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1. Note the circuitousness of the method by which they were brought about. This man had just visited Jerusalem on an errand of devotion. The apostles still remained in the city, and frequented the temple. Why was it not arranged, therefore, that he should fall in with one of them? Instead of this, an angel is sent to an evangelist, bidding him travel in a distant region, where he falls in with the eunuch. Perhaps the answer is that this arrangement was most significant of the designs for His Church which God was then unfolding. The ministry of the deacons was the dawn of that of Paul — freer, wider than that of the apostles. It was far more conformable, therefore, with the then state of the Christian dispensation that, instead of receiving the gospel in the confined atmosphere of the holy city, the Ethiopian should hear "a voice crying in the wilderness," the freer breezes of which were a symbol of the liberty with which God's Word went forth to the ends of the earth.

2. Whatever the reason, the practical teaching is obvious. Men often find God where they least expect to meet Him. We may find Him in the desert, and miss Him in Jerusalem. There is a difference in this respect between the laws of nature and those of grace. In the one, the effect is tied to the means; in the other, good impressions are not limited to ordinances. The Spirit is often pleased to act independently of His ordained channels. A casual interview with a stranger, a book read on a journey, some striking incident or scene, has often proved a means of grace when sermons and sacraments have failed. The avenues by which God reaches the hearts of men are almost as various as their characters.

3. The reason for the eunuch pitching upon Isaiah lift. may have been because it was part of a section which also embraces chap. Isaiah 56., where such encouragement is given to eunuchs. But whatever his motives, the text, applying as it does only to the Christ he knew not, perplexed him, and gave Philip the opportunity of preaching Him in whom the prophecy was fulfilled — "Jesus," not Christ the Messiah of the Jews, through whom he could offer an universal salvation.

4. The Ethiopian drank in the good news, and requested enrolment among the disciples of the new faith, and Philip could make no objection. Had not God brought him to the spot for this very purpose? Let us now turn to the practical reflections to which the passage gives rise. Note —

(1) The spiritual freedom which characterises the whole incident — its scene, not the temple, but the wilderness; its time, not the Sabbath, but a work-day; the minister, not an apostle, but an officer more or less secular. And yet the great features of this procedure of Divine grace are the same as those we find everywhere. Our Lord commissioned His Church to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, etc., and had said to Nicodemus, "Except a man be born of water," etc.; and St. Paul speaks of Christ as "sanctifying and clearing the Church by the washing of water by the Word." Two elements, according to these passages, enter into the idea of admission into the Church — the action of the Word of God on the conscience, the outward sign of washing with water. Both these are found here. Philip, it is true, preached not in a church, but in a chariot; not to many souls, but to one; still, it was preaching, and then there was baptism. So that there was here a Church according to the definition, "a congregation of faithful men, in which the pure Word of God is preached, and the sacraments administered." "A congregation!" you will say. Yes. "Where two or three are met together in My name," etc. What a consolation to ministers whose congregations are thin! One good listener is better than one hundred indifferent ones.

(2) The immediate administration of baptism to one whose knowledge must have been immature. It was the same in the case of the Philippian jailer. No doubt the circumstances warranted the act, whereas now ordinarily a probation would be wise. Yet it must be remembered that baptism is only matriculation, not graduation, in the school of Christ; and in the great commission, the teaching which qualifies for baptism is distinguished from that which succeeds it. It is not the amount of a catechumen's knowledge which is to be looked to, but his spiritual receptivity.

3. The passage which proved the means of the eunuch's conversion is one which describes the meek and resigned passion of the Saviour, and was the means also of the conversion of the celebrated Lord Rochester. The subject with which it deals was the means of a mighty awakening in Greenland, after long and fruitless efforts, to get at the hearts of the people. Our Lord predicted that His Cross should prove the supreme attraction, and Paul determined to know nothing but it.

(Dean Goulburn.)

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KJV: And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?

WEB: Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, "Do you understand what you are reading?"