. Bennett, D. D.) I. THE DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED FROM THE PECULIAR FORM OF IDOLATRY. 1. The two obstacles which the apostles everywhere encountered were, of course, Judaism and Paganism. But, while Judaism was fixed and unchanging, the heathen systems were variable; and the form of their opposition to Christianity varied with the character of the prevalent idolatry or philosophy, and with the intelligence or barbarism of the people. In one place heathenism was connected with gross profligacy and superstition; in another with intellectual refinement, with all that was beautiful in art and profound in learning; in others with national pride, with secular callings, with the power of the state. All these were to be overcome before Christianity could secure its ascendency. 2. In all countries religion is the most powerful principle that controls the human mind. In its very nature it is supreme as a principle in governing men. There is power in attachment to one's country, to friends, to property, to liberty, to life; but the power of religion, as such, is superior to all these, for men are willing to sacrifice them all in honour of their religion. In addition to this, there is a power derived from the incorporation of religion with customs, opinions, and lucrative pursuits; laws, vested rights, caste, and civil and sacred offices. Both these sources of power existed here in forms most difficult to overcome.(1) The religious principle itself was as mighty as in any other part of the world. All the religious affections of the people were absorbed in the worship of one divinity.(2) The natural power of religion was combined with all that could add to its hold upon the mind. It was closely combined with — (a) (b) (c) II. THE PREPARATION WHICH HAD BEEN MADE FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF THE GOSPEL. Unlike most ether places, Ephesus was prepared for the gospel, and in a way which bore a striking resemblance to that which was made for Christ by the forerunner. The doctrines of John had been brought to Ephesus, and had been enforced by the eloquence of Apollos, with the result that a little band of disciples were apparently waiting for the coining of the Messiah. Their knowledge was very defective; yet it illustrates their sincerity, their desire to serve God, and their purpose to welcome the truth from whatever quarter it might come, that when these twelve disciples were told by Paul what was the real purport of the doctrines of John (ver. 4), they welcomed the announcement, and "were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus" (ver. 5). On them as on the apostles at Pentecost "the Holy Ghost" now "came, and they spake with tongues, and prophesied" (ver. 6). III. THE MANNER OF PAUL'S LABOURS AT EPHESUS. For this we are indebted to Acts 20:18-21. 1. Paul had a tender heart; a heart made for, and warmed with love. He wept much, for he saw the condition of lost men — their guilt, their danger, their insensibility, their folly (Romans 9:2, 3). 2. He kept back nothing that was "profitable" to them — none of the things which would promote their salvation. 3. He did this "publicly." In the synagogue, in the open air — wherever men were accustomed to be assembled, and "from house to house." He went from family to family. 4. That on which he relied, as the means of men's conversion, was not human learning; nor did he preach good works as the ground of salvation, but repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. IV. THE RESULTS WHICH FOLLOWED. A Church was established among the most interesting of all the New Testament churches — one to which the Saviour subsequently said, "I know thy works," etc. (Revelation 2:2, 8). From the address, the narrative, and the Epistle we learn that — 1. was not a small Church. This may be inferred from the number of its elders who met Paul at Miletus, and from the fact stated by Demetrius, that Paul had "turned away much people" (vers. 26, 27). 2. It was Presbyterian in its form. Those who met Paul at Miletus were elders or presbyters. There is no mention of "a bishop" in connection with the place, except that the elders are termed "overseers" or bishops. 3. Its religion was eminently one of principle, and not a thing of mere feeling, nor the result of temporary excitement. It led to such voluntary sacrifices as to show that it must have been founded on principle (vers. 19, 20). 4. Its doctrinal belief, if we may judge by the Epistle, was most advanced. They were evidently capable of appreciating the deep things of God. V. THE OPPOSITION WHICH WAS AROUSED. 1. It was based on — (1) (2) 2. Christianity promotes the welfare of the world, and in so doing it condemns wrong sources of gain. Commotions may ensue, but society is a gainer in the end. (A. Barnes, D. D.)
2. I stop to consider two expressions.(1) The subject of St. Paul's persuasions was "the kingdom of God"; that kingdom for the coming of which we pray whenever we utter the Lord's own prayer, of which our Lord said, It is "within you"; and St. Paul, It is "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Surely no question can be more urgent than this, Am I inside that kingdom in heart as well as in form? If not, I may be called a Christian, but Christ's own word tells me that I am none of His.(2) Another name for the thing is "the way." The Christian doctrine and discipline is a road, or a journey. I do not ask now what its characteristics are; steep or level, rough or smooth, short or long, easy or difficult. I only ask, Are you in it? I know life without Christ is a journey marked by its milestones, with a grave for its end. But Christ's way is something more than this. A Christian has not only to get through the life of this world, bearing its troubles as he may, and by slow stages reaching its close; but he has a rule to travel by — Christ's word and will. He has an end to make for — the recompense which Christ has promised, the rest which God has prepared in heaven for His people. Are you living by this rule, and making for this destination? 3. A singular scene now opens. Every great city has its peculiarities. Ephesus was a city with one dominant superstition, the worship of the goddess Diana; and with a host of smaller superstitions growing out of it. In particular, it was the headquarters of magical art. Here, then, was a new field for the operations of the gospel. When Moses was confronted with the magicians of Egypt, he first beat them on their own ground, and then led the way where they could not even pretend to follow. It was somewhat thus with the sorcerers of Ephesus. As scrolls and rhymes were thought powerful against calamity, so it pleased God to work in this one place "works of power, not the ordinary, by the hands of Paul"; marvels of supernatural healing, wrought, without word or even presence, by means of handkerchiefs or aprons brought from his body; just as the hem of our Lord's garment was on one occasion the medium of conveying a medicinal virtue to a suffering woman. It was natural that imposture should try its hand at a work so remarkable. Evidently the name of the Lord Jesus was St. Paul's one charm. St. Paul never left it in doubt whence his power came. Thus some of the vagabond Jewish exorcists tried the effect of this all-powerful Name. It is playing with edged tools to preach a gospel — still more, to try practical experiments with a gospel — which we ourselves do not believe. It was so with these Jews. The rumour of their defeat spread through Ephesus, carrying with it the assurance that this was no new superstition added to the already crowded wonder market, but a superhuman power fatal to counterfeit and impossible to resist. And persons who practised the unlawful arts now came forward, under the impression of this terrible event, confessing their deeds and making a public renunciation. 4. So mightily grew the Word of the Lord and prevailed. It was not a mere skulking, creeping progress; it was, for once, a mighty — the word expresses almost a forcible and victorious — growth of the Word: a great battle had been fought, between the power of truth and the power of error, and the saying had been verified once again to the very senses of men, "Great is truth, and shall prevail!" (Dean Vaughan.)
II. WHEN A TEACHER MEETS WITH SUCH PERSONS HE SHOULD REGARD THEM NOT WITH IRRITATION BUT COMPASSION. Some ignorance, of course, is wicked, but much, as was the case with these disciples, is involuntary. In any case it is a proper subject for pity. III. SUCH PERSONS UNDER PROPER INSTRUCTION MAY EVINCE A CAPACITY FOR RECEIVING THE HIGHEST GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. Let us not despair in the case of the pitiably ignorant, but hopefully instruct them. Beneath the thick crust may lie a gem capable of receiving the finest polish. IV. THERE ARE CERTAIN UNBELIEVERS WHOM A WISE TEACHER WILL LEAVE TO THEMSELVES (ver. 9). Time spent in arguing with those who will not believe is worse than wasted: you will only confirm them in their self-conceit or harden them in their wickedness. V. A TEACHER WHO, AMID OPPOSITION, CONTINUES TO FAITHFULLY BEAR WITNESS FOR THE TRUTH WILL NOT BE LEFT WITHOUT WITNESS FROM GOD (vers. 11, 12). (R. A. Bertram.)
I. THE PARTIALLY INSTRUCTED DISCIPLES OF JOHN. These eagerly welcomed the light and were rewarded by a special benediction. Their conduct is worthy of all imitation. It is said that theology is a finished science, and that no progress in it is now possible. But this is to confound the source of theology with what men have drawn from it. We cannot look for additions to the sacred volume, but surely we ought to look for an increase in our understanding of its meaning. Theology is just like the other sciences. The stars have been in the sky from the day when they were first viewed by Adam; but what progress has been made since then in astronomy! The rocks beneath us have been just as they are now for millenniums, yet what advancement have these last years seen in geology! And in the same way, though the Bible is complete, God has always "more light to break forth from His Holy Word." There is sometimes an interpretation given by the very character of an age, and the simultaneousness with which in many lands the doctrines of the Reformation flashed upon the minds of independent inquirers — analogous to the scientific discoveries made in different countries at the same time — may help us to understand how new truths in theology may yet be found in the wellsearched field of Scripture. II. THE JEWS. Here we see the blinding influence of prejudice in the hearing of the truth. In John's disciples we see that "To him that hath shall be given," in the Jews that "From him that hath not shall be taken even that he hath." They who stubbornly refuse the salvation of Christ are in danger of being put beyond the possibility of being saved. III. THE VAGABOND EXORCISTS. In them we see how men may turn a little knowledge of the gospel to account as a worldly speculation. Their case is paralleled by the indulgence mongers of the Middle Ages upon whom the people rose as this poor possessed one did on the seven sons of Sceva. But it is equally bad when people attend upon ordinances because it will add to their position in society, or improve their business connection. Avaunt, therefore, all who would make a gain of godliness! The devil himself is ashamed of you. The evils of our times will not recede before Sceva mammon worshippers, but only before the Pauls whose hands are clean and whose hearts are pure. IV. THE MAGICIANS. Here we have an illustration of earnest, sincere, and believing hearing. Their repentance was not of that cheap sort that spends itself only in tears. It was like that of the woman who, when she heard a sermon on false measures, went straight home and burnt the bushel. Have you nothing to burn? (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
(W. Arnot, D. D.)
2. The twelve men who followed Apollos were like their eloquent leader. Apollos knew only the baptism of John, and what he knew he preached. If you come to me knowing only the first four rules of arithmetic, I must not begin your education by throwing into contempt the only four rules you do know; my object must be to lead you on until you feel that these rules are only for infants. Paul did not attempt to undervalue the work of Apollos — he carried it on to holy consummation. One minister must complete the work which another minister began. The instructive teacher must not undervalue the eloquent evangelist. They belong to one another. We must put out no little light, but be thankful for its flicker and spark. The yoking man likes to hear a fluent speaker. He goes to the church where Apollos preaches long before the doors are opened, and willingly stands there that he may hear this mighty wind of sacred appeal. But Time — teaching, drilling, chastening Time — has its work upon the mind, and we come to a mental condition which says, "There was more in that one sentence of Paul's than in that Niagara whose bewildering forces once stupefied our youthful minds." But do not condemn any man. Let him teach what he can. 3. If Paul did not discredit the work of Apollos, the disciples of Apollos did not discredit the larger revelation of Paul. The inference is, that the disciples of Apollos were well taught. They were not finalists; they felt that something more might be possible. That is the highest result of education. Christians are always "looking forward and hastening unto." When did Christ say, "This is the end"? We know what He did say. "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." "Thou shalt see greater things than these." "When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth." This enables me to look hopefully upon some persons who do not know the full extent of Christ's name. Such men are not to be won by denunciation, but by recognition. 4. There were only twelve of these men; and yet there is no whining about a "poor" Church and a "weak" Church. We must burn such adjectives out of the speech of Christians. A Church is not necessarily strong because its pews are thronged and its collections are heavy. It may be that the handful of copper given by some village Church may be more than the two handsful of gold given by the metropolitan congregation. 5. The gospel in Ephesus produced its usual two-fold effect. Some received the Holy Ghost and advanced, while others "were hardened and believed not." It must always be so. The gospel is a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death. Every sermon makes us worse or better. 6. In ver. 11 we have an expression which is out of place in the cold speech of today's Christianity. We are afraid of the word "miracles"; we have almost to apologise for its use. But the writer of the Acts not only speaks of miracles, but of "special miracles." Until the Church becomes bold enough to use its native tongue it will live by sufferance, and at last it will crawl into a dishonoured grave — the only tomb which it has deserved. (J. Parker, D. D.)
I. HE BEGINS WITH THOSE WHO ARE MOST ACQUAINTED WITH HIS DOCTRINES. He found certain disciples who had made some progress in Christian knowledge, and endeavoured to live up to the point of their intelligence. To establish in the faith "twelve" such men would prove more conducive to the advancement of truth than to elicit the thunderous cheers of a crowded and promiscuous auditory. 1. He promptly convicts them of the deficiency of their Christianity. He does this by two questions —(1) "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" They said unto him, "We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost."(2) "Unto what, then, were ye baptized?" Their answer explains their ignorance. "They said, Unto John's baptism." They had not yet come fully into the school of Christ. It is clear from the sequel that those questions struck deep and made them profoundly conscious of their deficiency. 2. He effectively ministers to their advancement in Divine knowledge (ver. 4). By this he teaches them that John's ministry was — (1) (2) 3. He conveys the miraculous gifts of the Spirit (ver. 6). The gift of tongues was not a gift of new languages, but the gift of speaking spiritual truths with supernatural fervour and force. The Spirit did not make them linguists, but spiritual orators. New ideas will make an old language new. This gift of speech enabled them to prophesy — i.e., teach. "He that prephesieth speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort." II. HE PROCEEDS TO THOSE WHO WERE NEXT TO THE "TWELVE" IN THEIR ACQUAINTANCE WITH HIS DOCTRINES. His ministry with the Jews was — 1. Argumentative. "Disputing." He gave reasons to sustain his propositions, and answered objections. He spoke to men's judgment. 2. Persuasive. He plied them with motives rightly to excite their affections and determine their will. It was — 3. Indefatigable. He was "daily" at the work, instant in season and out of season. III. HE ULTIMATELY GOES FORTH INTO THE WIDE WORLD OF GENERAL SOCIETY — into the school of Tyrannus. The result was — 1. A wide diffusion of the gospel (ver. 10). Ephesus was the metropolis, and into it the population of the provinces were constantly flowing for purposes both of commerce and of worship. 2. The ejection of evil spirits (ver. 12). His supernatural ministry was —(1) Derived. Unlike Christ, he had not the power of working miracles natural in himself (ver. 11).(2) Beneficent. It was put forth, not to wound or to injure men, but to heal and bless them.(3) Strikingly manifest. The mere "handkerchiefs or aprons" which touched his body carried with them virtue to heal the diseased and to expel the devil from the possessed. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
1. The baptism of John means his doctrine, which is briefly symbolised by the ritual act, and was contained within a very narrow range. "Repent." "Fruits worthy of repentance" — fruits was the burden of John's message. A preparatory one evidently; one needing something additional to complete it, as St. Paul told these converts. And none felt this more distinctly than John. "He must increase, but I must decrease." The work of John was simply the work of the axe; to cut up by the roots ancient falsehoods; to tear away all that was unreal. A great work, but still not the greatest. And herein lay the difference between the two baptisms. The one was simply the washing away of a false and evil past; the other was the gift of the power to lead a pure, true life. This was all that these men knew; yet they are reckoned as disciples. Let us learn from that a judgment of charity. Let not the religious man sneer at "merely moral men." Morality is not religion, but it is the best soil on which religion grows. Nay, it is the want of this preparation which so often makes religion a sickly plant in the soul. Men begin with abundance of spiritual knowledge, and understand well the "scheme of salvation." But if the foundation has not been laid deep in a perception of the eternal difference between right and wrong, the superstructure will be but flimsy. It is a matter of no small importance that the baptism of John should precede the baptism of Christ. The baptism of repentance before the baptism of the Spirit. 2. The result which followed this baptism was the gifts of tongues and prophecy — the power, i.e., not to speak various languages, but to speak spiritual truths with heavenly fervour. Touch the soul with love, and then you touch the lips with hallowed fire, and make even the stammering tongue speak the words of living eloquence. II. THE BURNING OF THE "EPHESIAN LETTERS." Ephesus was the metropolis of Asia. Its most remarkable feature was the temple of Diana, which contained a certain image, reported to have fallen from the skies — perhaps one of those meteoric stones which are reckoned by the vulgar to be thunderbolts from heaven. Upon the base of the statue were certain mysterious sentences, and these, copied upon amulets, were known as the "Ephesian letters." Besides this there was a Jewish practice of the occult art — certain incantations, herbs, and magical formulas, said to have been taught by Solomon, for the expulsion of diseases and the exorcism of evil spirits. There is always an irrepressible desire for communion with the unseen world. And where an over-refined civilisation has choked up the natural and healthy outlets of this feeling, it will inevitably find an unnatural one. Ephesus was exactly the place where Jewish charlatans and the vendors of "Ephesian letters" could reap a rich harvest from the credulity of sceptical voluptuaries. 2. The essence of magic consists in the belief that by some external act — not making a man wiser or better — communication can be ensured with the spiritual world. It matters not whether this be attempted by Ephesian letters or by Church ordinances or priestly powers. The spirit world of God has its unalterable laws. "Blessed are the pure in heart, the merciful, the peacemakers, the meek, the poor in spirit." "If any man will do His will, be shall know." "If a man love Me he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make our abode with him." There is no way of becoming a partaker of "the powers of the world to come," except by having the heart right with God. No magic can reverse these laws. The contest was brought to an issue by the signal failure of the magicians to work a miracle, and the possessors of curious books burnt them. 3. You will observe in all this —(1) The terrible supremacy of conscience. They could not bear their own secret, and they had no remedy but immediate confession. It is this arraigning accuser that compels the peculator to send back the stolen money with the acknowledgment that he has suffered years of misery. It was this that made Judas dash down his gold in the temple, and go and hang himself. It is this that has forced the murderer from his unsuspected security to deliver himself up to justice, and to choose a true death rather than the dreadful secret of a false life.(2) The test of sincerity furnished by this act of burning the books.(a) It was a costly sacrifice.(b) It was the sacrifice of livelihood. And a magician of forty was not young enough to begin the world again with a new profession.(c) It was the destruction of much knowledge that was really valuable. As in the pursuit of alchemy real chemical secrets were discovered, so it cannot be doubted that these curious manuscripts contained many valuable natural facts.(d) It was an outrage to feeling. Costly manuscripts, many of them probably heirlooms associated with a vast variety of passages in life, were to be committed mercilessly to the flames.(e) Remember, too, how many other ways there were of disposing of them. Might they not be sold, and the proceeds "given to the poor"? or be made over to some relative who would not feel anything wrong in them. Or might they not be retained as curious records of the past? And then Conscience arose with her stern, clear voice. They are the records of an ignorant and guilty past. There must be no false tenderness. To the flames with them, and the smoke will rise up to heaven a sweet savour before God. 4. Whoever has made such a sacrifice will remember the strange medley of feeling accompanying it. Partly fear constrained the act, produced by the judgment on the other exorcists, and partly remorse; partly there was a lingering regret as leaf after leaf perished in the flames, and partly a feeling of relief; partly shame, and partly a wild tumult of joy, at the burst of new hope, and the prospect of a nobler life. 6. There is no Christian life that has not in it sacrifice, and that alone is the sacrifice which is made in the spirit of the conflagration of the "Ephesian letters." If the repentant slaveholder sells his slaves to the neighbouring planter, or if the trader in opium or in spirits quits his nefarious commerce, but first secures its value; or if the possessor of a library becomes convinced that certain volumes are immoral, and yet cannot sacrifice the costly edition without an equivalent, what shall we say of these men's sincerity? III. THE SEDITION RESPECTING DIANA'S WORSHIP. Notice — 1. The speech of Demetrius; in which observe —(1) The cause of the slow death which error and falsehood die. Existing abuses in Church and State are upheld because they are intertwined with private interests. This is the reason why it takes centuries to overthrow an evil, after it has been proved an evil.(2) The mixture of religious and selfish feelings. Not only "our craft," but also the worship of the great goddess Diana. And so it is with many a patriotic and religious cry. "My country," "my Church," "my religion" — it supports me. "By this craft we have our wealth."(3) Numbers are no test of truth. The whole world worshipped the goddess. If numbers tested truth, Apollos in the last chapter need not have become the brilliant outcast from the schools of Alexandria, nor St. Paul stand in Ephesus in danger of his life. He who seeks Truth must be content with a lonely, little-trodden path. If he cannot worship her till she has been canonised by the shouts of the multitude, he must take his place with this wretched crowd who shouted, "Great is Diana!" till truth, reason, and calmness, were all drowned in noise. 2. The judicious speech of the chamberlain, in which observe —(1) The impression made by the apostle on the wiser part of the community. The Asiarchs were his friends. The town clerk exculpated him, as Gallio had done at Corinth. Herein we see the power of consistency.(2) The admitted moral blamelessness of the Christians. Paul had not "blasphemed" the goddess. As at Athens he had not begun by attacking errors. He preached Truth, and its effect began to be felt already. Overcome evil by good, error by truth. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
1. Have we received anything? We have said that we believe in Christ. But to test the truth of our profession, God asks, "Have you received?" Believing is always accompanied by receiving. If, then, any of us have not received, it is because we have not believed. And if we have received but little, it is because we have believed but little. For the promise is, "Be it unto thee according to thy faith." 2. But our text asks specifically have we received the Holy Ghost? In reply to the previous question, some of us may have replied "We received 'peace and joy in believing.'" But passing by these individual benefits that flow from believing, or rather including them and all such like, our question goes to the root of the matter. Receiving the Holy Ghost is the infallible evidence of "believing" in Jesus. This was the great gift which Jesus died to purchase, and which before His departure He promised to send, and which is set before us in the symbol of baptism — "Be baptized...and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." II. THE LEANING GROUNDS ON WHICH WE MAY SAFELY GIVE AN ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION. Note — 1. The nature of the Holy Spirit's work. "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit," but there are three respects in which the work of the Spirit is alike in the experience of all true believers.(1) Knowledge or discernment of Divine things. "Except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God." "The natural man discerneth not the things of the Spirit; they must be spiritually discerned." "Eye hath not seen but God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit." Some men with the best of natural talents seem ever learning and never coining to the knowledge of the truth. Others again, with smaller talents and lower education, at once and clearly grasp it. Or this contrast is seen in one and the same person — sitting under the ministry for years withrut one clear idea of spiritual things; but all at once, as if scales had fallen from his eyes, seeing all things as clear as day. This is one evidence of the Holy Spirit's inward work.(2) Conviction of the truth of what we see. "When the Comforter is come, He will convince of sin," etc., and on the day of Pentecost thousands "were pricked to the heart." The gospel comes "in word only" — at the most only enlightens the understanding — and not "in power," till it comes "with the Holy Ghost." But then it comes with "much assurance working effectually" in the heart. It is then the "power of God unto salvation."(3) Holiness of life. Our knowledge and conviction, if they are alone, will prove our deepest condemnation. They are evidences that the Holy Spirit is pleading with us — persuading us — working in us. But they are no evidence that we have yielded our hearts to Him. Felix felt all this when he trembled. A holy life is the evidence of having received the Holy Ghost (Acts 15:7-9). Other gifts of the Spirit may be wanting, but there is no vital difference between us and the highest of the apostles if God has given to us the Holy Ghost, "purifying our hearts by faith." 2. The manner of the Holy Spirit's work. It is —(1) A thorough work. Through and through the whole man, soul and mind and body, all feel its power — character and conduct, inward desires and outward doings; heart and hand are all influenced by it.(2) A progressive work. Like as the newborn babe grows in stature from year to year, and progresses in strength, it may be through many a long season of sickness, so it is with those who are born again of the Spirit. 3. A warfare in some more violent than in others, but experienced more or less by all; "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit," etc. 4. A work and warfare to be crowned with victory. (W. Grant.)
II. To enable you to answer the question in the text, I will state a few of THE EVIDENCES OR EFFECTS OF THE RECEPTION. 1. Prayer is one of these. It is the cry of the hungry for food, of the sick for health, of the condemned for pardon, that amounts to prayer in the true meaning of the term. It is a mark of the Spirit, when we pray from the heart. 2. Another fruit of the Spirit is the hatred of whatever is known to be sinful in the sight of God. As long as any remains of the old man are found within, so long will the conflict continue. 3. Another fruit and evidence of having received the Spirit is Christian love. A sincere Christian cannot but love those who show the holy, humble, and forgiving temper of Jesus. Hatred, variance, strife, contention, and all evil passions had so long filled the world, that men gazed with wonder on the benignant influence of the gospel in calming the troubled spirit. 4. One other mark decisive and vital of having received the Spirit is the faith that worketh by love. No man whose eyes are opened to discern his danger and the utter insufficiency of his works to save his soul, but renounces at once and for ever all dependence on the righteousness of his outward life, let it be what it may. And this leads him at the same time to place his entire dependence on the Saviour. (J. E. Everitt.)
I. WHAT IS IMPLIED IN RECEIVING THE HOLY GHOST AND WHETHER WE MAY AND MUST RECEIVE HIM. 1. By the "Holy Ghost" is meant the "Spirit of God"; that is, of the Father, as proceeding from Him, although sometimes also styled the "Spirit of Christ," or, "of the Son"; Christ and His Father being one, and the Spirit of the Father being also the Spirit of the Son, in a way to us unsearchable. 2. This being observed, it will easily appear that to receive the Spirit of God is to receive His Divine influence, imparting those graces or gifts which are necessary to our salvation. Now, the manner in which this is done is, in many respects, incomprehensible (John 3:8). We must, therefore, receive the Holy Spirit as our lungs receive the air, and we breathe and live. 3. But are we authorised to expect any such thing? Certainly we are (Joel 2:28, 29; Isaiah 59:21; Matthew 3:11; John 7:37, 38; John 14:16, 17; Luke 11:13; Acts 2:38, 39). II. IN WHAT SENSE WE ARE TO RECEIVE HIM AND FOR WHAT PURPOSES. The context shows that the apostle spoke partly in reference to the miraculous gifts of the Spirit (ver. 6). These were given of old to confirm the law, to establish the gospel. They do not seem to be necessary where the Christian religion is already received and are not infallible signs of grace (Matthew 7:22; 1 Corinthians 13:1). But we may and must receive the Spirit in His ordinary graces; to renew our fallen nature (Titus 3:5); to enable us to bring forth holy dispositions, words, and actions (Ephesians 5:9; Galatians 5:22, 23). To be more particular. We must receive Him — 1. As a Spirit of truth; to enlighten our minds, and save us from ignorance, error, folly, and delusion (John 14:17). 2. As a Spirit of life (Romans 8:2; 1 Corinthians 15:45; John 14:19; Ephesians 2:1, 5, 6). 3. As a Spirit of grace (John 3:5, 6; Titus 3:5, 6). 4. As a Spirit of adoption (Galatians 4:4; Romans 8:15, 16). 5. As a Spirit of power; encouraging and strengthening us (Ephesians 3:16), which is necessary — (1) (2) (3) 6. As a Comforter (John 14:16). 7. As a Spirit of holiness or sanctification (1. Peter 1:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:13). III. IN WHAT SENSE, AND HOW FAR, A MAN MAY BELIEVE, AND YET NOT HAVE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST AND HOW LITTLE SUCH A FAITH WILL AVAIL HIM. Without having received the Spirit in the forementioned respects, we may believe — The Being and attributes of God (Hebrews 11:6), inferring them by reasoning from the works of creation (Romans 1:20). The truth of the Scripture, and the excellency of its doctrines and precepts; and the promises and threatenings. But without the Holy Spirit our faith cannot be a saving faith (Romans 8:9). IV. APPLY THE QUESTION AND GIVE DIRECTIONS BOTH TO THOSE THAT HAVE AND TO THOSE THAT HAVE NOT RECEIVED HIM. 1. To those that have not received the Spirit, I would say, Reflect seriously and continually on the necessity and excellency of this gift — pray much for it (Luke 11:5-13). Shun whatever is contrary to the mind of the Spirit, or would prevent your receiving Him. He works by "the word of truth"; therefore, hear, read, meditate upon, and exercise faith therein. Through His aid deny yourself, and "mortify the deeds of the body" (Romans 8:13). Come to Jesus and exercise faith in Him for this blessing (John 7:37, 38; John 4:10; Galatians 3:13, 14). 2. Let me exhort those who have received this Spirit to guard not only against doing despite to Him, or quenching His influences, but against grieving Him, lest He withdraw from you. To use carefully all those means of grace whereby His grace may be continued and increased. (Joseph Benson.)
2. But he does ask, "Have ye received?" etc. Consider — I. THE QUESTION. 1. In some respects it is a vital question. For the Holy Ghost is the Author of —(1) All spiritual life. If, when you believed, you had not a life imparted by the Holy Spirit, your believing was a dead believing, and if He has not been with you since your conversion, your religion is a dead religion.(2) All true instruction. To be taught of the minister is nothing, it is only the Spirit of God who can engrave the truth upon the fleshy tablets of the heart.(3) Transformation. By Divine grace we are not now what we used to be: we have new thoughts, wishes, aspirations, sorrows, joys, and these are wrought in us of the Spirit.(4) Sanctification. A faith which works not for purification will work for putrefaction. A holy man is the workmanship of the Holy Spirit.(5) Prayer. Prayer without the Spirit is as a bird without wings, or an arrow without a bow. 2. But where it is not vital it is nevertheless greatly important. I do not think we ought always to be asking the question, "Is this essential to our salvation?" Those are miserable souls who would be saved in the cheapest possible way. But I would remind the children of God that there is in the Holy Ghost not only what they absolutely need to save them, but much more. He is —(1) The Comforter. Why, then, go ye mourning? You whose hearts are distracted receive the Spirit of consolation.(2) The Enlightener. Do you understand little of the Word of God? Why is this? Should you not seek more of the Guide into all truth? How much happier and more useful you would be!(3) The Spirit of liberty. If ye have received the Spirit, wily are ye the slaves of custom, fashion, etc.?(4) A power moving and impelling to holy service. II. THIS QUESTION IS ASSUREDLY ANSWERABLE. There is a notion that you cannot tell whether you have the Holy Spirit or not; but you can. Give a man an electric shock, and he will know it; but if he has the Holy Ghost he will know it much more. "Oh," says one, "I thought we must always say, 'I hope so, I trust so.'" I know that jargon; but men do not say, "I hope I have an estate," or, "I trust I have twenty shillings in the pound," or, "I think I have a wife and children." 1. There are many professors to whom this question is inevitable. I will pick out certain of them.(1) There is the brother with the long dreary face whose favourite hymn is — "'Tis a point I long to know. Oft it causes anxious thought." Have you received the Holy Ghost? Poor soul, he is perplexed. Here is a hymn for him: "Why should the children of a King go mourning all their days?" Surely, if we have the earnest of the Spirit, the firstfruits of heaven, we ought to rejoice in the Lord always.(2) Another brother is a member of the Church; he is a born grumbler, and since he has been new born he has not given up the habit. I have sometimes thought that certain unfriendly friends must have been baptized in vinegar instead of water. Surely the Spirit of God is a dove full of love and kindness, and not a bird of prey. Let me ask that brother, "Have you received the Holy Ghost?"(3) Here comes another who flies out into great tempers and is very sorry for it afterwards. Many a man boils over and scalds his friend, and then in cooler moments expresses his regret. All very fine; but fine words cure no blisters. The next time you are in a great temper, ask yourself, "Have I received the Holy Ghost?"(4) Here is a brother who cannot be happy unless he indulges in worldly amusements. The next time you are coming home from a gay party, I should like to meet you and inquire, "Have you received the Holy Ghost?" You cannot expect the Holy Spirit to continue with you if you play with the devil's children.(5) I would like, when the avaricious man is totalling up his gains, to put to him the question, "Have you received the Holy Ghost?" 2. I know some to whom the question is needless. You meet them in the morning, soaring aloft, like the lark, in the praises of God. See them in trouble: they are resigned to their heavenly Father's will. Mark how they spend their lives in hallowed service. You do not ask them if they have received the Holy Ghost; but you stand still and admire the work of the Spirit of God in them. III. LESSONS. 1. We are not to look for salvation to one single act of faith in the past, but to Jesus, in whom we continue to believe. 2. We must continue to live by receiving. We received Christ Jesus our Lord at the first, and now we receive the Holy Ghost. 3. We may not despise the very lowest form of spiritual life; nay, not even those who have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. 4. The Holy Spirit always keeps sweet company with Jesus Christ. As long as these good people only knew John the Baptist, they could only know water baptism. It was only when they came to know Jesus that then the Spirit of God came upon them. 5. The Holy Ghost can be yet more fully possessed by all believers. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
I. WE LEARN THAT THE CHRISTIAN LIFE INVOLVES A DEVELOPMENT. The popular mood of these days gives us conversions without sense of sin, union with the Church without separation from the world, activity without meditation and deep joy of communing with God. We must neither discredit these experiences nor rest with them. Though born of the Spirit, we are not born full grown. The Christian life has stages, sometimes marked off by sharp experiences, then gliding one into another, realised only as past; one as sunrise with one sparkling instant when the glittering disc touches the horizon; another, stealing up in clouds, unrecognised until we find full day around us. Each stage has its own explanation, vindication it may be, but only for the sake of the next. It is a camp, not an abiding city. Despise not the day of small things, in others, in yourself. Neither speak slightingly of experiences unknown to your own life, if sanctioned by the Word of God. God makes the caterpillar but for the destiny of the butterfly. A soul not growing towards God may well be puzzled at the wearisomeness of endless existence. II. The duty grows out of the truth: DO YOUR BEST WHERE YOU ARE, PRESS ON FOR BETTER. Never hold back effort because you know it must be imperfect, incomplete. If you have but one chance, seize it, as Paul his one Sunday at Ephesus. The good seed will not perish. Some Apollos will come to water it. God will give increase. The other side of this duty encourages those who feel oppressed by their own imperfect understanding of the truth. Do your best with what you have, and God will do His best for you. As Paul solemnly asked the Ephesians, this lesson comes to us today with its insistent demand: "Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed? Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" Considerate and patient is the question. It does not deny that we are believers, or discredit what we have received, but it does require of us yet more. It comes to the unsatisfied Christian, whose conversion was a bare act of will or a blaze of emotion; in whose later experience obedience is ungraced by spiritual joy or appears as alternations from cold to hot, vibrating about a general lukewarmness, distasteful and profitless. Pray for the Spirit. It comes to baffled workers and unanswered suppliants. They use God's own truth, their purpose is loyal, the effort unshrinking; but they yet wait their Pentecost. It has its message for those who do not believe. It faces the "moral man," who accepts the Commandments and even thinks to rule his life by the Sermon on the Mount: whose conduct we admire and whose spirit we praise; with whom we find no fault, yet in whom we recognise a subtle and unmistakable lack — that he may ask for the Spirit. This abiding presence and mighty power of Deity is that manifestation given latest, to complete all that has been given before. (Charles M. Southgate.)
I. We see in their case THE REALITY OF AN IMPERFECT CHRISTIANITY. There are certain simple things which, once truly possessed, make one a Christian. The line between death and salvation has been passed. Much advance is still possible, but it does not make the fact of one's being a Christian one whir more real. The feeblest, weakest Christian is just as truly saved as the most advanced in the things of God. 1. The truth of this statement is plain in the case of these twelve disciples of John the Baptist. Just what they knew and just what they did not know has been much disputed by commentators, and to little use, as the Bible record is so slight. What was the extent of the Christianity of these men?(1) They had repented of sin and put their faith in a coming (and as yet unknown) Saviour, and had confessed this faith in baptism (vers. 3, 4).(2) They had known as much of the Holy Spirit as was common among the Jews and as was known to John, but they had not the specially definite knowledge of Him given after the ascension of Christ, and particularly that manifestation of the Spirit which came through miracles. Nevertheless they were true Christians, for Luke calls them "disciples" (ver. 1), which he would not have done in the quiet time when he wrote this record of the Acts without full cognisance of its meaning. 2. The general inference follows for ourselves that one may be a real Christian though a very imperfect one. If a wide knowledge of Divine truth in its extension and a deep experimental knowledge of its separate elements were required at the entrance, who could be saved? How gracious is the Lord in accepting us when there is so little in us that would seem to warrant Him in calling us His! And yet that little is everything. Faith may be smaller than a mustard seed to the eye, yet if it be genuine it has in it a mountain-moving potency. 3. Yet one thing must be said: that a genuine faith is one which utilises what knowledge it has. The message of John the Baptist was very fragmentary compared to the full revelation of God's truth given by Christ, yet it had in it the power of salvation. The measure of our learning unto eternal life is not how much truth we have heard (as by preaching and teaching and reading), but how much we have incorporated into our own being. A very little food will save a human life, but not until it is assimilated. II. The story of the twelve Johannean disciples shows us THE NECESSITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. The reply of the men to Paul's question looks as though they had never known that there was such an existence as the Holy Spirit. But this is incredible in men who were probably Jews and certainly disciples of John — who knew of the Holy Spirit. Their reply must be understood in the light of Paul's question (ver. 2). And that question must be understood by the sequel when the Holy Spirit was given (ver. 6). The Holy Spirit was given to them in miraculous form (it led them to speak" with tongues" and to prophesy), and this was the form of manifestation Paul was inquiring about and they were answering about. They meant, therefore, that they knew nothing of a Holy Spirit miraculously manifested; they did not intend to say they knew nothing at all of the existence of the Holy Spirit. 1. It was necessary that they should receive the Holy Spirit. The form in which they received Him was conditioned by the circumstances of the time. It was an age of beginnings. Christ had left the earth to take His throne in glory, and miracles were particularly calculated to allay the doubt of Christ's continued existence and power which must arise in the first years of His bodily absence. Powerful signs were an evidence of Christ's enthronement. It was necessary, therefore, that, in addition to that enlightenment of the Holy Spirit which is given to all at the beginning of the Christian life, there should be given to believers at that time this special endowment of the Spirit for temporary purposes which came by the laying on of apostolic hands. 2. The same necessity for the Spirit's presence holds with us. The form of the Spirit's manifestation has doubtless changed. The place of the Holy Spirit in the scheme of salvation is unchangeable. If a man could save himself he would not need supernatural help, he would not need the Holy Spirit. Salvation is in a change of heart, in being made a new creature before God. This is a superhuman work. 3. Always ought we therefore to be praying for the presence of the Holy Spirit. He makes ours all that Christ has secured for us at such infinite cost! III. Although a very small faith has in it the power of salvation, yet THERE REMAINS THE DUTY OF FULL BELIEF. 1. Opportunity is of God. God gave them the chance to hear John the Baptist. They believed the message they heard as far as it went. God by His Providence had withheld from them full Christian knowledge. Then after a time He gave them another opportunity, which they also embraced. It is a helpful thought that God's Providence is similarly directing us in our Christian opportunities. There are some far away from Church privileges, away from libraries, away from the possibility of reading Christian newspapers. Providence has cut off opportunity of growth by these external helps. Let such souls take courage. God has not forgotten them; He is leading them in His own way. 2. These men showed by their conduct that they had a desire for a more perfect faith. They had used what opportunity they had and were longing for more. The reason of Christian lethargy is never lack of opportunity, but failure to use what opportunities one has, which implies absence of the longing for growth. The smallness of Christian knowledge is not against it, but deadness is, even if it be very large. A little thing which is increasing will soon eclipse a big thing which is defunct. 3. When twelve men had a chance to have a new accretion of Christian faith they accepted it instantly (ver. 5). There was promptitude in their belief because desire had gone before it. When the new knowledge came they did not have to debate whether they wanted it or not. IV. THE SEAL OF SUCCESS WAS GIVEN TO PAUL'S LABOUR IN EPHESUS (vers. 8-12). The blessing of heaven was upon his endeavours (vers. 11, 12) in such a form that no one could mistake it. 1. The form was unusual, for special reasons which have already been named. Miracles were wrought because at that time miracles needed to be wrought. 2. Extensive success was part of the corroboration of Paul's work being God's work (ver. 10). 3. Intensive success was an additional proof of the divineness of Paul's work (ver. 12). (D. J. Burrell, D. D.)
(W. W. Everts.)
1. There is in fallen human nature a constant tendency to sink under the dominion of materialistic habits of thought. I do not now speak of formal materialistic systems, but of that materialism which tells us that we are too sensible a race to run after metaphysical and theological phantoms. "Go on your way," it whispers, "O most practical people! Vex not yourselves with problems which have wearied the human soul for centuries, to no purpose. Believe in your senses; make matter more and more entirely your slave. Here only progress is possible." 2. The bearing of all this on the idea of an invisible world is unmistakable, and no Christian can regard it without distress, for this popular, untheoretic, yet most real materialism is radically inconsistent with any recognition of the truth before us, which involves belief in the existence of a supersensuous world, within and upon which the Divine Spirit lives and acts. Certainly, this belief carries us completely beyond the precincts of sense. What in Himself the Eternal Spirit is, who shall say? And how spirit acts on spirit; how the Divine Spit it acts on ours must for ever remain a mystery. But to admit it at all is to deny the premises of a great deal of popular writing and conversation. 3. You may reply, that this practical materialism is not to be thus refuted. No: not for theoretical materialists. Yet we may pause to observe that civilisation itself, which we are told is to advance in an inverse ratio to man's belief in the Invisible, itself obliges us to resist the advance of materialism. Who were the founders of modern civilisation? Men who believed in the Invisible. And upon what does civilisation really repose? Not upon our conquests in the world of matter, which may merely add to our capacities for extraordinary brutality; but upon the prevalence of moral ideas — of the idea of duty, of justice, of conscience. They are products of the supersensuous world; they altogether belong to it, although they form the very foundations of our social fabric. These ideas are as much out of the reach of sense as is the action of the Holy Spirit upon a human soul; we see the ideas as we see that action, only in their effects, not in themselves. A really consistent materialism would have inaugurated pure barbarism if it could have succeeded in destroying them. II. PROTECTS US AGAINST THE ADVANCE OF MATERIALISTIC IDEAS INTO THE VERY SANCTUARY OF CHRISTIAN THOUGHT. 1. There is such a thing as the materialised estimate of the life of Christ. How many men conceive of Christ as of a Teacher of commanding influence. Recognising this, they gather up all that can illustrate His appearance among men. The idioms of Eastern speech, the scenery, flora, climate, customs of Palestine, all are summoned by the highest literary skill, that they may place vividly before us the exact circumstances which surrounded the life of Christ. But here too often the appreciation of that life really ends. Where He is now, what He is, whether He can act upon us, are points which they dismiss as belonging, to the category of theological abstractions. And if St. Paul were here, would he not say this, that they know Christ only after the flesh? Now, belief in and communion with the Holy Spirit rescues the life of Christ from this exclusively historical way of looking at it. For the Holy Spirit perpetually fulfils Christ's promise — "He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto you." The Spirit weans Christian thought from too exclusive an attention to the outward, and concentrates it upon the inward features, and forces in upon us the habitual recollection that Christ is what He was. "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." And how? Politicians are present after death, by the laws or dynasties which they have established. The intellectual survive by the force of the ideas to which they have given currency. The good and the bad live by the persuasive beauty or the repellent ugliness of their examples. Was the presence of Christ to be of this description? No. It was to be a real, but a spiritual presence. The Spirit is emphatically the Spirit of Christ, because He is the Minister of Christ's supersensuous presence. 2. There is a materialised estimate of the Christian Church. The Church has of course an earthly side, and there are many Christians who see no more than this. They mistake the kingdom of the Spirit for a merely human organisation, patronised by the State in the interests of civil order, education, and philanthropy. They are exclusively concerned with the mere outward trappings of the Church. But the Church is a spiritual society, and it is only faith in the Spirit that enables us to grasp this, to act out all it means, and to share the certain triumphs which such a society must win. 3. There is such a thing as materialised worship. That the sense of beauty may be appealed to in order to win the soul to God, is a principle consecrated by the language and example of Scripture; and it seems to be the true and generous instinct of an earnest piety to deem no measure of artistic beauty too great for the embellishment of the temples and service of Christ. Nor is there any real connection between spirituality and that slovenliness which is sometimes termed "simplicity." But this truth should not blind us to the fact that aesthetic aids to worship may, like other blessings, be perverted, by coming to be regarded as ends. Let us give of our best to the churches and the service of our God; but let us ever remember that, since He is a Spirit, they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Surely, to realise the presence of the Holy Ghost in the soul, and in the Church, is to be anxious that the inner realities of worship should as far transcend its outward accompaniments, as the kingdom of the Invisible transcends the world of sense. III. IMPLIES A CORRESPONDENT ELEVATION OF CHARACTER. It implies that a man aims at something higher than mere morality. Yet, before we think disparagingly of morality, we do well to ask ourselves how far it may not rebuke us for falling as far below as we profess to rise above it. Nevertheless, the Eternal Spirit has Himself set up in the world a school of morals; and He whispers within the soul a deeper and purer code than nature dreams of. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." How unnatural, men say, they are! True! but not in the sense of contradicting nature so much as in that of transcending it. And if we will reach that high standard, we may with the Spirit's help. He makes the feeble strong, and the melancholy bright, and the cold-blooded fervent, and the irascible gentle, and the uninstructed wise, and the conceited humble, and the timid unflinching. (Canon Liddon.)
1. Becoming our spirit. We think of our Lord, "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners," and it is almost startling to read, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus"; yet that is precisely the result of the reception of the Holy Ghost; "the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth." 2. Revealing Him to us. We often wish we had seen Christ "after the flesh." We can think of nothing better. But it was as something better that He promised the Comforter. "It is expedient for you," etc.; "a little while, and ye shall not see Me, and again a little while and ye shall see Me." Pentecost opened the eyes of the apostles; they knew their Lord then as they had not known Him; He was a hundredfold more to them from that hour than when He walked with them on earth. It is on the baptism of the Spirit that ever-growing perception of the wondrous fulness of His glory and trace depend. "Neither will I hide My face any more from them, for I have poured out My Spirit upon the house of Israel." 3. Qualifying us to serve Him. It not only gives us more of Christ, but Christ more of us. The coming of the Holy Ghost was a baptism of power; it was a new zeal, a new perception of truth, a new utterance, a new force. II. IS THERE REASON TO THINK WE MAY RECEIVE THIS BAPTISM? No doubt this must be answered in the affirmative; there is a reception of the Holy Ghost which corresponds to what we need. For consider that the bestowment of the Spirit on the New Testament Church was — 1. Greatly to exceed what was given before (John 7:38, 39). "The Holy Ghost was not yet"! That is a remarkable expression. All spirituality is from Him; under His influence patriarchs worshipped, psalmists sang, prophets wrote, and holy men of old lived saintly lives. That must mean that the measure of the Spirit's bestowment after Jesus was glorified would be such that His previous bestowment would be as nothing. And the favourite Old Testament expression "pour" points to an overwhelming abundance, far beyond what preceded the time to which it refers. 2. Set forth as the Crowning Gift of the Risen Lord. This was strongly emphasised by His herald. As our Lord's ministry neared its close His thoughts were fixed on this. And after He rose it was His frequent theme. Does it not seem as though He regarded it as the end of His incarnation and that which, having made the atonement that secured it, He hastened to grant! If so, it is the undoubted heritage of all for whom that atonement avails. 3. Plainly declared to be possible to all believers. That is the point we fail to grasp. We think this was fulfilled once for all, but Pentecost was repeated even in the history of the apostles (Acts 4:31); nor was it limited to them, nor to the Church at Jerusalem, it was repeated in the household of Cornelius, whilst in the incident before us it is repeated again in Ephesus. And doubt is finally removed as we still listen to Peter (Acts 2:39). III. WHY, THEN, HAVE WE NOT RECEIVED IT? "Have ye received the Holy Ghost," as the apostles did? If we answer that our spiritual state is more like theirs before than after Pentecost, that may be due, in part, to — 1. Lack of knowledge. "We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost," or, at least, such a possible reception of Him as this. We have thought of the Pentecostal blessing as power to speak with tongues. 2. Failure in prayer. For prayer is a condition of its bestowment. Those to whom it was first given had "continued with one accord in prayer and supplication." A second time, "when they had prayed,...they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." Christ Himself received it thus — when being baptized He was praying. And He said, "Your Heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him." 3. Lack of consecration to Christ. Before Pentecost the apostles placed themselves at their Lord's disposal. Then the blessing came. Nor will it ever come otherwise. The world spirit cannot receive it, for He is "the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive"; the disobedient cannot receive it, for He is "the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey Him"; lack of love cannot receive it, for we mark the connection: "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God; let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger," etc.; self-seeking cannot receive it (for, alas! like Simon the sorcerer we may desire the baptism of the Spirit for personal ends), for "when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall glorify Me." Conclusion: To prayer and consecration this sorely-needed, all-inclusive blessing is never far off. There may, indeed, even then be a time of waiting. Nor may it come as we expect, for its recorded manifestations were not in every case alike. It may come to us as the dove, peace bringing; or as a baptism of fire, consuming our dross; or as the pouring out of rain, sweeping away our evils, and making buried seeds and drooping graces revive; or as the withering wind, making the goodliness of the flesh to fade, but the final issue will be the same; we shall be filled with the mind of Christ, and growingly transformed into His likeness; we shall live in fellowship with Him; and our words and works, yea, our very life, will become channels of grace to men, so that on every side they will cry "What must we do to be saved?" (C. New.)
2. The answer was as plain as the question, Now it was impossible for any reader of the Old Testament to be ignorant of the existence of the Holy Spirit. The very second verse of the Bible speaks of Him. And the devotions of holy men recognised more than His mere existence (Psalm 51). All that is good in man has ever been the work of the Holy Spirit. Therefore these disciples could not literally mean that they did not know of any such Person. What they say is, We did not even hear, when we believed, whether there is such a thing, in the gospel sense of the words, as the Holy Spirit; whether, that is, the great promise, as conveyed by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Joel, of a special outpouring of the Spirit is yet fulfilled. If any doubt could otherwise have rested upon the meaning of this question and its answer, it will be removed by a reference to John 7:39. "The Spirit was not yet" — or, "not yet was there" [in the distinctive gospel sense of the words] "a Spirit — because Jesus was not yet glorified"; even as our Lord Himself said, "It is expedient for you that I go away," etc. The Holy Ghost was not yet come, because Christ was not yet gone. Even so it is here. These disciples had not yet heard of Pentecost. 3. And not to have heard this proved them to be ignorant of the very elements of Christian truth. "Unto what then were ye baptized?" Christian baptism is a baptism "into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost" — the way of admission into that Church in which the Holy Spirit dwells, for the use of each one of its members. "Into what then were ye baptized," if you have not so much as heard whether there be any such Holy Spirit? The answer explained all. They had only received the baptism of John: who stood, himself, outside the Church, insomuch that it was said of him, "Notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven, is greater," in privilege and in possession, than he, the greatest of the prophets. This baptism was designed only as a temporary and preliminary ordinance; inasmuch as after it came a baptism not of water only but of fire; not of repentance only and reformation, but of the personal presence of the Holy Ghost. 4. "When they heard this" (vers. 5, 6). Thus were fulfilled in them those words afterwards addressed to the same Church (Ephesians 1:13). The miraculous gifts of the early Church are withdrawn, chiefly because they have done their work, because they have lost their necessity as signs. It is in His ordinary rather than in His extraordinary gifts that we trace the hand of God now. In this respect the Holy Spirit is only where He acts; and, where He acts, He shows that He is acting; and, where He shows His operation, it is by signs of a certain particular nature, written down for us in Scripture. I will select three of them to serve as heads of inquiry, when we are asked by St. Paul, and by One greater still, Have ye received that Holy Spirit, which all who believe in Christ were to receive? The fruit of the Spirit is — I. JOY. Are you happy? the text says, You do not look so. I know that you have an excuse for this. Your circumstances are perplexing; trade is bad; the sky of the future dark and lowering. St. Paul might have said many things of this kind. In every respect but one I will venture to say St. Paul was worse off than you. And yet St. Paul could say when he was asked, Hast thou received the Holy Ghost? Yes, for I am filled with joy! yea, I can glory in tribulations also! If a man has the Spirit of Christ, in the same degree he is a joyful man. Do not put away from you this first test. For could anything so recommend the gospel to a man living in a troublesome world as this fact, that it offers him joy? II. GENTLENESS. Are you kind? Do you think of the feelings of others? Do you never allow in yourself that miserable excuse, "It is only my way; I do not mean it"? There are other words in the list of the same character. The fruit of the Spirit is love, longsuffering, goodness, meekness. Every part of the gospel is full of this topic. And how bright would human life be, by comparison, if it also were full of gentleness! Alas! where is the house in which some ungentle spirit is not more or less marring the general tranquillity? Even good manners cannot succeed in doing thoroughly this work of the Holy Spirit. Other things break down somewhere: they who are courteous to strangers are not always courteous at home: they who are agreeable to equals are not always considerate to servants; it is only that Divine Spirit which touches the very spring of being which can make gentleness uniform, genuine and heart-deep. III. TEMPERANCE — i.e., self-control, inward strength. It is not one appetite only which it rules: it is all the appetites. It is not that spurious virtue which casts out one evil spirit by the help of others, and compounds for pride and contempt and self-righteousness and utter ungodliness by deifying one single abstinence into man's sole virtue. It is the power of saying No to inclination. It is the not being brought under the power of anything, save the law of God, save the love of Christ. And who has got this without being a Christian? (Dean Vaughan.)
2. There were three lesser Pentecosts after the great one, continuing with lessening demonstration the original signs — when Peter threw open the gate to the Gentiles, when Samaria was added to the fold, and now when the Spirit set His seal on the dispensation of the Baptist. After this there are no more renewals of the Pentecostal tokens — the extraordinary signs melt into the ordinary. This question — I. FINDS OUT THE WEAKNESS OF A VAGUE KIND OF FAITH WHICH DOES NOT PAY DUE HONOUR TO THE PERSON AND WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST. 1. The Ephesians were in ignorance of the full revelation of the Trinity. Of the Personality of the Spirit, as also of the Person of Christ, into whose name they were not yet baptized, they had only an indistinct knowledge, and hence the supreme revelation of the Son had not unfolded the Father. 2. The holders of this scanty creed today cannot evade the test by asserting that they hold all that is vitally necessary, in that they believe God, that they accept the teaching of Christ, and that they acknowledge a supernatural power resting on the mind, whether called the influence of the Holy Ghost or not. The Spirit is God in the unity of the Father and the Son. As there is no Redeemer but a Divine Redeemer, so there is no Holy Ghost but the third Person of the Trinity. II. DISCOVERS DEFICIENCY IN THOSE WHO IN THEIR VIEWS OF PERSONAL RELIGION PRACTICALLY LEAVE OUT THE HOLY GHOST. 1. No truth is more deeply stamped on the New Testament than the necessity of the Spirit's illumination to an experimental acquaintance with Christ and His salvation. As none know the Father save through the Son, so none can "call Jesus Lord but by the Holy Ghost." He makes the Word effectual in conviction of sin, in the energy of faith, in the revelation of mercy, and in renewal and sanctification. 2. But it is equally true that there may be correct theological belief and ceremonial exactness without conscious enjoyment of the Spirit.(1) How many, forgetting that "the kingdom of God is not meat and drink," etc., make Christianity a reproduction of Judaism, as if they were "baptized into Moses," hide the Saviour under ritualised sacraments, and forget, in their symbolical worship, that "God is a Spirit," etc.(2) But there is a formal unceremonial Christianity, a round of decent prescribed observances which is equally void of the Spirit, and which embraces everything about religion but that which is the result of earnest prayer on the part of man and a direct gift on the part of the Spirit. III. SEARCHES THOSE WHO HAVE RECEIVED THE SPIRIT IN HIS PREPARATORY INFLUENCES, BUT NOT YET IN FULNESS OF HIS GRACE. 1. These Ephesians were disciples of John, whose ministry had its value in this, that it prepared for Christ and His baptism of the Spirit. They were penitents waiting for mercy, and while the Saviour had come they knew Him not.(1) Among those who are in earnest about their religion a large number fall short of the full light and grace provided in Christ. Their sins have been revealed to them, but not their Saviour. They are on the way from the Baptist to Christ, but only on the way. They are lingering at Jordan while there is elsewhere a voice crying, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour," etc.(2) Others take the view that the gospel only provides for a lifelong penitence, the hope of being accepted at last, and that it has nothing better for this life than a discipline of sorrow — an altogether morbid estimate of Christianity; utterly untrue to the gospel, which is "glad tidings." To such the Spirit asks, as if grieved, "Have ye received the Holy Ghost? If He be a Comforter, where is your strength? If He be a Spirit of joy, where is your rejoicing?"(3) Others miss the "comfort of the Holy Ghost" because their repentance is not sufficiently deep. The revelation of mercy by the Spirit cannot be extorted before the set time, and that is deferred till penitence has had its perfect work. There can be no peace where the exceeding sinfulness of sin is not deeply felt. Such must go back to John, and abide under the preliminary leading of the Spirit of conviction, who waits to afford consolation, but His time is not yet.(4) Others misapprehend the simplicity of that faith which the Spirit seals. The apostle wrote to these same men, "When ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit." That sealing is not always accompanied by the demonstrations which many require. Many doubting Christians hesitating to answer the question, if they would examine themselves they might find that the Lord the Spirit is in their hearts, "and they knew it not." They have a humble trust in Christ, a filial spirit of appeal to Him, a relish for prayer, a secret joy in the name of Jesus, a hearty abhorrence of sin. What is all this but a token of the indwelling Spirit? 2. With regard to this great class there is in our question an abundant promise. It detects a deficiency only that it may be supplied; for there is nothing more remarkable than the sudden way in which these men were translated out of their partial darkness into perfect light. IV. DETECTS IN THE REGENERATE WHATEVER IS INCONSISTENT WITH THE HIGH PRIVILEGE CONTAINED IN SUCH A GIFT. 1. They have received the Holy Ghost, but they have forgotten the conditions on which His presence is suspended, and have fallen into the habit of grieving that Spirit by whom they are sealed. Hence the question serves only to remind them of better days, and gives birth to other questions. Having received the Spirit, why have you not been one with Him in temper, desire, and act? 2. But if the question awakens regret, in that sorrow there is hope. The Spirit is not easily driven from the soul He has once inhabited. The duty of such a troubled Christian is plain. There is occasion now for a fresh repentance; and if with all our heart we ask for the tokens of reconciliation, He will give them as richly as at the first. V. APPLIES TO THOSE WHO ARE NOT FIXING THEIR MINDS STEADILY ON THE SPIRIT'S SUPREME DESIGN IN THEIR SANCTIFICATION. Some undervalue this sanctifying power as received by the believer on his first union with Christ. They read the question as if it ran, "Have ye received the Holy Ghost at some epoch of transcendent consecration, raising the regenerate life into a higher sphere?" But Paul actually said, "Did ye receive?" etc. There is no distinction between a state of regeneration and a state of higher religious life. The same Spirit whom we receive in the new birth is given for our entire consecration. Then do not undervalue the grace you inherit as having the Holy Ghost. There is no limit to His present willingness to fill, rule, and consecrate the soul. (W. B. Pope, D. D.)
II. THE SPIRIT HAS WROUGHT SINCE THE DAY OF PENTECOST AS HE NEVER WROUGHT BEFORE, IN THE TESTIMONY WHICH HE BEARS IN THE HEART OF EVERY INDIVIDUAL BELIEVER. We do not read of any such direct access to God granted to individual men in ancient times. III. Again, the indwelling Spirit of these latter days of the Church is eminently THE SPIRIT OF WISDOM. The humble child, walking by the light of this Spirit, is wiser than his teachers if they have Him not. IV. Lastly, the Spirit of God now abiding among us is a TRANSFORMING SPIRIT; not merely enlightening, nor merely comforting, nor merely conferring the adoption of sons, but changing us into the image of God, begetting in us a thirst to be like Him whose sons we are, to have done with sin, and to cast off corruption and to put on perfect holiness. (H. Alford.)
I. THE INFLUENCE OF THE HOLY GHOST ON THE DEPARTMENT OF RELIEF. We are often where these Ephesians were. God the Holy Spirit came into them, and then their old belief opened into a different belief; then they really believed. Can any day in man's life compare with that day? II. The Holy Spirit not only gives clearness to truth, but GIVES DELIGHT AND ENTHUSIASTIC IMPULSE TO DUTY. The work of the Spirit was to make Jesus vividly real to man. What He did then for any poor Ephesian man or woman who was toiling away in obedience to the law of Christianity was to make Christ real to the toiling soul behind and in the law. I find a Christian who has really received the Holy Ghost, and what is it that strikes and delights me in him? It is the intense and intimate reality of Christ. Christ is evidently to him the dearest person in the universe. He talks to Christ. He dreads to offend Christ. He delights to please Christ. His whole life is light and elastic, with this buoyant desire of doing everything for Jesus just as Jesus would wish it done. Duty has been transfigured. (Bp. Phillips Brooks.)
1. One of them is the growing love of our neighbour which He works in us. 2. There is another test — the hatred of sin. 3. There is yet a third test — that of love of Christ in God. Let us ask Him to burn up all the wood and stubble wherewith we have been building in ourselves after a fashion of our own, and build up in us a sincere trust in Himself and His Son. (Abp. Thomsom.)
(T. L. Cuyler.)
(W. Ross.)
1. Manner of the preaching. (1) (2) 2. Rejection of the preaching. (1) (2) 3. Extent of the preaching: "Two years; so that all...in Asia heard." 4. Lessons: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) II. WONDERFUL HEALING. 1. Righteous miracles performed. (1) (2) 2. Unrighteous miracles attempted. (1) (2) (3) 3. Lessons: The Great Physician — (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) III. WONDERFUL REPENTING. 1. Moved to repentance. (1) (2) 2. Repentance (Matthew 3:6; Romans 10:10; 2 Corinthians 7:9; 1 John 1:9). 3. Fruits of repentance. (1) (2) 4. Lessons: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (S. S. Times.)
2. Proving the truth (vers. 11, 12). 3. Perverting the truth (vers. 13-16). 4. Practising the truth (vers. 17-20). (A. F. Schauffler.)
I. THE GOSPEL AS A TRUE, DIVINE, AND SAVING REVELATION (Ephesians 1:13). 1. It was not a new opinion or system; it was the word of truth. As such the apostle proclaimed it; not as its originator, but simply as its herald. He told it because he had been commissioned to tell it; and not in fragments or in shapes of growing clearness and symmetry, but at once in all its fulness and perfection. It is truth; therefore accept it, and live by it. If you refuse it, it is at the peril of your souls. 2. For it is not only truth, but gospel — good news, of which salvation is the theme. Men cannot know what the salvation is till they feel what the danger is; and that danger is beyond description — the guilt and misery of sin — guilt that man cannot expiate, and misery out of which he can by no effort or sorcery charm himself. Must it not, then, be good news to hear of deliverance? II. CHRIST AS THE ONE THEME IN THIS WORD OF TRUTH AND THE ONE AGENT IN THIS SALVATION. The vagabond Jews used as their spell, "Jesus, whom Paul preacheth." They characterised his preaching by this, and truly. He preached Jesus — no one but Jesus; the same in the school of Tyrannus as it had been in the synagogue, the same at his second visit as at his first. 1. As the one Saviour, able and willing to save. 2. As Master, presenting a perfect example, and giving ability to copy it. 3. As Judge. 4. As the Reconciler of Jew and Gentile, and of both to God (Ephesians 2:14-16). 5. As the chief Cornerstone which unites and sustains the Church (Ephesians 2:20-21). III. REPENTANCE TOWARDS GOD AND FAITH TOWARDS OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST (Acts 20:21). 1. Repentance is that state of heart which every sinner ought to cherish before God, whose law he has broken, and whose sentence he has merited. To feel sin, to mourn over it, to confess it without reserve or apology, to hate it, to forsake it, and in God's name and strength to follow after holiness. Evangelical contrition is very different from selfish despair, and from "the sorrow of the world which worketh death," for it is the first pulsation of life. 2. Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ — faith resting on Him as its one object; for Christ is not Saviour to anyone in reality till He be believed in. Faith is thus the cardinal or distinctive grace, and the want of it is fatal. Up till the first moment of faith no saving change is produced on the heart. 3. Repentance and faith were his twin doctrines — repentance 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 conditioned by faith, and faith urged and necessitated by repentance. IV. THE NECESSITY OF HOLINESS AND ITS CONNECTION WITH HEAVEN AS THE PREPARATION FOR IT (Ephesians 4:20-24; Ephesians 5:5). 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." 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. (Prof. Eadie.)
(Dean Plumptre.)
I. IF THE WORD OF GOD WAS APPROPRIATE FOR THE PUBLIC SCHOOL OF EPHESUS, WHY NOT FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS ELSEWHERE? Higher than university, than Legislative hall, than Presidential chair, is the common school of this country, because it provides the orators, the painters, the poets, the legislators, the judges, the presidents; dropping upon a million homes the benediction of light and refinement. So queenly a system must be affianced to the king of books, the Bible. This union has given us all we have of culture and refinement. After you put a building up, it is a poor thing to pull out the cornerstone. Suppose I should go to the architect of this building and say, "You have no right to be here today." "Why," he would reply, "I built it." And people would gather around and say, "If anybody has a right to be here, he has." Now, my friends, the Word of God is the architect, the foundation, the pillars, the capstone of the great common school system, and there shall be no political nor demoniacal power on earth or hell to expel it. II. YET A DETERMINED EFFORT IS BEING MADE TO EXPEL IT. In support of this it is said — 1. "It does not make any difference. What is the reading of half a dozen verses of a chapter in a school?" I go into an apothecary's store with a prescription. In making it up the chemist takes one liquid, then another, and then a third, and finally he takes out a small phial, and drops into the general admixture one or two drops. I say to him, "Why do you waste time by putting in those drops?" "Oh," he says, "this is the most important part of the prescription. This changes the entire nature of the thing. Without it, it would be death; with it, it will be cure and life." Now you come up to the common school admixture, and you say: "There is a quart of arithmetic, and there are two gills of geography, and a pint of grammar, and what is just one or two drops of Scriptural reading going to do?" I say it is the most important part of the prescription. It changes the whole nature of everything. Untold blessings depend on the Bible staying where it is. Untold disorder follow upon its being thrust out. 2. The common school was intended only to give secular education. I reply that it is to develop our children so that they shall be prepared for the duties of life. Suppose a man should go to a gymnasium, and say to the manager, "I wish you would make that little finger more agile, and strong, and healthy; and develop the toe of the right foot." Why, he would say, "You must be insane. If I take you in my institution, I purpose to develop your entire physical organism, and then of course your hand and foot will get the benefit of it. But I can't undertake to treat just the foot and hand." Now you come up to the common school, and you say, "Give us secular education, but don't give us religious education." In other words, touch only the tip end of this complex nature; don't get up into the region of the soul: give the children reading, writing, and arithmetic. Ah, we cannot educate our children in this infinitesimal manner. Do you think a man is prepared for the duties of life merely because because he can cipher, or is a good penman? The biggest thief in New York understands arithmetic, and can wield a very skilful pen when it is to put somebody else's name at the foot of a money draft. What this country wants is the pressure of a high moral obligation on her young people, and that you can get from no book except the Bible. The rights of our Jewish and Roman Catholic fellow citizens will be invaded. Well, look at that little urchin! Before him stands the teacher, inflicting him with these oppressive words, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God"; "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Alas! for the defenceless little Jewish and Roman Catholic children, crushed under the Beatitudes. Besides this, the Bible is the most unsectarian Book in the world. Wyckliffe, and Coverdale, and Matthew translated the Bible in the Roman Catholic Church; and our translation is substantially the same thing. The Bible in the schools does not propose to proselyte. The Bible taught in a Presbyterian Church may get a Presbyterian twist, or taught in a Roman Catholic Church may get a Roman Catholic twist; but the Bible as read in our schools without note or comment, will get no such twist. And then neither Romanists nor Jews have any objection to the Bible as such. Who then want it expelled chiefly? Well, the men who are loose in religious notions, or loose in morals, or base politicians, and for good reasons. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)
I. PUNCTUALITY. Never be late for school or for anything. God is very punctual. If the sun was late all the clocks would be wrong, and people would be greatly put about; and when you are late mother is put about, and teacher, and yourself; and when attendance marks are read, you wish you had been punctual. Learn the habit of being punctual in all things. If you make but a little mistake in multiplication, that mistake goes on multiplying itself. An unpunctual person puts many other people wrong. II. HONOUR. Honour and honesty come from the same word. Now I daresay you would not steal anything with your hands. But did you never at school look over another and copy his answer? That was not honourable — it was dishonest. Learn to be honourable at school. Your teacher is trusting you. Never do mean things. Even when the teacher does not see you, God does. It is good to be clever, but it is better still to be good. III. COURAGE. Is not it strange that anyone should need courage to say what is true? You would think it needed more courage to say what was wrong, for he would be very bold who would say that two and two made five. He would not need to be very bold, who said that two and two made four. Yes; but that only shows how far we have all got wrong through sin, that most people are afraid to say what is right. Say boldly when a thing is wrong, that it is wrong, and when it is right, that it is right, and stand by it. IV. KINDNESS. Think of others; think of teacher; sometimes he is worried and troubled, or sometimes she has a headache. And try to have a kind way with the other children. Learn kindness in the school, and when you come into the world you will find this to be one of the best lessons you ever learnt in your life, for it is in lovingkindness the spirit of Jesus grows up. (J. R. Howatt.)
2. Add to that thought the one which arises out of the endeavour of the seven sons of Sceva to cast out evil spirits. Wherein did they fail? At every point. They came into the ministry in a wrong way; and that is always an explanation of failure of the worst kind. "They took upon them" — that is the explanation. This ministry is not something which a man may elect in preference to something else. The ministry is nothing if it is not a burden, a necessity. 3. The sons of Sceva knew nothing about the Name with which they conjured. Instead of saying, "We adjure you by Jesus Christ whom we love," they said, "We adjure you by Jesus Christ whom Paul preacheth." The sacred influence will not pass through such negative or nonconducting connections. That is one of the noblest tributes that can be paid to the dignity of Christianity. There are many persons who would be glad to amalgamate Christianity with something else. But Christianity will not be amalgamated. Christianity wants the world to itself. How much modern meaning there is in "We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth." There was no doubt about the subject of Paul's preaching. This is a tribute to the honesty and consistency of Paul. We are urged today to preach the Christ whom the Puritans preached. That exhortation is not without deep meaning; but a man may say to his hearers "I adjure you to serve the Christ whom the Puritans preached," and they will return the answer of indifference or mockery. A minister may go further and say, "I adjure you by the Christ whom the apostles preached," and the Word would have no power. A man might go even further and say, "I adjure you by the Christ of the New Testament," and the nineteenth century would know nothing about such a Christ. How is the Christian to suit his age and arrest it? By preaching the Christ whom his own heart knows and loves. Paul uses an expression which some persons cannot think is in the New Testament. He uses the expression, "my gospel." Every man has his own hold of the gospel, and he must preach that. If I have to preach a Christ whom another man preached I have to commit a lesson to memory and to be very careful lest I stumble in the verbal recitation; but if I preach a Christ born in my own heart, the hope of glory, living with me day by day, then my whole life must break into eloquence, and men must be constrained to say, "He has been with Jesus and learned of Him." 4. The answer returned by the evil spirit is the answer which every age will return to professional necromancers and moralists (vers. 15, 16). These seven sons of Sceva are living today. Here is one of them. A man who indulges himself in some way and then seeks to exorcise the spirit of intemperance in others. The seven sons of Sceva have seven sisters, and the whole fourteen of them are living today. They are living, for example, in that person who reproves worldliness and practises religious vanity. There is a religious worldliness as well as a worldliness that does not debase the name of religion by calling it in as a qualification. Shall we who have a beam in our eyes be preaching about the mote that is in the eyes of other men? You will hurl the ten commandments at the head without effect if you do not go along with them. The world can laugh even at Christian theology when marked out in abstract propositions, but when theology is incarnated in personal godliness the age will begin to wonder, and may end in prayer. (J. Parker, D. D.)
1. Man's craving for the supernatural. Under the shadow of Diana superstitions were rife, and priests and miracle workers abounded. Man feels that he has a relation to something deeper than the earth beneath and higher than the sky above him. 2. Accommodation in the work of Christian propagandism. The apostle, on entering Ephesus, meets the tendency of the inhabitants by performing miracles. As Moses met the magicians of Egypt on their own ground, confounding them by the supernatural, so Paul now confronts and confounds the deluded supernaturalists of Ephesus. This extraordinary narrative presents to us a spurious Christianity. I. As in IMPIOUS MIMICRY OF THE DIVINE (ver. 13, 14). These "exorcists" witnessed the marvels that the apostle had wrought, and they impiously tried their hands at the same. The work they imitated was Divine — 1. In its object. Paul had expelled evil spirits; and this was the grand work of Christianity. Christ came to "destroy the works of the devil." 2. In its method. Paul accomplished his work in the "name of Jesus Christ." He never attempted it in his own power. As in the case of these exorcists, a spurious Christianity is ever a mimicry of the Divine. It has two distinctive forms in Christendom — the naturalistic and the ritualistic. Now, a spurious Christianity imitates the Divine both in the object and the method. II. AS THE INDIGNANT SCORN OF HELL (ver. 15). The evil spirit is here spoken of as a person distinct from the man. We may infer, therefore — 1. That hell knows and respects Christ and His true followers. "Jesus I know" (Mark 1:23). He encountered and conquered our leader in the wilderness, and bruised his head upon the Cress. And "Paul I know." I know he is an earnest and successful preacher of the faith he once endeavoured to destroy. Not a word does this evil spirit say either against Jesus or Paul. 2. That hell despises and avenges religious pretenders. "Who are ye? What right have you to use that wonderful name at which we tremble?" Hell has no respect for its own emissaries. Not only does the evil spirit express its indignation and contempt, but wreaks vengeance on the head of the pretenders (ver. 16). This incidents suggests —(1) That the efforts of a spurious Christianity only increase the force of evil. The evil spirit in the man seemed to get new strength from the efforts of the exorcists. That which is not the genuine gospel gives strength to the devil. "He that is not with Me is against Me."(2) That heaven employs evil to punish evil. The sinner is the tormentor of the sinner everywhere, and forever. III. AS DIVINELY OVERRULED FOR GOOD (ver. 20). The narrative shows three useful results. 1. A popular excitement in favour of the true. "And fear fell on them all." Much is done for truth when the general mind of the community is excited towards it. There is a sad tendency to run in old ruts, or sleep on the stagnant thoughts of ancestors. Sometimes, as in the case before us, the abominations of a spurious Christianity have so broken forth upon the public mind as to startle it from its slumbers, and to excite it into earnest inquiry after the truth. Witness Popery in the days of Luther. 2. An open profession of Christian faith (ver. 18). Like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, they were secret disciples. They had not sufficient moral courage to declare convictions repugnant to popular belief. This event, however, brought them to a crisis. 3. A Conscientious renunciation of evil practices. The force of conscience is seen —(1) In the sacrifice of secular interest. Let England's conscience be Divinely touched, and many of her trades, crafts, and callings will go off in flame.(2) In the outrage on historic feeling. They were associated with many a tender name, and with many a thrilling event in life, Notwithstanding that, conscience would have them go. Conclusion: This subject urges several important facts upon our attention — 1. That evil spirits are amongst men. Are not men possessed when they live the irrational, immoral, and ungodly? 2. That evil spirits must be expelled. Whoever does it is the philanthropist, the saviour. 3. That evil spirits can only be expelled by genuine faith in the name of Christ. The exorcists failed because they pronounced that name and had no faith in it. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
1. Idolatry. 2. Superstition. 3. Infidelity. 4. Dissipation. II. THERE ARE EXPEDIENTS FORMED TO COUNTERACT AND DEPOSE THEM, WHICH ONLY PROVOKE THEIR CONTEMPT. 1. Education. 2. Legislation. 3. Art. 4. Science. III. NEVERTHELESS, MEANS OF RESISTING THEM EXIST WHICH THEY COMPREHEND AND DREAD. (R. W. Hamilton, D. D.)
I. THE REALITY OF SPIRITUAL INFLUENCES, GOOD AND BAD. 1. It was believed in Ephesus, and all through the ancient world, and there must have been some foundation for this belief. 2. This fact is demonstrated by the miracles of Christ and His apostles. II. THERE IS MANIFEST DELIVERANCE FROM THE EVIL POWER IN THE NAME OF CHRIST. 1. Men have tried various expedients in vain. 2. The name of Jesus has never been known to fail. 3. We shall have deliverance as we put ourselves under its protection. (Bp. S. Wilberforce.)
I. TO ALL WHO USE RELIGION AT SECOND HAND. 1. How much of mere hearsay there is in the greatest concerns. Jesus is "Jesus whom Mr. So-and-so preaches," or of whom men have learned in childhood. 2. How much of religion is a matter of proxy. II. TO ALL WHO USE RELIGION FOR SELFISH ENDS. 1. The politician who makes religion the stalking-horse behind which he aims at other things. 2. The theologian anxious to carry his point. 3. The bigoted sectarian, who will do anything for his religion but live it. III. TO ALL WHO TRY TO INFLUENCE OTHERS BY A RELIGION WHICH DOES NOT INFLUENCE THEMSELVES. 1. Worldly statesmen who use Christianity as a sort of moral police to hold a fretful realm in awe. 2. Ungodly parents who are wishful to keep their children from bad ways. 3. Preachers and teachers from whom the evil spirit is not exorcised. IV. TO ALL WHO TRY TO CONJURE WITH RELIGION AS IF IT WERE A SORT OF MAGIC. 1. People who use the Divine book as though it were a divining book. 2. Mere ritualists and sacramentarians. (H. Osborne.)
2. Rich and luxurious Ephesus was the stronghold of evil; the prince of this world held it as the very centre of his kingdom, and against him God set forth, by the hand of St. Paul, the special might of the Holy Spirit. Here, as upon some conspicuous theatre, the mighty contest raged. 3. Whether the powers of evil knew that in Christ, as the champion of humanity, the great battle must be fought, or whether the instincts of their nature were roused into a trembling energy by His appearance, we know not; but it is clear that about the time of the Advent they exerted an unusual amount of power over the bodies and spirits of men. 4. Against these powers a remedy had been found among the Jews in the use of the name of Jehovah; and so there had sprung up a class of men who professed (and sometimes, it would seem, with success, from our Lord's words, "By whom do your sons cast them out?") to counteract the workings of the evil one. And just as Simon Magus perceived the wonderful effect of the laying on of the apostle's hands, and was led to strive to possess the same power, so was it with these men. Their own employment of the name of Jehovah would make them readily perceive that St. Paul drew his strength from the name of Christ; while their feeble and uncertain success would contrast strongly, in their own eyes, with the surpassing might with which he wrought. And so they were led to look at Christianity mainly as a system of powers against outward evils, and to use it as a means of effecting these wonders to obtain either influence or gain. 5. Now this was the very opposite to the whole course of St. Paul. The essence of Christianity to him was to know Christ and to find peace in Him, and not the power of working miracles. But knowing Christ, he had found power to heal others, as Christ had healed him: he had found Christ first for his own salvation, and then he spoke of what he had found himself; and these powers had come out of themselves. 6. Now look at the contrast. The sons of Sceva, not knowing Christ for their own salvation, His name, in their mouths, only stirred up to a higher flood tide of wrath these spirits of darkness. Instead of being able to curb it through the name of Christ, they were hurried helplessly along by it. The man, in the paroxysm of their working, leapt upon them, so that they "fled out of that house naked and wounded." 7. This irreverent attempt, with its frightful issue, produced its natural effect upon all those who heard or saw it. These powers could not thus be trifled with. They were not merely matters of wonder, things to use for earthly purposes; they were not the fantastic tricks of a marvel monger, but they were indications of the nearness of the Almighty, with whom it was very fearful to have really to do. And so a searching self-examination sprung up among those upon whom this fear fell, and many became real seekers after Christ. 8. Now these events were no accidental peculiarities of that time; they point to a deep and an abiding evil inclination of men's hearts. Let us, therefore, ask ourselves this question, Are we free from this evil typified in these sons of Sceva, the essence of whose sin was using the name of Christ as a means of obtaining power, instead of seeking to know Christ for themselves as the Healer and portion of their own souls? I. Take its plainest exhibition: HOW DO THEY DIFFER FROM THEM WHO IN THE MINISTRY OF CHRIST'S CHURCH SEEK, WITHOUT KNOWING CHRIST FOR THEMSELVES, TO WIELD AS TO OTHERS THE POWERS OF THE KINGDOM OF HIS GRACE? Surely in those who seek to minister that gospel, of which they do not partake, the fearful character of the sons of Sceva is plain enough to everyone amongst us. II. LOOK AT THE BROAD FEATURES OF OUR OWN NATIONAL AND POLITICAL LIFE AND SEE IF WE MAY NOT SEE THE WORKING OF THIS EVIL. Are there not whole bodies of men manifestly without any governing principles of religion for themselves, yet believe Christianity so far as to think it an excellent thing for governing a nation, and preserving it in social order and in political quiet? And what is written, in broad characters, as the result of this but the same discomfiture? — for what more certainly tends to spread a universal infidelity than this unreal spirit of Christianity? — as if it were something good for others, but something which has no internal reality for ourselves. III. If this evil is plainly to be read in the features of our public life, IS OUR PRIVATE LIFE MUCH MORE FREE FROM IT? Are there not heads of families who think Christianity an excellent thing because it will keep their families respectable? Are there not masters who wish their servants to be religious enough to be good servants, but who know nothing themselves of Christ and of His salvation? And must not the effect of all this be a very shameful discomfiture now, just as it was of old? You only stir up evil that you cannot deal with. Servants, children, they see through all this. How do the rebellious appetites and sinful vanities of your children, as they grow up, laugh to scorn this ineffective and unmeaning resistance to their sway! And then this unreality brings a deadly wound upon themselves. We get so used to all the wonders of redemption, that nothing affects us. To such everything is a trick to play, and not a verity to be realised. IV. And there is a form of this evil still more subtle, WHEN A MAN CALLS ALL THESE POWERS OVER HIMSELF, and not upon other people — when he seeks to heal certain great evils in his own character. How many a man is seeking for the self-command, the courtesy, the intellectual power, or the power of influencing others, which Christianity bestows, for themselves; not seeking to know that his name is written in the book of life, and then knowing that the evil spirit will be subject to him, but seeking to have the evil spirit subject to him for itself, instead of seeking that he may know Christ. What is this but a man calling over his own spirit the name of a Saviour that he does not know? And so this man, too, becomes the sport of the enemy. Sometimes through mighty moral storms, which break in upon him, just when he thinks that he has become decent, some old temptation breaks out upon him, and hurries him away into open iniquity Sometimes there is a mysterious spiritual working in the man, and he becomes a mere empty formalist; or perhaps he sinks into the depths of despair, because he gets a perception that there is no reality, after all, in this work that he thought was going on within him. Conclusion: Now if these dangers are so common, what is the cure of them? Rest contented with nothing short of knowing Christ for yourself, as Him who is working salvation for you and in you. And then seek to use the powers which He thus gives you, as one who has his mission from Christ. And then, lastly, spend yourselves in working for Him. (Bp. S. Wilberforce.)
1. Their attention would be excited by the prophecies respecting an illustrious One destined to put their forces to the rout. 2. They soon identified Christ as the predicted conqueror. 3. They knew Him by the reverses they suffered through His passion. II. VIRTUE IS RESPECTABLE AND VICE DESPICABLE, EVEN IN HELL. "Jesus I know," etc. III. ARTIFICE CANNOT CHARM THE DEVIL OUT OF HUMANITY. 1. Satanic power yields only to Omnipotence. 2. Satan scorns exorcists, of whatever arts. IV. GOD EMPLOYS DEVILS TO HUMBLE THE ARROGANCE OF WICKEDNESS. (J. A. Macdonald.)
I. ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF CHRIST. "Jesus I acknowledge." The word implies the knowledge which produces emotion. What this was it is easy to say. 1. Fear. This was produced —(1) By what he knew of Christ in the past eternity, when He beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.(2) By what he felt of Christ's power in his lifetime, as come to destroy the works of the devil.(3) By what he anticipated at His hands when the final judgment should arrive (James 2:19). 2. Reverence and subjection (Matthew 8:29; Mark 1:24; Mark 5:7; Luke 6:41; Luke 8:28). He knew too well the might of that terrible name not to respect it, and not to feel that he was impotent against its spell. II. ACQUAINTANCE WITH PAUL. "Paul I am acquainted with." He had full reason to be. 1. Paul was once possessed with a devil himself, and did the devil's work well. And past experience of the efforts of so valuable a servant led Satan to strive to enslave him again (2 Corinthians 12:7 was written soon after this, and may refer to his Ephesian experience). 2. Paul was the devil's most powerful and victorious opponent. It was his success that led to the change of tactics on the part of Satan's own emissaries. III. CONTEMPT FOR THEM. "Who are ye?" This has now passed into a current phrase for expressing the utmost scorn. "Who are you?" is sufficient to cover a man with confusion. "Who are ye that ye should dare to work without our authority and against our dominion, and purely for your own ends." This estimate of hell and its own devotees is not without significance. Conclusion: In view of all this — 1. Let the Christian —(1) Be encouraged. The devil acknowledges Christ, who is more than equal to Satan's efforts in heathenism, worldliness, infidelity, dee.(2) Be on his guard. The devil is acquainted with him, knows his worth, and will entangle him again in his toils if he can.(3) Be tranquil. Satan's servants may appear very grand and powerful; but what does their own master think of them? 2. Let the impostor learn —(1) The folly of imposture. It can deceive neither God nor the devil.(2) The limits of imposture. It may proceed just as far as the devil will permit.(3) The punishment of imposture. Contempt and punishment at the devil's own hands. (J. W. Burn.)
II. III. (K. Gerok.)
I. THE NATURE OF CONVERSION. It is not conviction. A man may be convinced and yet carry his "bosom sin" with him unto the end of life; but conversion implies an inward change, so that sin is cast away as our most bitter enemy. Conversion does not change the original faculties of the soul. Whether a man be of a sanguine nature, or cool and calculative, it does not change Otis, but sanctifies the whole man for the service of Christ. Balaam was convinced but not converted. II. THE SIGNS OF TRUE CONVERSION. Anxious people often ask, "How can I know that I am converted?" Our Saviour answers this, "By their fruits ye shall know them." 1. By a spirit of prayerfulness. Christ said of Saul, after his conversion, "Behold he prayeth." 2. By joining in Christian fellowship. "Like seeks like," "similar natures meet." If a man is converted he will seek the fellowship of Christians.(3) By forsaking evil ways. These exorcists rejoiced to see the "books" which had been a snare and a curse to them destroyed by the flames. The things which were "gain" to them they "counted loss for Christ."(4) By delight in God's Word. III. THE NECESSITY OF CONVERSION. It is necessary — 1. In order to be happy. 2. In order to be useful in Christ's vineyard. 3. In order to attain heaven at last. (F. Samuel.)
1. Believes. These Ephesians, like many in the midst of heathendom today, were convinced of the errors of paganism and the truth of Christianity, but no more. And in the midst of Christendom multitudes are believers simply in the sense of accepting the facts and doctrines of the gospel as Divine. 2. Professes, or no one would know that he is a believer. Not indeed voluntarily, except that he does many things that real Christians do — goes to Church, and perhaps to the sacrament. If asked, he says without hesitation that he is a Christian. 3. But this faith and profession are merely superficial, and cover an unrenewed heart and an inconsistent life. The concealment is sometimes successful, and many a nominal Christian passes for a real one, as here apparently — for these Ephesians had to "show" their deeds. But the covering is very thin and may frequently be seen through by men, and always by God. II. THE NOMINAL CHRISTIAN BECOMING REAL. 1. By a heart faith. The fact of their coming shows that their believing had become a far deeper and more influential act than intellectual assent. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." 2. By confession of the fact of sin instead of the profession of the fiction of Christianity. "With the mouth confession is made of salvation," and the confessor thereby evinces his desire for the real thing instead of the sham. 3. By self-exposure of the real state of heart and life. They "shewed their deeds." This was — (1) (2) III. THE REAL CHRISTIAN — 1. Believes. But instead of merely assenting to the generally received doctrine, having refused a saving trust in Christ, he now lives by faith. 2. He confesses Christ instead of professing an adherence to the Christian religion. 3. He shows his deeds which are in conformity with his faith and confession. (J. W. Burn.)
I. WHAT SHALL WE SAY ABOUT THESE CURIOUS ARTS? 1. It is coming to be regarded as a natural thing that there should be an unnatural and untruthful inflation of the market at one time, and then an equally unnatural and untruthful depression at another time; and men who call themselves business men actually lay themselves out to produce such artificial conditions. In other words, this is nothing more or less than a fashionable and a gentleman-like way of picking pockets. There are many men who steal besides those that pick pockets in the street. When a man induces a false conviction with regard to the value of an article, or depreciates it with a view to his own emolument, what is he doing? He is lying; and is making a confession that he is not a business man, because he cannot trust himself to do business with his compeers in commercial life on honourable terms. 2. Another curious art is practised by those most obliging persons who sell goods under cost price. And then, when you look behind the scenes and enter the secret arcanum of this god Mammon, and ask how it is possible, you make the discovery that it is in order that Mr. Smith may undersell Mr. Jones, so that when Jones is got out of the way, Smith can run up his prices to whatever he pleases. And this clever trick is called business. Endeavour to present to yourselves the moral condition of a man who deliberately plots the commercial overthrow of an honester man than himself, in order that he may get the trade that would naturally flow into that man's hands. No man can worship a god without running the risk of becoming as bad as the god he worships. "They that make them are like unto them." 3. It seems to me a very curious thing that in the same place the same article should be sold at half-a-dozen different prices. "Will you buy some tea of me?" said a commercial traveller to an old friend who kept a small shop. "Oh," he said, "thank you, but I can't do it, sir; I buy all my tea at one place and at one price." "But," said the other, "I see here marked up in your window all sorts of different prices. Surely there must be different kinds of tea." "Not a bit, my dear sir. I buy all my tea in the lump, at one and eightpence a pound, and then I put my tickets on it, and some passes for four-shilling tea, some for three and sixpence, and some for three shillings, and everybody is satisfied." Ingenious trick, isn't it? Quite worthy of those ancient necromancers and their wonderful books of mystery. II. I WONDER WHAT ALL THESE TRICKS LOOK LIKE IN THE EYES OF HIM BEFORE WHOM WE ARE ALL GOING TO STAND BY AND BY? No, I don't think I wonder at all. Ah! is He gazing down upon man whom He has made in His own image, in order that He may raise him to Himself, and sees man stooping to this degraded condition? How the heart of the great Father must bleed and must needs yearn over us as He sees this deteriorating process going still forward in men whose business, instead of being a blessing to them, is their bane. III. OUR TEXT BRINGS BEFORE US A VERY REMARKABLE TRANSACTION. I wish I could see it emulated in modern commerce. Some of the Ephesians were pursuing their commercial career and making money out of it. There comes into the town of Ephesus a stranger. This stranger preaches a new God, who is going to be the Judge of quick and dead, and that He offers Himself as the Saviour of all who will have Him. This stranger proclaims a higher morality, and tells the people that they will be better without their sins. And as the result of it, these professional men who had been making very large sums of money out of their books, made a great bonfire of them. Men of business, choose between your curious arts and your souls. IV. WHAT IS IT THAT ENABLES THESE MEN TO TAKE THIS DECISIVE MEASURE? "Many of them that believed." They had found something better than the chicaneries of deceit, and hence they were content to renounce the hidden things of darkness, because there is something better than the hidden things of darkness — the open things of light, In the conscious apprehension of the one, they were content to turn their backs upon the other. (W. Hay Aitken, M. A.)
II. WHEN MEN FORSAKE SIN, THEY OUGHT TO BREAK EVERY BRIDGE BEHIND THEM. After a man is once across the Red Sea, farewell Egypt forever. A man that has been overtaken by great sins ought to create an enmity between himself and those sins, so that there shall be no danger of their ever again coming together. Men who have committed themselves to goodness, should come out earnestly, publicly, and instantly, and "show their hand." There is no middle course that is safe — certainly none that is manly. What would you think of a gambler, who, having repented, should store away his instruments, saying, "I do not intend to touch these things again; but still, the time may come when I shall think differently; and I will keep them"? And yet a great many people keep their old sins warm, while they go to try on virtue, and see if they like it. Such a reformation as this is a sham. III. WHERE MEN HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN VERY GUILTY AND GREAT SINS, THEY OWE SOMETHING MORE TO RELIGION THAN MERELY TO CHANGE FROM SIN TO VIRTUE. 1. There is often the necessity of reparation. A man may have wronged a fellow man by his tongue; and it is necessary, if he is going to be a Christian, that that shall be all repaired. A man may have a quarrel, that quarrel must come to an end. A man may be high and obstinate; he must come down and confess, "I was wrong, and I give up the transgression wholly." It may be that a man has been living on illgotten gains. No matter if it makes a beggar of him, he must make reparation, and give them up. IV. REPENTANCE IN DIFFERENT MEN MUST BE A VERY DIFFERENT THING. Although it is, generally speaking, turning from sin to righteousness, yet this is a very different thing in different persons, as we see (Luke 3) and its effects from John's preaching. When men repent, the sign of repentance will be according to the way in which they have been sinning. For instance, if a returned pirate should present himself to me for admission to my Church, I should demand of him a very different confession of sin from that which I should demand from an ordinary moral man. (H. W. Beecher.)
2. What books and newspapers shall we read? Shall our minds be the receptacle of everything that an author has a mind to write? Shall there be no distinction between the tree of life and the tree of death? Standing, as we do, chin deep in fictitious literature, the first question that many of the young people are asking me is, "Shall we read novels?" I reply, There are novels that are pure, good, Christian, elevating to the heart and ennobling to the life. But I believe that ninety-nine out of one hundred are destructive to the last degree. Stand aloof from all books — I. THAT GIVE FALSE: PICTURES OF HUMAN LIFE. If you depended upon much of the literature of the day, you would get the idea that life, instead of being something earnest, practical, is a fitful and fantastic and extravagant thing. A man who gives himself up to the indiscriminate reading of novels will be nerveless, inane, and a nuisance. He will be fit neither for the store, nor the shop, nor the field. A woman who gives herself up to the indiscriminate reading of novels will be unfitted for the duties of wife, mother, sister, daughter. II. WHICH, WHILE THEY HAVE SOME GOOD THINGS ABOUT THEM, HAVE ALSO AN ADMIXTURE OF EVIL. You have read books that had the two elements in them — the good and the bad. Which stuck to you? The bad! The heart of most people is like a sieve, which lets the small particles of gold fall through, but keeps the great cinders. Once in a while there is a mind like a loadstone, which, plunged amid steel and brass filings, gathers up the steel and repels the brass. But it is generally just the opposite. If you attempt to plunge through a hedge of burrs to get one blackberry, you will get more burrs than blackberries. You cannot afford to read a bad book, however good you are. Alas, if through curiosity, as many do, you pry into an evil book, your curiosity is as dangerous as that of the man who should take a torch into a gunpowdermill merely to see whether it would really blow up or not. III. WHICH CORRUPT THE IMAGINATION AND INFLAME THE PASSIONS. Today, under the nostrils of your city, there is a fetid, reeking, unwashed literature, enough to poison all the fountains of public virtue. IV. WHICH ARE APOLOGETIC OF CRIME. It is a sad thing that some of the best and most beautiful book bindery, and some of the finest rhetoric, has been brought to make sin attractive. Vice is a horrible thing. Do not paint it as looking from behind embroidered curtains, or through lattice of royal seraglio, but as writhing in the agonies of a city hospital. Cursed be the books that try to make impurity decent, and crime attractive, and hypocrisy noble! Cursed be the books that swarm with libertines and desperadoes, who make the brain of the young people whirl with villainy! Ye authors who write them, ye publishers who print them, ye booksellers who distribute them, though you may escape in this world, those whom you have destroyed will come around to torment you, and to pour hotter coals of fury upon your head, and rejoice eternally in the outcry of your pain and the howl of your damnation. V. THE LASCIVIOUS PICTORIAL LITERATURE OF THE DAY IS MOST TREMENDOUS FOR RUIN. These death warrants of the soul are at every street corner. There may be enough poison in one bad picture to poison one soul, and that soul may poison ten, and ten fifty, and the fifty hundreds, and the hundreds thousands, until nothing but the measuring line of eternity can tell the height, and depth, and ghastliness, and horror of the great undoing. At a newsstand one can guess the character of a man by the kind of:pictorial he purchases. Whern the devil fails to get a man to read a bad book, he sometimes succeeds in getting him to look at a bad picture. VI. CHERISH GOOD BOOKS AND NEWSPAPERS. Beware of the bad ones. One column may save your soul; one paragraph may ruin it. Benjamin Franklin said that the reading of "Cotton Mather's Essay on Doing Good" moulded his entire life. The assassin of Lord Russell declared that he was led into crime by reading one vicious romance. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)
2. These people burnt their own books. Now, I suppose you have seen some books burned by the owner when they have been of no value. But that was not the reason why these people burnt their books. 3. They burnt costly books. Dean Alford, I think, tells us these must have been worth about £1,750, and Dean Howson says that they must have cost about £2,000. 4. They burnt them because they had found that they were all false. More than that — for I have no doubt they had found that out before now — they had believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and become His disciples, and felt that they could not be both Christians and soothsayers. They must, as disciples of Christ, do away with their old evil habits, and burn their old books. 5. They burnt them openly — "in the sight of all." But why did they not burn them quietly, on their own hearths at home? Now, some of us would have done that, so that nobody might laugh at us, and especially that nobody we had deceived might get very angry, and say, "I have been paying you so much money for what turns out to be a mere sham." Observe that Luke tells that "some" did this. I have no doubt that there were others facing both ways, who tried to keep the books and at the same time to be Christians. 6. In conclusion, the people did all promptly and thoroughly. They did not hesitate, or stop short, until every book was burnt. They were in right earnest. Now, I have talked about all this in order just to bring a simple lesson home to you. No doubt you, too, have something to burn for the sake of Jesus Christ. Surely many of you profess to love Him. He exclaims to you, "If ye love Me, keep My commandments." But if you keep His commandments you have lots of little things to burn up. It may be some nasty little habit. Give up that lazy disposition, or the Lord Jesus will not own you. There are plenty of hypocrites in the world who pretend to be Christ's, and yet cling to their old sinful lives. Now I have no doubt you will say that Ephesus would be much poorer in books after this burning. No. Ephesus was far richer in books after this than ever it was before. Let us see. There was the Eplisle of Paul to the Ephesians; again there were the writings of John the Beloved. All these were given to Ephesus in return for the bad books which were burnt there. God always makes up for the losses we incur by seeking to please Him. And every act of this sort not only blesses us, but also others who see it. (D. Davies.)
I. SOME CLASSES OF BOOKS WHICH ARE SOURCES OF CORRUPTION. 1. Those that wage open warfare against religion. Many of this class are written with ability, are specious, misleading, and almost sure to corrupt religious principles, and fill the heart with bitterness. 2. The licentious and impure. While not written with the same avowed design, they are more hurtful to society. Some of this class are the vehicles of grossest impurity; others, like the sheet let down before Peter, are full of all manner of beasts, but the unclean prevail. Genius is perverted from its high office. Fielding, Smeller, Sterne, Moore, Byron are proud names in the literary annals of the world; but instead of "food for the mind" they but minister poison to the heart. 3. Works of imagination and fiction. In this we include novels and plays. Not all of them, for some of this class are pure and good. But the mass of them fail to beget hatred of sin and love of virtue. They inflame evil passions, vitiate true tastes, corrupt sound morals, and create false, pernicious ideals and types of life. II. HOW THESE SEVERAL CLASSES OF BOOKS WORK SUCH EVIL. 1. They waste much precious time. 2. They create a disrelish for serious reading. Good and pure and truthful books become insipid, dull, intolerable to the constant readers of such classes as we have condemned. 3. They inevitably undermine the principles of morality, individual and social, and thereby corrupt the fountain of virtue. 4. They war against the spiritual interest of the soul, and thereby destroy for eternity as well as for time.Conclusion: Our subject — 1. Furnishes a solemn rebuke to those who, for paltry gain, write, print and sell such works, which they know are adapted to waste the time, pervert the tastes, corrupt the morals and ruin the souls of men. 2. Solemnly urges upon parents and instructors of youth the duty of seeing that they are amply supplied with proper "food for the mind," and never indulge in such as tends to corrupt and destroy. (M. W. Dwight, D. D.)
1. Assail the truth of Christianity. 2. Oppose its holiness. 3. Destroy its temper. II. THE DANGER WHICH ATTENDS THE INDISCIRIMINATE USE OF SUCH BOOKS arises from the fact that — 1. The human mind is naturally sceptical. 2. The human heart naturally licentious. 3. The human temper naturally trifling. (J. Blackburn.)
I. FOR THE PROPER BOOKS. 1. These are not works of exact science, noble poetry, or human law. 2. They are the pernicious fugitive pieces of a frivolous superficial knowledge, the seductive works of an impure light literature, and the arrogant decrees of an anti-Christian tyranny of the conscience. II. WITH THE PROPER FIRE. 1. This is not the gloomy glow of a narrow puritanism, nor the sullen fire of a condemnatory fanaticism, nor the incendiary torch of a revolution. 2. This is the holy fire of a repentance which thinks especially of its sins and wants; of a love to the Lord, which joyfully sacrifices to Him whatever is most costly; and of a zeal for God's house which desires nothing else than that His Kingdom may come, as in churches, houses and hearts, so also in the state, arts and sciences. (K. Gerok.)
I. It is said, "THEY BELIEVED" — they believed the gospel which St. Paul preached, and, believing this, they betook themselves to Jesus, that they might be saved by Him. But we cannot betake ourselves to Jesus except we first renounce and forsake those ways and practices which are contrary to Him. This, then, these Ephesians did. They came to the apostle, and confessed their sins, and showed their evil deeds. They did not attempt to excuse themselves, to put a better face upon their past life than it deserved. And this everyone must do who would turn to God in good earnest. Remember, then, that confession is one of the very first steps to be taken, if we would obtain forgiveness and enjoy the blessing of a conscience at peace with God and at peace with itself. "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." Ordinarily we do best to begin with confession. And, no doubt, besides the greater and more heinous sins of our lives, which we have good need to acknowledge with shame, and as the Christian does come short hourly of that standard at which he aims, so it is his wisdom as; well as his duty to confess his shortcomings as minutely and particularly as he can. A man may confess in a general way that he is a sinner, and yet blind his eyes to this or that particular sin to which he is addicted, and so continue in it for all his confession. And this shows the importance of self-examination, as at other times, so especially before our set prayers. But, after all, even confession is not enough. It is, too, possible for a man to confess his sins and yet for all this to continue in his sins. In fact the confession may be used as a sort of cloak, by which a man persuades himself that he is penitent. These Ephesian converts not only confessed their sins, but they forsook them; nay, they not only forsook them, but they put away from them the occasions which led to them, and the instruments by which they practised them. And to show that it was no cheap sacrifice which they were making, the value of them, it was found, was no less than fifty thousand pieces of silver. Well, indeed, might the sacred writer add, after giving this account, "So mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed." It was a very strong testimony indeed to the sincerity of these converts, and to the power with which the Word of God had laid hold of them. Their conduct was an open confession of the change which had taken place in their views and feelings. But, further, the burning of their books shows the resolution which the Ephesian converts had formed never to return to the use of those arts again to which the books ministered. They had no misgivings in their minds; as though, after all, they might possibly at some future time take a different view of their former course and of the religion they had adopted from what they now did. Their minds were made up. Nor was this all. As far as in them lay they cut off the possibility of a return. It is said of a great captain of former times, that on one occasion when he went with his army to make war upon an enemy's country, he set fire to his ships as soon as his army was landed, that both he and they might feel that nothing was left for them but to conquer. They were not even to think of flight or escape. So did these Ephesians by their "curious arts." And in this respect, too, every sincere and earnest convert will tread in their steps. As far as in him lies he will cut off from himself the possibility of a return to his former courses. The things which used to minister to his evil practices he will as much as possible put away from him. If he was given to drunkenness, he will keep out of the way of those places and those companions which used to lead him on to that sin. If bad books or other writings were a cause of stumbling to him, putting into his mind bad thoughts and bad desires, he will put these from him for the future. But someone might have whispered to these Ephesians, "Why burn the books, after all? They cost a great deal of money. Is it not a pity to destroy them? If you do not want them, others may be glad of them, and glad to buy them of you. And, if they take damage in consequence, that is their look-out, not yours. Besides, if they do not get your books, they will most likely get others." But these good men did not allow any such thought to weigh with them. The books were bad books; they would not leave the possibility of their doing further mischief. They had done mischief enough already. People might remind them of the money which they paid for them, and tell them that at any rate it would be enough to lay them by. But they will feel that the true course is to put it out of their power to do further mischief. II. ARE WE FOLLOWING CHRIST WITH LIKE SINCERITY? Are we forsaking and casting away whatever in former times led us astray from God, or served as an instrument of sin? Have we allowed ourselves in anything which God's Word forbids? I know how men are apt to plead for some of these things; how they say, "We cannot, circumstanced as we are, give them up. We have been used to them all our lives. Our living and maintenance depend upon them. If we give them up, yet others will still carry them on. We must trust in God's mercy, and hope that He will make allowance for us." But, no: whoever reasons thus, and casts about for excuses to justify himself in continuing in a course of sin, does by that very fact show that his heart is not right with God. He is not following the Lord fully. God will not own him, let him speak as he will of his faith, and make what profession he will. As Christians we are to give up everything that is contrary to God's law. However dear it may be to us, yea, though it be as a right hand, it is to be cut off, or as a right eye, it is to be plucked out: God can and will make amends for it. (C. A. Heurtley, D. D.)
(W. E. Gladstone.)
(J. W. Lance.)
(T. De Witt Talmage.)
(G. S. Barrett.)
II. WHAT A WISE ACT! By burning these books the magicians consulted their own welfare. Had they put them away, resolving to keep them only as mere literary curiosities, they might have been tempted at some future time to return to their old practices. When duty takes us into places and among persons that are spiritually perilous, we need not fear. God will protect us then. Jesus was "led up of the Spirit into the wilderness"; and left it, unconquered by the Prince of Darkness. But no Divine command or holy impulse moved Achan to the spot where the forbidden treasures lay, hence he was ensnared by them. If we go needlessly into scenes of temptation we must not be surprised if we become its victims. During one stage of his journey, Pilgrim sees a man confined in an iron cage. "I have tempted the devil," he cries, "and he has come to me." Quaintly, but impressively, does one say, "Those who would not fall into the river should beware how they approach too near to its banks. He that crushes the egg need not fear the flight of the bird. He who would not drink of the wine of wrath let him not touch the cup of pleasure. He who would not hear the passing bell of eternal death should not finger the rope of sin. A person who carries gunpowder about him can never stand too far from the fire. If we accompany sin one mile, it will compel us to go twain. The fable saith: 'That the butterfly inquired of the owl how she should do with the candle which had singed her wings. The owl counselled her not so much as to behold the smoke.' If you hold the stirrup, no wonder Satan gets into the saddle." III. WHAT A BENEVOLENT ACT! They were worthy of all praise in burning the books, because, in the course of time, the books might have fallen into the hands of others, and instigated them to sorcery. The lesson is palpable. We should try to keep others from the evil into which we have once been led. Suppose a man obtains his livelihood by occupation which is clearly injurious to society. If converted, his duty is to abandon it. IV. WHAT A BLESSED ACT! Yes, God blessed it. The magicians had a compensation. They burned books for Christ, and they received books from Him — Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, and the letter from the Saviour "to the angel of the Church at Ephesus." Thus is it always. None serve Christ without rich remuneration. (T. R. Stevenson.)
(W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
(A. Barnes, D. D.) They counted the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. — The coin referred to was the Attic drachma, usually estimated at about 81/2d. of English money, and the total amount answers, accordingly, to £1,770 17s. 6d., as the equivalent in coin. In its purchasing power, as determined by the prevalent rate of wages (a denarius or drachma for a day's work), it was probably equivalent to a much larger sum. Such books fetched what might be culled "fancy" prices, according to their supposed rareness, or the secrets to which they professed to introduce. Often, it may be, a book was sold as absolutely unique. (Dean Plumptre.)
2. Past triumphs of the gospel may be use:! as encouragements. 3. We, too, shall see the Word of God grow and prevail, for — (1) (2) (3) (4) 4. The trophies of victory may be expected to be the same. Men, magic, books, and the love of money shall all be subdued. Let us turn aside to see — I. THE WORD OF GOD PLANTED. Planted it was, or it could not have grown. The work proceeded in the following fashion: 1. Certain disciples were further enlightened, aroused, and led to seek a higher degree of grace. This was an admirable beginning, and revivals thus commenced are usually lasting. 2. These became obedient to an ordinance which had been overlooked (ver. 5), and also received the Holy Ghost, of whom they had heard nothing: two great helps to revival. 3. A bold ministry proclaimed and defended the truth. 4. Opposition was aroused. This is always a needful sign. God is not at work long without the devil working also. 5. Deceitful counterfeiting commenced, and was speedily ended in the most remarkable manner. 6. Paul preached, pleaded, made the gospel to sound forth, and on departing could say, "I am pure from the blood of all men." Read this and the following chapter, and see how three years were well spent in planting the Church at Ephesus. II. THE WORD OF GOD GROWING. The measure of it was seen — 1. In a Church formed with many suitable elders. 2. In a neighbourhood fully aware of the presence of the gospel among them, for it touched them practically; so much so, that important trades were affected. 3. In a people converted, and openly confessing their conversion. 4. In a general respect paid to the faith. Even those who did not obey it yet yielded it homage and owned its power. Here we see Paul's work and God's work. Paul laboured diligently in planting, and God made it to grow: yet it was all of God. Is the Word of God growing among us? If not, why not? It is a living seed, and should grow. It is a living seed, and will grow unless we hinder it. III. THE WORD OF GOD PREVAILING. Growth arouses opposition; but where the Word grows with inward vitality it prevails over outward opposition. The particular proof of prevalence here given is the burning of magical books. 1. Paul does not appear to have dwelt continually upon the evil habit of using magical arts; but gospel light showed the guilt of witchcraft, and Providence cast contempt on it. 2. The sin being exposed, it was confessed by those who had been guilty of it, and by those who had commenced its study. 3. Being confessed, it was renounced altogether, and, though there was no command to that effect, yet in a voluntary zeal of indignation the books were burned. This was right because — (1) (2) (3) 4. Their destruction involved expense, which was willingly incurred, and that expense gave weight to the testimony.Conclusion: 1. No other proof of power in our ministry will equal that which is seen in its practical effect upon our hearers' lives. 2. Will you who attend our preaching see to it that you purge yourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
I. THE BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT (Acts 2:47). The power of the Holy Ghost is the fundamental condition. Without this there can be no life, and therefore no growth. This is the supreme ministerial qualification, and is essential for the conviction and conversion of hearers, and for the constant quickening of the Church. II. THE PURIFICATION OF THE CHURCH (Acts 5:14). All the gifts that were poured into the Church treasury might have been vitiated by the presence of Ananias and Sapphira. Achan's presence troubled Israel, and Jonah's the mariners, so the Church sometimes suffers through its neglect of discipline. Better to brave the anger of the rich and influential than that the Word of God should be bound. III. FULL CONSECRATION TO MINISTERIAL WORK (Acts 6:7). We can well believe how the apostles were hampered by undertaking all the minute details of Church administration, and how a progressive impulse would be given when laymen were found work to do. Would that congregations would see how growth is necessarily hindered when ministers are overburdened. Whatever interferes with pulpit efficiency assuredly interferes with the progress of the work of God. A thoughtful and cooperative laity is much to be desired. IV. PROVIDENT INTERPOSITIONS FAVOURABLE TO THE CHURCH (chap. Acts 12:24). Peter was miraculously delivered from prison and Herod as miraculously removed. When hindrances are taken away, and gospel agencies liberated, no wonder the "Word of God grows and multiplies." Providence often interposes now in the opening of hitherto closed doors, and in the liberation of men and money for the work. Yet how often are these interpositions allowed to pass by unheeded! What are our commercial supremacy and colonial extension, the progress of the cause of liberty and toleration on the Continent, the results of travel and enterprise, etc., but so many providential interferences in favour of the gospel? V. DARING AGGRESSION. It was a bold thing to attack Ephesus at all, but encouraged by the capture of an outpost, the apostle marched on the very citadel. Here, as almost everywhere, courage was justified by success. Cautious timidity is the very worst policy with such a resolute foe as the devil, and such a scornful foe as the world. From the time of Paul downwards the Church's victories have been won by men who did not know what impossibility meant, but who, trusting in God, feared nothing and expected everything. Conclusion: These conditions of growth were all fulfilled here. 1. The baptism of the Spirit (ver. 6). 2. The purification of the Church (ver. 9). 3. Full ministerial devotion (Acts 20:18-20). 4. Providential interpositions — John's disciples; the school of Tyrannus. (J. W. Burn.)
(Cheyne Brady.)
I. A PRACTICAL BENEFICENCE IN ITS SPIRIT. There is distress in Jerusalem. Paul feels that something must be done for its relief. He communicates it to Timotheus and Erastus, and they feel the same; they go to the Churches of Macedonia and Achaia; they feel also, and relief comes as a matter of course. It was not a subject in those days requiring argument and declamation. In the letter which Paul wrote at this time he indicates the order in which the collection should be made, but uses no argument to enforce the duty (1 Corinthians 16:1-9). This is as it should be. True Christians are all members of one spiritual body; and the feeling of one member should be participated in by the whole. II. AN HEROIC AGGRESSIVENESS IN ITS DISCIPLES. "I must also see Rome." What for? Merely to see it, in order to gratify curiosity, to study the institutions and habits of a wonderful people, to enrich his experience of life, to increase his acquaintance with men and things? No, but to carry the gospel there. His purpose indicates — 1. That Christianity could stand the scrutiny of the most enlightened people. 2. That no intellectual or social advancement can supersede the necessity of the gospel. 3. That evangelisation should have a special regard to the most influential centres of population. III. AN OFFICIAL AUTHORITY AMONGST ITS MINSTERS. Here are Paul, Timotheus, and Erastus, and there is a manifest subordination. Paul is the superior. He "sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him." The authority was not legal or prescriptive, but simply moral. In a society where all minds are spiritually pure, the simple wish of the greatest soul is the greatest law. IV. AN INCIDENTAL ARGUMENT FOR ITS GENUINENESS. In the account which is here given of Paul's purpose to visit Rome, and that which he gives himself years afterwards, there is one of those undesigned coincidences which constitute an incontrovertible argument for the truth of Christianity. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
I. PAUL'S AMBITION was to see Rome, which meant seeing the world in epitome, and every young man who is worth his salt has a similar desire. This ambition — 1. Was of long standing, perhaps formed at school, and developed by intercourse with Priscilla and Aquila, who had lived in Rome. So doubtless it has been your desire ever since you have heard of life's prospects and opportunities. 2. Was strong, and strengthened with the lapse of years. Soon after this he leaves Ephesus for Macedonia, where he hopes (2 Corinthians 10:16) to be able to preach the gospel in the regions beyond. Opportunity served, and he stood at Illyricum with the Adriatic between himself and his ambition, as previously he had stood with the AEgean between himself and Macedonia. But this time there was no call for help. Reaching Corinth, he writes to florae, and chaps, 1 and 16 show how strong his ambition had become. And so your ambition, so far from being weakened by disappointment, has grown deeper with every rebuff. 3. Natural. Consider what Rome was. The mistress of the world: the centre of the most potent civilisation the world has ever known. Even in its ruin nine educated men out of every ten hope to see it before they die. What, then, must Paul, a cultured gentleman of the first century, and withal a Roman citizen, have felt when it was in all its glory? And so it is natural that you should wish to see life, to know something of its business, to influence by speech and vote its politics and to contribute to its thought. 4. Was sanctioned by God. Generally at his conversion, more definitely just before his first missionary journey (Acts 22:21), but the direct sanction was delayed till, strange to say, he was imprisoned at Jerusalem (Acts 23:11), nor was it confirmed until near its actual realisation (Acts 27:24). Twice in his Epistle does he say that it was subordinate to God's will. So it was not mere human craving; what was human in it was by God's approval, and Paul's self- restraint, made Divine. So it is not God's will, perhaps, that you should move in a narrow sphere. Like Paul, make your ambition a matter of earnest prayer, both as to the time and to the method of its achievement. 5. Was subordinated to present duty. He had obligations to discharge in the shape of apostolic visitation, and the collection of funds for the poor, all which was indirectly helpful to the alternate realisation of his wish. Let no young man be in a hurry. An object gained prematurely, and without fitness to handle it, becomes a curse rather than a. blessing. 6. Was achieved in an apparently roundabout way. Paul little thought that the path to Rome lay through Jerusalem. "God moves in a mysterious way," and that way is always the nearest, although we may attempt "short cuts." And. see to it that you take Jerusalem on your way, and, like Paul, identify yourself with the Church. Life is a perilous place without the fear of God, a pronounced profession, and religious associates. II. PAUL'S MOTIVES. Yours, of course, cannot be quite as simple. But there is nothing wrong in seeking personal gain provided something higher is contemplated with and through this. Paul wanted to see Rome that he might — 1. Preach the gospel there. How much this was necessary we see from Romans 1; how much it is still necessary we know. Look, then, upon life as affording an opportunity for testimony for God. Don't be ashamed of your mother's religion in the warehouse or the barracks. Paul was not ashamed of it in wicked, scoffing, cruel Rome. 2. Impart some spiritual gift (Romans 1:11). Act as salt in this corrupt world. Impart to business the spiritual gifts of genuineness and honesty; to literature cleanness and truth; to politics righteousness and the golden role. 3. Fell upon a wider world (Romans 15:24). He felt that if he could regulate the pulsations, and cleanse the diseases of that great heart, a new life current would flow through the world's moral veins. Occupy every new centre as a means of wider usefulness. You will become an employer — let your influence be felt by your employes; you will marry — set up a family altar; when you join a Church don't be a useless log in it. III. PAUL'S REALISATIONS. He saw Rome — but as a prisoner. And there are disappointing circumstances connected with the realisation of the loftiest human ambition. Life will not be all that you expect. You may win station, wealth, and fame, but you will win a cross as well. Did. Paul repine? No. 1. He accepted the circumstances as ordained of God. 2. He regarded them as most favourable for the accomplishment of his supreme desire. Paul might have preached in synagogue or public hall for many years without exerting a tithe of the influence which his military jailers, to whom he spoke one by one, carried through the city (Philippians 1:12, 13; Philippians 4:22). 3. He utilised his enforced leisure in a correspondence which has ever since been amongst the foremost moral forces of the world. Conclusion: Your ambition is to see life. With Christ this ambition is perfectly safe, and the result, though disappointing in some respects, will be of the most glorious character; without Christ the whole result will be disaster, for "what shall it profit a man," etc. (J. W. Burn.)
1. This Roman journey and work no doubt for years entered into Paul's prayers. With each year the purpose evidently grew more intense. The work could never be complete till a Pauline Church flourished at Rome. It was well that his great doctrine of free salvation to all men — to Gentile equally with the Jew — should be accepted in Macedonia, in Corinth, in the wealthy Asian cities like Ephesus and. Colesse, in luxurious, pleasure loving, Syrian Antioch. But to be a doctrine of the world it must be received at Rome, the new Jerusalem of the Christian world. 2. And Paul's prayer was granted. The long "agony" and wrestling with the Holy Spirit was successful. The Lord heard His servant's wish. Paul found himself at Rome; but how, in what position? He dreamed of the warm welcome from the poor but devoted Christians of the Suburra quarter across the Tiber, of the secret support of many a noble Roman lady, of many a patrician who had heard of him from the Chamberlain of Corinth, the Asiarch of Ephesus, possibly from a Sergius Paulus or a Gallio; but what was the reality? He found himself at Rome; but a prisoner, guarded, chained to a soldier; perhaps with a weary captivity, with a life-long slavery in the mines, perhaps with a cruel, violent death before him. These things were Paul's lot in the queen city. But his life dream was realised. He saw Rome, but disappointed. His earnest prayer granted, his life wishes realised, but all so altered with him. Let me anticipate some of the lessons I mean to draw. Many a one of us win our heart's desire, and find it so different to what we hoped, dreamed of, longed for. The man may win his post — the coveted post; he probably will find it full of anxieties, perplexities, cares, even disappointment. He may win wealth, station, high consideration, all those things once he thought so desirable; and with these, perhaps, he will find the hour of health and strength gone, the power of enjoying and even of using the much-coveted possession. Rank, consideration, wealth — gone, hopelessly gone. At Rome, the longed for Rome, like Paul: but, like Paul, a captive, hemmed in, hampered, hindered, bearing about a dying body. Like Paul, he must forget himself; he must set to with the weary work, the restless anxieties, the weak and fading health, and do his best for his Master and his Brother. He must never lose heart, but bravely struggle on. He must, as did Paul, remember it is the Lord's hand leading him. Perhaps he himself has been unwise in coveting the higher post, but he must take up his heavier cross bravely and carry it to the end for his Master's sake uncomplainingly, as did Paul. Are there no women among our worshippers who, in past years, have longed for another, a more stirring, a brighter life; have longed for a home, as it is called, of their own; for husband and children, for a so-called independent life; and finding these, have found many a trouble, many a care, many a sorrow? The Rome they found is very different to the Rome of their girl dreams. How did Paul behave under his heavy sorrow? As a brave Christian should. He braced himself up to new and fresh work. Debarred from those missionary circuits which had done so much in old days, when Ephesus was his headquarters, now comparatively alone and friendless, he did his best. He gathered new congregations as best he could — soldiers, camp followers, court attendants — and spoke his Master's words to these. So passed two years, perhaps more, at Rome — his dream city. Yes; God had heard his prayer. Once more free. Contrary to his expectation evidently, from his sad words in the Philippian letter. He leaves the city associated with so much grief and dread. He had seen Rome, but in chains. Once more free, he hastens away; again the free missionary, but now aged and worn. Three more years of earnest, self-denying, gallant toil for his loved Master. But the shadow of imperial Rome still hangs over the devoted life. The suspicious government now watched him. They looked on him as a ringleader of a dangerous and fanatical sect; as a concealed enemy of the empire. So they seized him again, and again brought him to Rome — after three years. What must have been the aged prisoner's thoughts when a second time he catered the city he has so desired to dwell in and to see — again in chains? Shall we trace his second residence? It only lasted a few months in close and weary captivity. He probably, save on the days of his trial, never saw the blue heavens, till that morning when they led him out beyond the gates to die. Thus Paul's heart's desire was granted, and "he saw Rome."(1) This strange fulfilment of a prayer almost suggests to us that Paul's earnest wish "to see Rome," to lay the ground storeys of a mighty Pauline Church in the great capital, was hardly in accordance with his Master's will; seems as though Paul had not in this particular subordinated his will to his Lord's; for though the prayer was granted it was a fulfilment very different to the end Paul looked for. He won his prayer; but the fulfilment was accompanied with sorrow and anguish.(2) With us we, too, long "to see Rome"; aye, all of us, from the school girl to the grown, trained man, in the power and vigour of his manhood. We all, I think, "long to see." Do we not? On in front we see, like Paul, a dream city, far different to the one in which our lot is cast. What do we want there? Is it gold, or leisure, or power, or pleasure? Do we, in our plans for the future, in our hopes for what will happen "after long years," at all think of the kingdom of God, of the advancement of His glory, of the being able better to help our sister and our brother in their need and trouble, in their sickness and sorrow? Or in our dreamcity of the future do we only, or even chiefly, see our future — ourselves?(3) But then there is another point to consider. Are we wise and prudent? Was Paul wise and prudent, so to pray, so to desire? Could he not have worked on, quiet and contented, doing his Father's business, in the comparative retirement of a provincial city? I will not try and answer this. Each man and woman must put the question to their own hearts and God will whisper to each the answer.(4) The grand lesson which we draw from these little words, which throw, however, so strong a light over many a page of Paul's eventful life is — If you long for great things, for power and opportunity to do great things, see well, look carefully, why you want this power, these opportunities. If the reason be indeed a noble one (but be sure first that it is), then pray for it, live for it, train for it, as did Paul. But remember, it may come to you as it did to Paul, most probably with anxiety, care, trouble, weariness, painfulness. Think well, ye discontented servants of high God, who long for greater things and nobler chances, whether at the price it is worth while to covet other things than those in the midst of which God has fixed your lot. Or whether the wiser, the more prudent, perhaps the better part even in God's eyes, is not to make the best of what you are and where you are. This is to do indeed your Father's business with quiet contentment; and such a life will in the glad end be crowned with the crown He has promised.(5) "I must see Rome." Better, oh, young toiler for bread or honour, better say — far better pray — I must see Jerusalem. Not the desecrated buildings now piled over the shapeless ruins of the old Sion, once the joy of the earth; but I must see the glorious city, the city of God, where the river of life flows from the throne of God and the Lamb; the city where shall be no more curse; the city of eternal day — for the Lord God giveth it light — where His saints shall reign for ever and ever. Pray for this city, agonise for this home. Your Lord has made it ready; your Lord has washed His pilgrims' robes in His own dear blood, that they may enter in forgiven, clothed in white; and then, oh, blessed thought, these will go no more out. (Dean Spence.)
I. WHAT IS MEANT BY "THE WAY." It may refer — 1. To the doctrines of Christianity. Paul's great concern was to show the way of salvation by preaching Christ and Him crucified. He is the way, and no man cometh unto the Father but by Him. This was so uniformly and so constantly the topic of the apostolic ministry, that their preaching soon began to be called "that way," that new and living way, of saving sinners by the cross of Christ. 2. To the way of worship. Spiritual worshippers will be careful to worship God in His own way; not on this mountain or the other. God is a Spirit, etc. Now the way in which primitive believers worshipped was so plain and simple, so fervent and devout, that it seemed like a new and a strange way to the generality. 3. To general practice. The genuine disciples of Jesus not only think differently from the rest of mankind, but their conduct also is marked with peculiarity (1 Peter 4:4). Christians are required to walk not only in the way of believing, but also in the way of God's statutes. II. HOW IT COMES TO PASS THAT SUCH A "STIR" IS MADE ABOUT THIS WAY. Though the religion of Jesus contains the sublimest doctrines, inculcates the purest morals, inspires the most ardent devotion, and is the only religion in the world that can afford relief and comfort to a sinner, yet no sooner did it begin to spread than it occasioned a universal commotion, and the ministers of the gospel were charged with having turned the world upside down. Christ foretold this (Matthew 10:34), and the event justified the prediction. Some were softened, others hardened; some, like Agrippa, were half convinced, and others, like Gallio, cared for none of these things. Some said, Let these men alone; others, Away with them, for it is not fit that they should live. So they had said of Christ their Lord and Master. While the strong man armed kept possession the goods were in peace. The Jewish rulers, the heathen philosophers, and idolaters agreed well enough together; but no sooner did the gospel make its appearance, and the kingdom of Satan begin to be in danger, than he raised a disturbance in the world. This "stir" may also be considered as taking place in the same individuals; for there would be a struggle between their convictions and their corruptions, between the new light they had received and their old prejudices. The "stir," therefore, would arise from some of the following causes: 1. From the natural blindness of the heart, and the perversion of the understanding (John 1:5). 2. From an undue attachment to the present world. "Great is Diana of the Ephesians," said Demetrius. Why? Because they made shrines for that idol, and by this craft they got their wealth. 3. A misconception of the doctrines and precepts of Christianity. Some have thought the doctrines too obscure, and the precepts too severe. 4. From the outward meanness of the preachers and professors of the gospel. 5. From that powerful influence which the preaching of the gospel had upon the minds of those who did not cordially embrace it. God's Word "took hold of them" (Ezekiel 2:5). They were terrified, but not brought to true repentance. Hence arose a fermentation in their minds, like that produced by the mixture of an acid with a strong alkali. We may here see the wisdom of God in thus causing even unbelievers to bear witness of the power and authority of the Word. The stir made about the gospel has once and again tended to its propagation. When the Jews contradicted and blasphemed, the Gentiles became more attentive and inquisitive. The stir which was now made at Ephesus was the means of contributing to the spread of the gospel, for we afterwards read of a considerable Church being formed, and of a great number of believers in that city. (B. Beddome, M. A.)
1. Of thinking. 2. Of feeling. 3. Of acting. II. THE STIR WHICH IT PRODUCES. 1. Excitement. 2. Inquiry. 3. Prayer. 4. Activity. (W. W. Wythe.)
(Hardwicke.)
I. WHAT WAS THE REALITY OF THE CASE FROM THE FIRST POINT OF VIEW? Trade was injured. If Paul had preached abstract ideas, Demetrius would have made shrines for him if he had ordered them, but a preacher that thunders upon immediate iniquity may get himself into trouble. Modern preachers might preach a whole year upon the evils of intemperance, but if those who deal in strong drink were to find their takings going down the preacher would soon hear of the circumstance. You may circulate what books you please, but if the literature that is eating out the morality of our young people is arrested in its baleful progress, then you will be caricatured, contemned, laughed at. Rejoice when such persecution befalls you. It is a sign of true success. Demetrius will not fail to let you know how your work is going on. But press on — another stroke, another rush, and down goes Demetrius, and all his progeny fall into the pit to keep him profitless company. What bad journal have you, as a Christian Church, ever shut up? What place of iniquitous business have you ever bought and washed, and within its unholy walls set up the altar of Christ? Where do you follow and outbid Demetrius, driving him back? We are afraid to build churches too near one another; we study one another's feelings about that. Show me the thoroughfare in any great city in which Christian churches have pushed back evil institutions — back to the river's edge, and into the river, if possible. To see such a city would be to see the beginning of heaven. II. THE NEXT PHASE OF THE CASE AS PUT BY DEMETRIUS IS INFINITELY MORE HUMILIATING. The temple of the great goddess Diana is in danger. That particular phase of the situation is best represented by the words "a religious panic." The temple was in danger. That is the language of today. If it is a temple that can be put in danger, it is a temple made with hands, and must go down. Hear the great challenge of the Master: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." What panics we have seen! As if truth could ever be in danger! Some time ago a number of highly learned men issued a volume entitled "Essays and Reviews." It was the doom of Christianity! And yet Christianity has gone forward on her beneficent career without ever having bought a copy of the volume that some people earnestly thought was to have taken her life. We ought to have a religion that cannot be put in danger. If our religion is an affair of letters, forms, dates, autographs, then I do not wonder that our cabinet is sometimes broken into. I do not keep my religion in a museum, or lock it up in an iron safe; my conception of God no man can break through nor steal. You cannot take my Bible from me; if you could prove that the Apostle John wrote the Pentateuch, and that Moses wrote the Apocalypse, and that the Apocalypse should come in the middle of the Bible, you have not touched what I hold to be the revelation of God to the human heart. What we, as the common people, have to be sure about is, that God has sent great messages of law and love and light and life to everyone of us; that God's revelations do not depend upon changing grammars, but upon an inward, spiritual consciousness and holy sympathy. Whose insight is not intellectual but moral — the purity of heart which sees God. The Bible speaks to my own heart as no other book speaks. It proves its own inspiration by its grasp of human life, by its answers to human need. The town clerk laid down the principle that ought to guide us (ver. 36). The brevity of life, the certainty of death, the reality of sin, the present hell that burns me, the need of a Saviour — these things cannot be "spoken against"; therefore, those of us who feel them to be true "ought to be quiet." (J. Parker, D. D.)
2. Paul had no conception of what he was doing. He was preaching Christ fearlessly, freely. He had no idea of the existence of Demetrius, and did not dream that he was hurting anybody. And yet you see what were the ramifications of moral truth, and how, as the result of Paul's preaching, there uprose this Demetrius and his craftsmen. It bore testimony against them. And so long as the world stands faithful preaching will not only do what the preacher aims to do, but a great deal more. It will reach men that he never thought of and interests that he never contemplated. Truth may be handled with unnecessary offence, without a wise regard to times and seasons. There is such a way of preaching that under favourable circumstances we can sometimes persuade men to hear the truth against their interests. But, on the whole, there is no way in which you can so preach the truth that it will destroy men's interests, and have them remain peaceable, and like it. That was what our Master meant when He said, "I came not to send peace, but sword." He knew that men who live by pampering superstitions and evil passions would not consent to be purified without a struggle. Satan, either in man or in society, is neither to. be bound or cast out, except there be a mighty power over against him. 3. You will therefore say that this Demetrius was a very bad man. But was he? Remember, first, that he knew no religion but heathenism, and that he supposed that to be the best religion there was in the world. Remember, too, that he occupied the same relation to his religion that the Tract Society does to ours. The latter makes shrines — little books representing their notions of religion. And Demetrius probably said to himself, "It is better for the people to stick to their religion; and what if making their shrines is profitable to me, I am working at a religious business. And as our religion is associated with our country, I am making men not only religious, but patriotic." Here was a Jew, that was not born in Asia, but away off in Palestine, and was setting forth a strange God; and Demetrius felt everything in him rise up in indignation. But it is very evident that his feeling of self-interest was strongest. He was not a good man, and yet he was not an extremely bad man. He was just like men that you see every day. There is nothing more common than for men to hang one motive outside where it can be seen and keep the others in the background to turn the machinery. 4. From this narrative we may derive the principle that moral truth is of transcendently more value than all the material interests, order, or peace of society. There is an impression that the gospel is such a soothing syrup that if a preacher knows his business men going to hear him will be made very peaceable and happy, and will go away feeling very good. If, on the other hand, a man disturbs the community, it is thought that these results are prima facie evidence that he is not a true preacher of the gospel; and it has passed into a byword — we see it in all the fifth-rate newspapers and hear it from the lips of pot house politicians — that ministers ought to be "followers of the meek and lowly Jesus," and that they "go beyond their sphere" when they preach so as to disturb anybody. But hear again our Saviour's words: "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth," etc. If you go home, saying, "I must follow the Lord," and everybody in the household says, "We are following Mammon, or Pleasure," it is for you to stand by your higher light; and you will give offence. Nevertheless, you must be firm. If the father and mother will worship Baal, and the child would worship Jehovah, the child must not yield; and if there be quarrelling, it is not the child's fault. (H. W. Beecher.)
(G. S. Robinson, D. D.)
II. ALARMED. Learn now — 1. How sensitive it is. Covetousness in the abstract preachers may assail with perfect impunity, but business is a different thing. 2. How energetic. 3. How cruel. The idolatry is condemned of God and is the death of souls; but what of that? Mere sentiment. "By this we have our wealth." 4. How hypocritical. Under the garb of zeal for religion. III. DEFEATED — 1. By its own blunders. It has a majority, but no case. It makes the mistake of trying to put down truth by brawling. Another blunder was falsehood. 2. Through its dangerous drift. There is nothing truly conservative but truth and righteousness. Covetousness in trade or politics will sooner or later upheave society. Here it "filled the whole city with confusion." It will jeopardise any public interest to save its gold. 3. Through the power of simple truth and goodness. The mayor of the city sees through it all. (A. Mitchell, D. D.)
(H. C. Trumbull, D. D.)
2. One thinks himself free to act, and is the involuntary instrument of crafty seducers. 3. One values himself as enlightened, and commits acts the most foolish. 4. One prides himself that he contends for the right, and perpetrates the most unrighteous deeds of violence. 5. One is filled with extravagant expectations, and in the end gains nothing.
2. If he can summon a few congenial spirits — craftsmen who work very little with their hands and very much with their mouths — the struggle may grow to an uproar. 3. If he and his congenial spirits can get the attention of the city rabble, the uproar may attain to the dignity of a riot. 4. If he and his companions can disguise the denton of selfishness by calling it "the goddess Diana," or "Public Worship," or the "Cause of Justice," they will invitably do so. 5. If he, the demagogue, makes a speech, he usually manufactures his facts to order. The idea of "all Asia and the world" worshipping Diana! (S. S. Times.)
1. Rushes out to wreak its vengeance on somebody, it usually catches the wrong man. 2. Can agree on a common cry, the riotous element is much strengthened. 3. Is thoroughly, wildly, unreasonably mad, it is a needless risk for Paul to go in unto them. 4. Howls the loudest, its members usually have the least possible idea what they are howling about. 5. Knows why it comes together, it is wiser than most mobs are. 6. Finds out that Alexander is a Jew, or for any other reason is unpopular, his eloquence is useless. 7. Has spent two or three hours in yelling itself hoarse, then there may possibly be a chance for the town clerk or somebody else to make himself heard. (S. S. Times.)
2. Wise the advice that urges the angry multitude to do nothing rashly. 3. Shrewd the counsel that reminds the mob of the law whose place it is usurping. 4. Keen the insight that sees just when to read the Riot Act to the crowd. 5. Admirable the judgment that can tell when to work on the people's fears. (S. S. Times.)
II. WAS ROOTED IN SELFISHNESS. In this case the selfishness was pecuniary. In other cases it was political; in others yet it was ecclesiastical. So today. III. WAS FOSTERED BY FALSE ARGUMENTS. "The temple of the great goddess Diana is to be despised." Had they stopped to investigate the matter, they would have found that the apostle would have substituted in the place of an idol the only living and true God, and in the place of filth and lust would have put purity and virtue; and that surely would have been better. But when the purse was threatened they were blind to all else, and bolstered up their cause as best they might with poor arguments. So it is yet. Rum sellers cry "fanaticism" and extol "personal liberty." Infidels decry Sunday laws, pleading "liberty of conscience" for all. But, as in Paul's time, the motive is selfishness and the argument hypocritical. IV. PROCEEDS TO VIOLENCE. This spirit, modified, is what underlies all petty persecutions. If we are not ready to succumb to evil, it turns on us, and delights to inflict pain by look, by word, by deed. V. IN NO WAY INJURED CHRISTIANITY. No blood was shed. But if it had Christianity would not have been injured. "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." A persecuted Church is far more alive in true heroic virtue than a rich Church. No opposition of evil men today, however they may band themselves together, can truly hinder the progress of Christ's Church. (A. F. Schauffler.)
II. THE SACRED NAME OF RELIGION HAS BEEN PROSTITUTED TO SERVE THE MOST INFAMOUS PURPOSES. It was the pretext under which Demetrius and his accomplices concealed their design to secure the gain which they derived from the folly and delusion of their countrymen. In the name of religion conquerors have desolated the earth, persecutors have committed unnatural cruelties, Churches have corrupted the doctrines and institutions of the gospel, repealed the ordinances of Heaven, imposed their own unhallowed commands upon the consciences of their subjects, and fulminated excommunications against the pious and the sincere. The language of all such persons has been, "Come, see our zeal for the Lord." II. THE CONCURRENCE OF A MULTITUDE IN SUPPORT OF A CAUSE IS NO PROOF OF ITS JUSTICE. Truth is not to be decided by numbers. In the old world Noah alone was found faithful, while the rest had corrupted their ways. In the wilderness all the Israelites rebelled except Caleb and Joshua. When our Saviour appeared upon the earth how few of the Jews acknowledged Him to be the Messiah! And in the dark ages did not "all the world wonder after the beast"? The maxim that the voice of the people is the voice of God is, for the most part evidently false, and in no case can be admitted without many limitations. What, in most cases, is the voice of the people but the voice of thoughtlessness, prejudice, and passion? What is it, in fact, but the voice of a few artful men who make use of the people as the blind instruments of accomplishing their private designs? IV. GOD REIGNS AND CARRIES ON THE DESIGNS OF HIS GOVERNMENT AMIDST THE COMMOTIONS OF THE WORLD. He rules not only over the unconscious elements, but likewise over the passions of men. When these passions are most headstrong and impetuous, He controls their fury, and directs their course. In the uproar at Ephesus He preserved the life of Paul and his companions, first by the confusion of the people, and then by the seasonable interference of a person of prudence and authority. Let us not be dismayed, although the pillars of the earth should be shaken and all things should seem to be out of course (Psalm 93:1-4). (J. Dick, A. M.)
I. POPULAR OPPOSITION TO THE GOSPEL IS TO BE EXPECTED. That gospel from the beginning has been forced to make its way against the sturdy resistance of those to whom it has been addressed; and the religious apathy of the masses and the pronounced enmity of leaders in society, literature, and science today are phenomena which cannot escape the most careless attention. And yet, rightly viewed, there is nothing strange or alarming in this. Final victory is promised, but battle is to precede it. It is not to be expected that men will quietly surrender to a system that endeavours to reverse the gravitation of their nature. They are fond of self-pleasing; how shall they listen willingly to teaching of self-denial, etc., etc.? II. POPULAR OPINION IS NOT THE PROPER CRITERION OF TRUTH. If the matter could have been decided by "counts of heads and clack of tongues," then Diana would have triumphed against Christ. So long as Christianity is accepted only by a fragment of the community or the race, shallow thinkers justify their unfaith. But the most cursory reading of history rebukes the fallacy of the position. It was public opinion in Jerusalem that drove Jesus to Calvary; that here refused the gospel a hearing; that in Paris crimsoned the streets with Huguenot blood. From the beginning until now public opinion has cursed the world with false faith and outrage of every sort. And so no man can find any warrant for his personal convictions in the fact that the bulk of society is of his way of thinking. Upon him alone falls always the solemn shadow of personal responsibility. It is easier to swim with the swift current of popular thought than to ally ourselves with the minority that are breasting the stream. III. THE CLAIMS OF THE GOSPEL WILL NOT BE ACKNOWLEDGED WHILE THERE IS AN IDOL IN THE WAY. It was not the truth which Paul preached, in itself considered, to which the Ephesians objected. Let the apostle teach a doctrine which would make the trade in silver shrines good, and Demetrius would have turned his opposition into help. It was not pure reverence for Diana that actuated them; it was their business that made them so religious in her direction. Let Paul lay down as the first condition of salvation that every man must set up a shrine to Jesus, and it would have answered quite as well. Their personal gain was the real idol. (Sermons by the Monday Club.)
1. The perversion of human handicraft. Here is an assembly of men whose inventive genius and skilful labour were employed in the manufacturing of things offensive to Heaven and debasing to souls. Much of the industry of the world is employed in fabricating that which is bad — beverages which brutalise the reason, arts which inflame the lusts, and horrid implements of torture and death. So men build up fortunes by selling the productions of wickedness. 2. The force of the mercantile spirit. What brought these men together, and inspired Demetrius to arrest the progress of the truth was cupidity. Preach of human liberty to slaveholders; peace to those who get their living in providing weapons for battle; spiritual independency to men who derive their revenue and influence by arrogating dominion over men's faith; and you will have the mercenary spirit rising in full tide against you. 3. The revolutionary power of the gospel Demetrius felt that the very foundations of idolatry were being sappped by the doctrines of the apostle (ver. 26). The triumphs of the gospel at Ephesus, according to Demetrius — I. INVOLVED A RELIGIOUS REVOLUTION. Such a change is always — 1. The most radical. The god of the soul, whatever it is, is in all cases the object of the soul's supreme affection, and the very root of man's life. Change this in a man, and you change the whole current of his existence; you reverse the action of the machinery of his being. The man becomes a "new creation," a "new man." 2. The most difficult. The strongest attachments are the religious. Men have ever been ready to give their property, their wives, their children, their very lives for their gods. Add to this that the old religions had a grand history, a gorgeous aspect, and a worldwide popularity, which gave them an immense influence over their devotees. II. WERE UNDENIABLE FACTS. He suggests three kinds of evidence — 1. Personal observation — "Ye see," etc. They had seen with their own eyes the change which the gospel had wrought. Such ocular evidence most men in Christendom are privileged to possess. Who has not known the drunkard, the blasphemer, the licentious, and the selfish, become, by the power of the gospel, temperate, reverent, chaste, and generous? 2. General testimony — "Ye hear," doubtless from their own townsmen, whom they were bound to believe. Such evidence is nearly as conclusive as the former, and is often available where the former is not. What we have seen is but a fraction compared with what we have heard. "We have heard with our ears," etc. From the testimony of Paul we are assured that in Colosse, Ephesus, Rome, and Corinth, wonderful religious revolutions had been effected by the gospel he had preached. Clement confirms, in a letter which he wrote thirty years after, this testimony. 3. Avowed enemies. Could Demetrius have denied, or ignored its effects, he would have done so. The revolutions which Christianity has effected are so manifest, that hostile historians, such as Gibbon, are bound to chronicle them as the fountains of striking epochs. III. WERE CONFINED TO NO PARTICULAR TYPE OF MEN. "Not alone at Ephesus, etc." IV. WERE ACHIEVED BY THE AGENCY OF MAN AS MAN. "This Paul"; not these angels; not these magistrates backed by victorious legions. How did he do it? By wielding civil authority? No. All political power was against him. By miraculous instrumentality? He was, it is true, endowed with this power, but the great moral results of his ministry are not ascribed to this. Here is the agency he employs — He "hath persuaded." This is the noblest of works. He who wins one soul achieves a conquest that throws the victories of the Caesars, Alexanders, and Napoleons into contempt. Conclusion: There is much in connection with the agency of Paul at Ephesus which impresses us with Divine power. 1. In his daring to enter such a place. 2. In what, by his simple agency, he accomplished there. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
(Dean Plumptre.)
2. So also in the temple of Diana the world expressed its need of a refuge. To it from all parts of the land came debtors who could not pay their debts, and the offenders of the law that they might escape incarceration. But she sheltered them only a little while, and, while she kept them from arrest, she could not change their hearts, and the guilty remained guilty. But our God in Jesus Christ is a refuge into which we may fly from all our sins and be safe for eternity, and the nature is transformed. 3. Then, in that temple were deposited treasures from all the earth for safe keeping. says it was the treasure house of nations; they brought gold and silver and precious stones and coronets from across the sea, and put them under the care of Diana of the Ephesians. But again and again were those treasures ransacked, captured, or destroyed. Nero robbed them, the Scythians scattered them, the Goths burned them. Diana failed those who trusted her with treasures, but our God, to Him we may entrust all our treasures for this world and the next, and He will not fail anyone who put confidence in Him. 4. But notice what killed Ephesus, and what has killed most of the cities that lie buried in the cemetery of nations. Luxury! The costly baths, which had been the means of health to the city, became its ruin. Instead of the cold baths that had been the invigoration of the people, the hot baths, which are only intended for the infirm or the invalid, were substituted. In these hot baths many lay most of the time. Authors wrote books while in these baths. Business was neglected and a hot bath taken four or five times a day. When the keeper of the baths was reprimanded for not having them warm enough, one of the rulers said: "You blame him for not making the bath warm enough; I blame you because you have it warm at all." But that warm bath which enervated Ephesus was only a type of what went on in all departments of Ephesian life, and in luxurious indulgence. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
(J. L. Nye.)
(R. Venning.)
(H. R. Haweis, M. A.)
(R. F. Horton, M. A.)
I. TRAVEL TO LEARN. Some say that a man can learn no more abroad than at home. True if he learns nothing at home. Only those know how to travel who know that it would take a year to go round a room properly. Travelling is the most innocent of pleasures, and as a charming means of enlarging the mind is without an equal. II. LEARN WHAT TO AVOID AND WHAT TO SEE. A preacher of righteousness needs to speak plainly on that silly, unclean practice of Englishmen abroad of going to see what they call "life" — not that they always go abroad to see it. Call it rather seeing death, foulness. If someone were to go, for one day at least, to some of those shambles and spend the time in clearing up the dirt, it would be well; but that is not the motive. What I like to see when I travel is life — the vine in its glory, the field in its greenness, how men worship, their temples and shrines; and I always look out the English Church to worship the God of my fathers, in the language of my fathers. Some of you never do that. But, think where you would have gone to if you had been Paul's companions. Wherever he went the first thing he asked was, "Where is the synagogue?" III. TAKE AN AGREEABLE COMPANION. This will make the journey more agreeable. If two men can travel together, they can go anywhere and into any business together. And the same thing might be said of young people who are about to marry. If men and women were to do a little travelling together before marriage there would be fewer ill-assorted marriages. IV. BE CALM. Don't be irritated at mistakes, disappointments, discomforts. They are precious discipline which will help you much when you get home. V. KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TO SEE. Read up the objects of interest. VI. AVOID WHAT YOU CAN SEE AS WELL OR PERHAPS BETTER AT HOME, such as third-rate picture galleries and museums. VII. FIGHT AGAINST DOING ABROAD WHAT YOU WOULD BE ASHAMED TO DO AT HOME. What meanness to do before God what you would not dare to do before man, and amongst strange men what you would not do before friends. It is beautiful to see the Mohammedan, wherever he is, at a certain hour performing his ablutions, and where water is not to be had rubbing himself with sand, and saying his prayer. (G. Dawson, M. A.)
(Dean Plumptre.)
2. Paul wanted to attend that theatre. What! had the apostle been so pleased with the writings of Eschylus, Sophocles and Euripedes, that between his sermons he must go and look upon the performances of the theatre? No! He wanted to go into that theatre to preach Christ to the people, and vindicate the cause of truth and righteousness. Indeed, I do not know any place more appropriate for the preaching of the gospel than these palaces of dramatic art. Chatham Theatre in New York was never put to a grander purpose than when in 1857, during the great revival, the doors were thrown open for religious assemblages, and hundreds of souls found that their birth place. But until the ministry shall be invited to preach in all theatres, the best thing we can do is to preach to the actors. 3. But, says someone, "You are their avowed enemy." No, I am not. I acknowledge that there is as much genius in that profession as in any other; that there are men and women in it who are pure, honest, and generous. We must, however, acknowledge that there is an everlasting war between the Church and the playhouse. You do not like the Church. We do not like the theatre. But there is a common ground upon which we can meet today, as souls to be saved or lost, for whom there is a Saviour. I ask the members of the theatrical profession to surrender to Christ on two grounds. I. BECAUSE OF THE VAST AMOUNT OF USEFULNESS YOU MIGHT WIELD FOR CHRIST. The course of history would have been changed if actors had given themselves to Christian work. It was the dramatic element sanctified in Robert Hall, Chalmers, and Whitfield, that made them the irresistible instruments of righteousness. If Kean, Kemble, Junius Booth, Garrick, and their contemporaries of the stage, had given themselves to the service of the Lord, this would have been a far different world from what it is. If their successors would some night at the close of their performance come to the front of the stage and say, "Ladies and gentlemen, from this time I am a servant of Jesus Christ: I am His for time and for eternity" — it would save the world! "Oh," you say, "that is an impossibility; there is such a prejudice against us, that if we should come and knock at the door of a Christian Church, we would be driven back." Great mistake: When Spencer H. Cone stepped from the burning theatre in Richmond, December 26, 1811, into the pulpit of the Baptist denomination, he was rapturously welcomed, and I ask what impression that man ever made as a play actor compared with that which he made as an apostle. I ask that you give to God your power of impersonation, your grip over the human heart, your capacity to subdue, and transport great assemblages. Garrick and Whitfield were contemporaries; the triumph of the one was in Drury Lane Theatre; of the other in Moorfields. From the door of eternity, which man has the pleasanter retrospect? II. ON THE GROUND OF YOUR OWN HAPPINESS AND SAFETY. There is no peace for any occupation or profession without Christ. The huzza in the Haymarket and Covent Garden could not give peace to Mrs. Siddons, and Betterton, and Kean, and Macready. The world may laugh at the farce, but the comedian finds it a very serious business. Liston in his day had more power to move the mirth of an audience than any other man. He went one day to Dr. Abernethy, saying: "Oh, doctor, I am so low-spirited; can't you cure me?" Dr. Abernethy, who did not know him, said, "Pooh, pooh, I am not the man you want to see; don't come to a doctor; go to Liston; two doses would cure a madman." Alas for Liston, he might cure others, but he could not cure himself. When I preached on the subject before, several play actresses came and said, "We would like to become Christians, if you could only find for us some other occupation." I said to them what I say to you: that no one ever becomes a Christian until he or she is willing to say, "Lord Jesus, I take Thee now anyhow, come weal or woe, prosperity or privation, comfortable home or almshouse." But God lets no one be shelterless and hungry who comes in that spirit. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)
1. Self-interest endangered. 2. Superstitious feelings aroused. 3. The unpopularity of the gospel. 4. The persuasive eloquence of one man. II. WHAT IT PRODUCED. A display of the spirit of — 1. Enemies of truth. 2. True friends. 3. Eminent Christians. (Stems and Twigs for Sermon Framework.)
1. The preaching of Paul. 2. The speech of Demetrius. II. THE TUMULT ITSELF. 1. Paul's courageous demeanour. 2. The conduct of the populace. III. THE TUMULT STILLED. The speech of the town clerk. 1. A model of worldly prudence. 2. An example of great moral courage.Application: 1. Be not dismayed in times of danger. 2. Unite prudence with courage and justice. (J. H. Tasson.)
(T. Chalmers, D. D.)
(H. R. Haweis, M. A.)
I. CONCILIATION. As if he had said, These poor Jews cannot in any way weaken the authority, limit the influence, or dim the glory of Diana. You may as well be anxious about the radiance of the quenchless stars as about Diana (ver. 36). As there is not the slightest occasion for all this tumult, be quiet; act as men, not as children. II. CONSCIENCE. He speaks out the just as well as the politic (ver. 37). There is a high testimony from a learned and dignified pagan to the conduct of the apostles as the promoters of a new faith. It shows — 1. That they exhibited a respectful deference to the feelings of the errorists. 2. That they set forth God's truth rather than battled with men's opinions. 3. That their language was kind and not reproachful. Would that all promoters of truth had imitated the example of the apostles in this respect. III. COUNSEL. He administers wise advice (ver. 38). This assembly is an unlawful one. Let there be an assembly of men lawfully called together to settle the matter in dispute. IV. CAUTION. In conclusion, he gives them a word of warning (ver. 40). (D. Thomas, D. D.)
I. UNDIGNIFIED, as they stood above all suspicion in religious matters (ver. 35, 36). II. UNJUSTIFIABLE, as they could establish nothing against the men (ver. 37). III. UNNECESSARY, as other means of redress were open to them (ver. 38, 39). IV. DANGEROUS; if neither pride nor justice availed anything, fear of the Roman power should restrain them (ver. 40). (W. Hackett.)
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