Acts 27:24 Saying, Fear not, Paul; you must be brought before Caesar: and, see, God has given you all them that sail with you. An impression prevailed among heathens of antiquity that there was danger in the company of wicked men, and especially of the impious. The Deity, says Horace, often involves the man of integrity in the punishment of the depraved. And the risk which they apprehended in an immediate visitation of Divine power, we may equally apprehend in the course of those laws by which the Almighty uniformly governs the universe. What they dreaded in the shipwreck, the fire, and the long catalogue of accidents, we find accomplished in the contamination of evil, the proneness to assimilate habits of thought and conduct, and the perplexities that harass a man who ventures to stand by while that is done which he disapproves. On the other hand, the text is an instance of the influence that a good man may have to save his associates from impending ruin. Two hundred, threescore, and fifteen persons were preserved for the godliness of one prisoner! The unrighteous are saved for the sake of the righteous; and over those who know not God, His faithful servants throw the shield of their fidelity, when they are associated together. Abraham interceded for the cities of the plain, "And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom ten righteous men, then will I spare all the cities for their sakes." It was not Lot alone who was rescued from destruction; but the angel said to him, "Hast thou here any besides?" etc. It was not Joseph alone who was prosperous; but "the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house," etc. It was not Elijah only who was fed by the handful of meal and a little oil many days during the famine; for the widow of Zarephath also, and her son, with whom he lodged, the barrel of meal wasted not, and the cruse of oil did not fail. And it was not St. Paul alone, the ambassador of the Cross to the capital of the Western world, who was rescued from the waves not only his comrades, Luke and Timothy, or the kind centurion, who was saved for the apostle's sake; but the selfish mariners also, and the brutal soldiers, all were included in the general protection one good man afforded: "God hath given thee all them that sail with thee." The tares are mingled with the wheat in this world, and Christ Himself has told us, why the very angels may not root them out until the time of gathering both at the great harvest; lest with the tares ye root out the wheat also. The briar that obstructs our path, and the poisonous hemlock, obtains a share of the dew and sunshine which nourishes the food that supports our life. Such are the relations of things, such is the mutual dependence of mankind, in spiritual attainments as well as earthly welfare, that great blessings cannot be bestowed on one, without the participation of others; and an individual cannot be visited with great calamities without his fellows being afflicted or corrupted by them. In the affairs of every day we must have partners in our joy and woe. Obscure as we may be in station, retired and humble as maybe the scene on which we act our part in life, we cannot hoard up happiness, as the miser his pelf, for ourselves alone; we cannot hide our depravity, or conceal our degradation, so that it shall deprave or degrade no others. Who inflicts more fatal injury on society, or drags along with him accomplices to more certain ruin, than the thief lurking in the dark corners of the city, and dwelling in holes and cellars of the earth, lest the light of day should discover him to his pursuers? Who offers more victims on the shrine of her own wretchedness and infamy than the outcast driven from her parent's roof, lest she should corrupt her own kindred? What is it imparts harshness and suspicion, that turns a deaf ear to a tale of woe, so much as fraud practised on those who should relieve distress? The depravity or debasement of the multitude soon eats its way to the heart of the few; and he who has seen the slave ignorant, timid, false, malignant, sensual, and trodden under foot of man, has discovered the master also to be not only an oppressor and cruel, but irritable, intemperate, violent, unscrupulous, profligate, divested of natural affection as a parent, a husband, or a brother, a greater slave to evil passions, than the object at his feet is to him. Corruption at the foundation rises to every pinnacle of the social structure, pervades its fluted columns, and plants its rottenness in ornamental capitals, and brings down the proudest and the firmest fabric crumbling into dust. There is a contagion in sin and suffering, if we enter into its vicinity; the disease is catching and the moral canker spreads, and he that was whole becomes infected, and feels unwonted pains. That the errors of princes involve their people in disaster is a maxim of the world's experience; and that the sins of fathers shall be visited on their children is the assurance of the Word of God. How much guilt and misery is wrought by one wicked man! Not, indeed, that the ship is tossed by the storm because an infidel walks her deck. Not that a timber falls from the house top because the ungodly is beneath its roof; — but that the whole family within is made wretched by the father's vice: that the whole circle of friends is ruined by intimacy with a spendthrift: that neighbours and dependants, unsuspecting youth and guileless innocence, are brought to wretchedness and infamy by the intrusion of a heartless profligate to their company: that honesty is branded with dishonour, and generous confidence reduced to beggary by association with a rogue. But let us turn to a more grateful subject, the deliverance the good man effects for all around in working out his own, and the happiness he imparts to others, as surely as he obtains it for himself. How many families are made prosperous and happy by the industry, temperance, frugality, and good nature of one member! How do his virtues diffuse themselves throughout his home, and bring a blessing on all around! And contentment ever smiles, where he does not find a want: and variance obtains no place, where he is gentle and conciliating: and children, and servants, the whole household, are impressed with the love and fear of God, who is the object of his daily worship, and their own. Nor is it only at the domestic hearth that the good man saves his fellow creatures with himself. How many little ones in Christ borrow the tone, and build the structure of principles that will govern life, from their master in that larger family, the school! How much again may the minister of the sanctuary shed a holy influence over the little flock committed to his care, himself a pattern, as well as teacher of what is good! How may whole cities and principalities and nations be saved by one man's wisdom, or another's splendid example! (G. D. Hill, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. |
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