Acts 16:8-12 And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas.… Oriental in its lineage and nativity Christianity was destined to become European in its triumphs. A few centuries saw it wither in those lands which gave it birth. Whereas transplanted to Europe it has struck here abiding roots and borne ample fruit. Nourished by the stronger soil of Western life, it is now beginning to repay the East its early obligations. The moment to which the text refers was one of the supreme turning points of history. It was a moment sure to come. Sooner or later the gospel was bound to pass from the continent of its infancy to that robuster continent which was to prove the home of its manhood. Yet it needed quite a series of unusual providential indications to bring that mission band down to Treas. Again and again had the unseen Guide of that enterprise stood, like the angel of Balaam, barring progress. Read widely the Macedonians' appeal suggests — I. THAT ALL HUMAN RELIGIONS, GOVERNMENTS, LITERATURE, CIVILISATION, HAVE ENDED IN A CONFESSION OF FAILURE. 1. What are human religions but attempts to find God? But they strive after the unattainable. The net result of them all in Paul's day was a general scepticism respecting religious truths, and despair respecting their highest good. 2. The end of government and all social systems is the regeneration of society and a reign of justice, peace, and happiness; and at this problem men had long been working. Government by one, by a few, by the many, by the best — the world has tried them all, and under all of them has gone to corruption. 3. This failure repeats itself in the individual soul. The inward history of every man, when the net result of all life's efforts comes to be inspected, does not satisfy even the man himself. It is not what it ought or was meant to be. II. TO ALL THIS INCESSANT, PROFOUND, PATHETIC PLAINT OF HUMANITY, GOD'S ANSWER HAS BEEN THE GOSPEL OF HIS SON, or rather God's Son Himself. He is the Helper who has come over to us. He has brought light, revealing the Father whom we had ignorantly worshipped; peace cancelling guilt and atoning for transgression; power to break the bonds of evil habit, to renew the wasted moral energy, and to build up holy character. We believe in this Helper; to receive Christ is to be a Christian. Come and see if He be not the Christ of God. III. CHRIST BEING GOD'S RESPONSE TO THE CRY FOR HELP, IT FOLLOWS THAT CHRISTIANS IN THEIR TURN MUST LISTEN TO THE CRY AND ANSWER IT. If the gospel has not forgotten its own origin it can never hear unmoved the Macedonian appeal. Christianity, is nothing if not a mission; and the Church's loyalty is tested by the degree of her sensitiveness to catch and her promptness to answer the cry of perishing men. Not that the Church must wait for any formal invitation. Paul did not wait for that. Macedonia knew and cared nothing about Christianity. The cry came not from Europe, but from God. What the vision meant was that Macedonia needed and was ready for the gospel. And no other provocation is needed for the Church's missionary effort today. Note then — 1. The need. The study of comparative religion yields two results — (1) It brings to light the seeds of spiritual truth which lie buried beneath the great old religions, and which testify to the inextinguishable cravings after God to which Christ is God's reply. (2) It shows the necessity for the Christian revelation. To know heathenism thoroughly is to know not only its fragments of partial truth, but also their insufficiency, and their witness to man's abortive spiritual struggles. There is great need for a fuller acquaintance with heathen creeds, and their outcome in heathen life. It is most difficult for men whose moral sense has been refined by Christianity to fathom the deeps of sinfulness and cruelty in which men have been plunged by unnumbered centuries of heathenism. Had Christians only an exacter knowledge of these things, compassion for the heathen would be vastly more keen and active than it is. 2. The readiness. The Church literally staggers beneath appeals for help. You can scarcely name a region that is inaccessible to the gospel. This is the privilege and perplexity of all our Churches. (J. Oswald Dykes, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas. |
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