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1935

^V. J, LHAMOX, :\i. A.

Studies in Acts

THE NEW TESTAMENT
BOOK OF BEGINNINGS

By W. j. LHAIWON, M. A.

WITH AN
INTRODUCTION BY A. McLEAN,
Corresponding Secretary o£ the Foreign Christian Missionary Society

St. Louis
CHRISTIAN PTJBUSHING COMPAl^
1897

Copyrighted, 1897, by
CHRISTIAN PUBLISHING COMPANY.

HftectionatelB TnecrfbeO
Uo fSi^ ffatber an& ^otber

CONTENTS.
IN¥B0DUCTI0N . . .... 7
Prbuminart Essay . . . ... 11
I. The First Sermon after the Ascension ... 29
II. The First Church . .... 51
III. The First Persecutions  71
IV. The First Martyr . . . . 89
V. The First Gentile Convert  105
VI. The First Gentile-Chbistian Church . . . 123
VIT. The First Martyr Apostle . . . 143
^in. The First Foreign Missionaries .... 159
IX. The First Foreign Missionary Journey . . .177
X. The First Church Council . . . . 199
XI. The First Missionary Journey in Europe . . 215
xn. Paul's First Imprisonment in Rome . . . 237
xni. The First History op the Holt Spirit in the
Church . .  259
Xrv. Excursus. The Apostle Paul as Organizer and
Unifier  275
Noirae AND Comments  301

INTRODUCTION.

At Oriental feasts there is an oflScer who tastes the food
and drink before they are served and certifies to their 'whole -
someness and palatableness. My duty is similar to that of
the official taster. I have tasted the follo'wing pages and
have found them ' 'the joy and rejoicing of my heart. ' ' I am
persuaded that Tjn one can read them 'with care and moral
earnestness -without profit.
The Lord endowed the writer of these essays with a large
soul. He gave him insight and independence. Mr. Lhamou
is a man of scholarly tastes and scholarly attainments. His
experience in the pulpit has taught him to present the pro-
foundest truths in such a way that the common people can
grasp and remember them. He has given years of patient
and reverent study to the Book of Acts. He has read what
the best commentators have 'written. In these essays h&
gives results and omits processes. A glance at the Table
of Contents will show that he has seized on points of capital
importance. He gives his readers the cream of what he has
learned. Bacon, writing of books, said, ' 'Some are to be tasted,
others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and
digested. ' ' One will not read many pages of this book be
fore he will know to which class it belongs. Though written.
by a scholar it can be read by all. I have not found a dull
or obscure sentence in it from first to last. I may not agree;
with the author in every detail ; that is a merit rather than

INTRODUCTION
a defect. It would be a poor compliment to the writer if I
did. These eloquent and luminous pages have helped me
mightily and have provoked me to study the Book of Acts
with renewed interest. I believe they will afEect others in
the same way.
This book appears at the nick of time. The Sunday -
schools are going to devote most of the coming year to the
Acts of the Apostles. Teachers and scholars need the best
helps in the market. They need the commentaries that they
may study the text word by word. They will need these
essays in addition to the commentaries. The plan of the
work afforded the author freedom, for enlarging upon points
of historic and doctrinal moment, for an enlarged treatment
of the character and influence of the Apostle Paul, aud for
such a unique and consecutive treatment of subjects as is
found in the last two essays. In these Mr. Lhamon sets
forth, in a systematic way, the historic work of the Holy
Spirit in the Apostolic times, and the three principles which
guided Paul in the organization of churches. They are:
The historic or conservative [principle ; liberty under the
direction of the Holy Spirit; and expediency in many matters.
The one supreme thing is love. The discussion of these
principles is particularly vigorous and suggestive. In my
opinion, the reader will find this study of the Book of Acts
both fresh and helpful.
A. McLean.
Cincin'oati,

STUDIES IN ACTS

PRELIMINARY ESSAY.
The Book of Acts is unique. It is the key-book
of the New Testament. It is " The Gospel of the
Holy Spirit." It is a history, a biography, a mis
sionary manual, and an apology. As a history of the
first church it is indispensable; as a character sketch
of the greatest apostle it is priceless; as the manual
of his missionary achievements it is of thrilling
interest; as an apology it pleads the innocence of
Paul when on trial in the courts of the Roman
Empire. In this book we are brought to the fulfillment of
ancient prophecy and the beginning of modern his
tory. In it we pass from the ethnic to the universal
in religion, and from era to era in the providence of
God. It is from first to last the story of a majestic
battlefield with Jerusalem and Antioch and Ephesus
and Corinth and Rome for its strategic points, with
weapons of warfare not carnal, but spiritual, and
mighty through God to the pulling down of strong
holds, and with victories bloodless and admirable
over principalities and powers, and spiritual wick
edness in high places.
The Gospel according to Luke, his " first treatise,"
is the record of "all that Jesus began to do and to
teach; " this is the record of what the apostles of
(11)

12 STUDIES IN ACTS
Jesus began to do and to teach. As regards the
Savior's church it is the book of beginnings. There
is the beginning of spiritual enduement, the begin
ning of the Gospel ministry, the beginning of con
versions, the beginning of organization, the beginning
of emancipation from legalism, and the beginning
of world-wide evangelization.
The evidential value of the book of Acts is unsur
passed. It is replete with facts that bear the stamp
of genuineness. Fiction does not create sermons
like that on Pentecost, or martyrdoms like that of
Stephen, or conversions like that of Cornelius, or
missionary heroism like that of Paul, or a society
like the first church, united in love and Spirit-guided.
At many points this book touches with delicacy and
precision the geography, the history and the customs
of the first century, both among the Jews and the
Eomans. The apostles Peter and James and Paul
must forever hold their historic places side by side
with Felix and Festus and Herod and Claudius and
Nero, with this difference, that while the ordinary or
even inferior careers of these Roman rulers are fully
accounted for by quite the ordinary causes, the supe
rior careers of these apostles are not at all to be
accounted for except by the historic presence of the
Holy Spirit bearing witness to Jesus, and glorifying
him through them. The careers of these men, and
their historic and spiritual creations, refuse to vanish
from sight in the crucible of the hyper-higher-
critics. If Paul should be torn from our reason, he

STUDIES IN ACTS 13
would still cling to our hearts, and they to him.
But having him, reason demands more, and Chri.st
and the Holy Spirit, as the exponents of his conver
sion and career, become intellectual necessities.
It is a matter of prime interest to know the con
clusions of the latest learned criticism regarding this
book. Prof. W. M. Ramsay, in his great work enti
tled " St. Paul the Traveler and the Roman Citizen,"
published only last year, has this to say:
"I may fairly claim to have entered on this inves
tigation without any prejudice in favor of the conclu
sion which I shall now attempt to justify to the
reader. On the contrary, I began with a mind
unfavorable to it, for the ingenuity and apparent
completeness of the Tubingen theory had at one time
quite convinced me. It did not then lie in my line
of life to investigate the subject minutely; but more
recently I found myself often brought in contact with
the book of Acts as an authority for the topography,
antiquities, and society of Asia Minor. It was gradu
ally borne in upon me that in various details the nar
rative showed marvelous truth. In fact, beginning
with the fixed idea that the work was essentially a
second century composition, and never relying on its
evidence as trustworthy for first-century conditions,
I gradually came to find it a useful ally in some
obscure aud difficult investigations."
Following this frank statement of his personal
experience, the author proceeds to an equally frank
dismissal of all theories that would make the book

14 STUDIES IX ACTS
a second-century production with mythical admix
tures and tendency purposes, or that would make it
a piece of ill-assorted secodd-century patch-work
from documents A, B, C, etc., by redactors L, II.,
III., etc.
He says (page 10), "All theories of this class imply
that the atmosphere and surroundings of the work
are of the second-century type; and such theories
have to be founded on a proof that the details are
represented in an accurate way and colored by
second-century ideas. The efforts of that earlier
school of critics were directed to give the required
proof, and in the attempt they displayed a misappre
hension of the real character of ancient life and
Roman history which is often astonishing, and which
has been decisively disproved in the process of
Roman historical investigation. All such theories
belong to the pre-Mommsenian epoch of Roman his
tory; they are now impossible for a rational and
educated critic; and they hardly survive except in
popular magazines and novels of the semi-religious
order." Quite explicitly the author states his working
hypothesis. "Acts was written by a great historian
(a first-class historian, he says elsewhere), a writer
who set himself to record the facts as they occurred,
a strong partisan, indeed, but raised above partiality
by his perfect confidence that he had only to describe
the facts as they occurred, in order to make the truth
of Christianity and the honor of Paul apparent. To

STUDIES IN ACTS 15
a Gentile Christian, as the author of Acts was, the
refusal of the Jews to listen to Paul, and their hatred
of him as untrue to their pride of birth, must appear
due to pure malignity; and the growing estrangement
must seem to him the fault of the Jews alone. It is
not my object to assume or to prove that there was
no prejudice in the mind of Luke, no fault on the
part of Paul ; but only to examine whether the facts
stated are trustworthy, and leave them to speak for
themselves (as the author does). I shall argue that
the book was composed by a personal friend and
disciple of Paul, and if this be once established there
will be no hesitation in accepting the primitive
tradition that Luke was the author."
The reader is asked to bear with one more quota
tion from Prof. Ramsay's first chapter:
" The characterization of Paul in Acts is so
detailed and individualized as to prove the author's
personal acquaintance. Moreover, the Paul of Acts
is the Paul that appears to us in his own letters, in
his ways and his thoughts, in his educated tone of
polished courtesy, in his quick and vehement tem
per, in the extraordinary versatility and adaptability
which made him at home in every society, moving at
ease in all surroundings, and everywhere the center
of interest, whether he is the Socratic dialectician in
the agora of Athens, or the rhetorician in its uni
versity, or conversing with kings and proconsuls, or
advising in the council on shipboard, or cheering a
broken-spirited crew to make one more effort for

16 STUDIES IN ACTS
life. Wherever Paul is, no one present has eye^ for
any but him. Such a view could not have been
taken by a second century author. The church in
the second century had passed into new circii in
stances, and was interested in quite different ques
tions. The' catastrophe of the persecution of Domi-
tian, and the effect produced for the time on the
attitude of the church by the deliberate attempt to
suppress and destroy it on the part of the imperial
government, made a great gulf between the first cen
tury and the second century of Christian history."
The leading arguments in favor of the authorship
of Luke (in addition to the above) are.
First, The traditions of the early church, which
with one consent (authorities tell us) ascribe the
authorship to the author of the Gospel according to
Luke. Secondly, Similarity in literary style and method
between Acts and the Gospel according to Luke. At
least fifty words are peculiar to these two books.
"Luke being acknowledged as the author of the
(jospel, we know from that source what the charac
teristics of his style are; and it is maintained that
these reappear in Acts to such an extent that we can
account for the agreement only by referring the two
productions to the same writer." — Hackett.
Thirdly, The evidence of what are called the
" We-narratives." In several passages the writer uses
the first personal pronoun in such a way as to indi
cate his companionship with Paul. These passages

' ' STUDIES IN ACTS 17
are xvi. 10-17; xx. 5-xxi. 18; xxvii. and xxviii. Great
weight attaches to them, inasmuch as any other explan
ation than that of companionship seems impossible.
Meyer says, "The Ws-narrative, with its vivid and
direct impress of personal participation, always
remains a strong testimony in favor of a companion
of the apostle as author of the whole book, of which
that narrative is a part; to separate the subject of
that narrative from the author of the whole, is a
procedure of skeptical caprice." (See Essay XI.)
As to the date of the composition, the Variorum
Bible says: "When and where the book of Acts
was written must be a matter of mere conjecture.
We only know that it must have been written after
St. Luke's Gospel (75 A. D.)." This statement is
perhaps too strong. However, there is little agree
ment among commentators. Hackett places it about
63; Lumby, 63 to 70;- Meyer about 80; Ramsay
places the composition of Luke's Gospel 79-81, and
that of Acts somewhat later. His arguments are
more than usually interesting, and one cannot but
feel their force.
The chronology of the book of Acts is of the very
first importance. It is practically the chronology of
the New Testament. Luke, however, gives but few
notes of time, and the difficulty of constructing a
series of dates has been great. The prophecy of
Agabus (xi. 28), and the date of the famine, extend
ing, as Prof. Ramsay thinks, into the year 46 A. D.
(see Note), fixes the time of one of Paul's visits to

18 STUDIES IN ACTS
Jerusalem. This the same author seeks to identify
with the visit described by Paul himself in Gal.
ii. 1-10. If, then, this visit may be placed as late as
46, and if the fourteen years named by Paul (Gal.
ii. 1) includes the three years of his sojourn in Ara
bia, and dates therefore from his conversion, the
latter event, together with the death of Stephen,
would fall as" early as 32 or 33. Some place the
death of Stephen as early as 30 ; others as late as 36
or 37. Meyer decides upon 33 or 34. Prof. Ram
say's argument and conclusion, as stated above, are
entitled to great weight.
Another date is given in xviii. 2. The edict of Clau
dius was in 52. It was probably in the same year
that Paul met PrisciUa and Aquila in Corinth.
One of the closest calculations of time anywhere to
be found is given by Prof. Ramsay on page 289 of
the work above named. "In A. D. 57, Passover fell
on Thursday, April 7. The company sailed away
from Philippi on the morning of Friday, April 15
(xx. 6), and the journey to Troas lasted till the fifth
day, Tuesday, April 19. In Troas they stayed seven
days, the first of which was April 19, and the last,
Monday, April 25. Luke'.s rule is to state first the
whole period of residence, then some detail of the
residence. On the Sunday evening just before
the start, the whole congregation at Troas met for
the Agape; religious services were conducted late
into the night ; and in the early morning of Monday
the pai-ty went on board and set sail. In A. D. 56,

STUDIES IN ACTS 19
58, 59, incidence of the Passover is not reconcilable
with Luke's statistics, as is apparent from the
attempts that have been made to torture his words
into agreement."
Still another important note of time is the appoint
ment by Nero of Fortius Festus in the room of Felix
(xxiv. 27). The date of this change assigned almost
unanimously by scholars, is A. D. 60. Felix left
Paul a prisoner in the hands of Festus. Under Fes
tus Paul made his appeal to Csesar, and was soon
after sent to Rome. These circumstances fix the
later years of Paul's life with almost absolute
precision. Perhaps it will never be found possible to give
absolute dates except upon a few points. It is hoped
the following list will commend itself to readers as
having a fair consensus of scholarship in its favor.
The ascension of Jesus and the Pentecost follow
ing, May, A. D. 30; Death of Stephen and conver
sion of Paul, 32-33; Barnabas and Paul in Antioch,
42-43; D^ath of James and Herod Agrippa, 44; The
famine foretold by Agabus, 45-46; Paul's first mis
sionary journey, 47; Council in Jerusalem, 49-50;
Paul's second missionary journey, 51-54; Paul's
third missionary journey, 55-58; Paul's fifth and
last journey to Jerusalem, 58; Paul's journey to
Rome, 60 ; His first imprisonment under Nero, 61-63.
The book of Acts presents us with a historic basis
for our Christian faith. The personalities of Peter
and Paul in history, and the impress of these men,

20 STUDIES IN ACTS
especially the latter, upon their times and upon all
succeeding times can never be doubted or denied.
They are among the sanest and the stablest of all
men, and they hazarded their lives in the furtherance
of their mission. In the history that gathers itself
around these two men as its principal figures, the
natural and the higher-natural (what we call the
miraculous) are inextricably interwoven. It is not
possible to sift and to say, This is history and that is
myth. The moment we attempt it, we find ourselves
excluding as myths parts that stand related to the
rest as cause to effect, and we find ourselves there
fore in the dilemma of accepting, as historic, facts
and persons rendered by our exclusions more cause
less and mysterious than the things we had excluded.
We are told on every hand that many a man of scien
tific temper and training is inclined, now-a-days, to
grow reverent in the presence of the New Testament
record of the higher-natural. Prof. Ramsay may be
taken as an example. Speaking of "the marvels
described in Acts," he says: "Twenty years ago I
found it easj' to dispose of them, but now-a-days prob
ably not even the youngest among us finds himself
able to maintain that we have mastered the secrets of
nature, and determined the limits which divide the
unknown from the impossible. That Paul believed
himself to be the recipient of direct revelations from
God, to be guided and controlled in his plans b\'
direct interposition of the Holy Spirit, to be enabled
by divine power to move the forces of nature in a

STUDIES IN ACTS 21
way that ordinary men cannot, is involved in this nar
rative. You must make up your minds to accept or
reject it, but you cannot cut out the marvelous from
the rest, nor can you believe that either Paul or this
writer (Luke) was a mere victim of hallucinations."
The historic verities of the book of Acts and its
fixed dates have an important bearing upon the writ
ings of Paul and their value as witnessing to the truth
of the Gospel narratives. Paul was a prisoner under
Felix and Festus in 59 and 60. Before this date
I. and II. Thessalonians, I. and II. Corinthians,
Galatians and Romans were written. In all these
letters Paul testifies to the crucifixion and the resur
rection of Jesus, and he was not the man to put his
life to the hazard for a myth or a fable or a fiction.
From the resurrection of Jesus to the writing of the
Book of Romans is in round numbers twenty-five
years; Galatians and I. and II. Corinthians fall
within the same period. Such books do not spring
by mythical processes from hallucination or fiction or
falsehood in so short a time, and within the memo
ries of multitudes who as eye-witnesses of what
really did happen were able and anxious to contra
dict them if they were false. Paul's testimony is
practically contemporaneous; it is the testimony of
one who was at the first an enemy of the cross; it
was heralded by him boldly everywhere; and upon
him through all his ministry there beat the fierce his
toric light of Judaea in the days of Josephus, and of
Rome in the times of Livy and Tacitus. By such

22 STUDIES IN ACTS
lines of reason and research the doubters of to-day
are to be convinced, if at all. " Never since the
apostolic age has Christianity stood so proudly erect
on her rendered reasons in the field of historic
research as at the present hour." It is not enough
to say that the historic basis of our Christian faith is
left to us ; it is confirmed to us by critical and schol
arly research. It has been said, with striking force,
that the mythical theory of Strauss died before it.s
author, he having abandoned it before he died. Wo
may rest assured that in a similarly relentless way
time will weed out from the field of criticism the
extremists and the erratics who are bound to be in it,
and that sober scholarship will unceasingly protest to
us that the apostles " did not follow cunningly
devised fables when they made known to us the
power and coming of our Lord Jesus," but that they
were "eye-witnesses of his majesty."
One thing there is in the book of Acts abso
lutely, and not as an accidental, but as an essen
tial part of it, and as inseparable from it as
color and form and perfume from the petals of
the rose. Eight times at least the phrase, " The
Way," is used distinctively, and with technical pre
cision. The passages are ix. 2; xvi. 17; xviii. 25;
xviii. 26; xix. 9; xix. 23; xxii. 4, and xxiv. 22. In
the Revised Bible this phrase is several times
printed with a capital W. The first of them is
indicative of all of them. ("But Saul, yet breath
ing out threatening and slaughter against the dis-

STUDIES IN ACTS 23
ciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and
asked of him letters to Damascus unto the syna
gogues, that if he found any that were of the Way,
whether men or women, he might bring them
bound to Jerusalem.'^ This must refer to Christ's
"new and living Way," the way of salvation, the
way by which the thousands came to him on the day
of Pentecost, and by which the Ethiopian came, and
Cornelius, and Lydia and her household, and the
jailer and his household, and all the others whose
conversions are at all fully described. /This Way
leads over the mountain of Calvary and down by the
empty sepulcher, and on down by the waters of bap
tism, and so across to^ the land that is Christ's. )It
is the preaching of the incarnation, of the crucifixion,
and of the resurrection of Jesus ; it is the faith be
gotten by this preaching; it is the confession of this
faith in penitence and baptism ; and it includes the
promise of the Holy Spirit. Absolutely this is the
one well-worn highway that runs through the whole
historic landscape that is presented to us in this
book; it is the Way of Atonement, and we have been
mournfully slow to find it and walk in it.
On the other hand there is no systematic theology
here. We look in vain for dogmatics and counter-
dogmatics. This book is delightfully innocent of
isms. It is not marred by a single one of our denom
inational names. It reverently refrains from mis
chievous attempts to measure the immeasurable.
There is no theometry in it. Upon this point one is

24 STUDIES IN ACTS
constrained to quote with entire approval Joseph
Parker's vigorous words:
"I have made no attempt to find a formal theology
in apostolic preaching. No such theology is there to
be found. The supposed finding of it anywhere has
been the heaviest cross which the Risen Christ has
had to carry, and the greatest hindrance to the
extension of his reign. Theology is as indefinable as
life. It admits of multitudinous expression, and,
like inspiration itself, must take the color of the
individual soul that receives it. As theology deals
with the Infinite, it cannot admit of complete and
final statement in words. There is always a nameless
quantity beyond. An infinite theology should create
an infinite charity, yet probably there is less charity
in theology than in any other subject of human
thought." Here is a church spiritually complete and doc
trinally invincible, yet with no formal creed. Here
are multitudes of believers, at one with God in
Christ, made so by their faith, repentance, and bap
tism, coupled with the promise of forgiveness and
the Holy Spirit, and by the apostles left wisely
unvexed with the speculative and mysterious side of
regeneration. Here are organization and enlargement
proceeding under the rule of expediency, and no
harm comes to the faith. Forever fact is better
than theory; possession transcends speculation, and
reality is the soul of religion. This is a book of real
ities. The death of Jesus is real; his resurrection is

STUDIES IN ACTS 25
Teal; his Lordship and Messiahship are real; faith in
him is real; repentance and baptism are real; the
promise of forgiveness is real and it is realized, and
the atonement is real, because there is a real recon
ciliation between the repentant child and the forgiv
ing Father. In this book there is a mighty march of
realities; an invincible array of events; a conquering
army of facts. The soul is at first led captive by
them; then it delights in them; at last it rests in
them, and finds that its rest is rest in the Father and
in his Son Jesus Christ.
The author begs the reader to accept this volume
for what it purports to be, simply and humbly a
series of meditations thrown into the form of essays,
with greater haste and many more interruptions than
were to his taste. In availing himself of the liberties
of the essayist, the author has been enabled to avoid
on the one hand the necessary routine of the com
mentator, and on the other the conventional limita
tions and exhortations of the sermonizer.
The notes are selected with reference to their evi
dential value, the history and customs of the time,
the constitution and life of the first church, and,
above all, to the elucidation of the more difficult
passages of the text. Where the well-known com
mentaries have been quoted, credit has been given.
The plan imposes its own limitations, and it has
required constant care and great resolution on the
part of the author to keep within them.

26 STUDIES IN ACTS
Courtesy demands that the works that have been
most helpful to the author in the preparation of the
Essays should be named. Prof. B. A. Hinsdale's
compact and thoughtful little book, "The Jewish-
Christian Church," gave decided bent to the author's
thought while he was yet a college boy. Dr. Philip
Schaff's "History of the Apostolic Church" has
been used as an authority upon many points. Far-
rar's "Life and Work of St. Paul," a work of won
derful eloquence and research, has been frequently
helpful. Prof. W. M. Ramsay's recent critical work
entitled "St. Paul the Traveler and the Roman
Citizen" is indispensable to a thorough study of the
last half of Acts.
Should the humble studies here presented incite
the reader to a closer, wiser and more reverent
reading of this key-book of the New Testament, and
should it bring him into a sweeter relationship to
the Church of Christ, his present " Spirit-bearing
body" in the world, its object will be attained and
its mission fulfilled.

I.
THE FIRST SERMON AFTER THE ASCENSION

" I say the pulpit (in the sober use
Of its legitimate, peculiar powers)-
Must stand acknowledged while the world shall stand,
The most important aud effectual guard,
Support and ornament of virtue's cause.
There stands the messenger of truth. There stands
The legate ol the skies, his theme divine,
His office sacred, his credentials clear;
By him the violated law speaks out
Its thunders, and by him, iu strains as sweet
As angels use, the Gospel whispers peace." — Co'wper.
28

THE FIRST SERMON AFTER THE ASCENSION.
"Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God
hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and
Christ."— Acts ii. S6.
The second chapter of The Acts is vital. The
Holy Spirit is in it. It throbs with passionate elo
quence. It has the thrill of a divine logic. It
reaches a conclusion which immediately becomes a
conviction. There ring through it the cries of thou
sands of penitent souls. It gives the divine response
to these cries in its command to obedience and its
promise of forgiveness. It heralds the hope of sal
vation to all that are afar off, and to the children's
children of those who on that Pentecost day became
the anointed of The Anointed. It holds the history
of the beginning of the Church of Christ, and reveals
to us in the apostolic steadfastness, and in the
wholly fraternal relations of the first confessors, the
power of the new, new story to regenerate men and
transform society.
There are few chapters in the Bible comparable to
this in point of historic and spiritual values. Iu
Genesis we are told of the creation of man ; here is
the plan of his re-creation. In Exodus we still hear
the thunders of Sinai giving forth a law under which
39

30 STUDIES IN ACTS
a mob of people, but yesterday out of slavery, is
organized into an army and a nation; here the church
of the crucified but living and reigning Christ is
born. In the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, Messianic
prophecy reaches its loftiest strains and its sweetest
pathos; in this chapter that prophecy becomes his
tory, and the One from whom we "hid as it were our
faces," stands before us in resurrection regnancy,
commanding us to look upon him in everlasting
acknowledgment. The Apostle Paul's great chapter
on the resurrection is anticipated by the Apostle
Peter"s daring, impulsive, irresistible testimony in
this sermon. The thirteenth chapter of I. Corinth
ians teaches no higher form of love than is tacitly
taught in this, the crucified One offering au abundant
pardon to his murderers. The last chapter of Mat
thew, the last of Mark, and the last of Luke, con
tains, each, the risen Savior's last command, "Go,
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I
have commanded you;" this contains the execution
of that commission. It is in this chapter that we are
come — "Unto Mount Sion, and to the city of the
living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, aud to an innu
merable company of angels, to the general assembly
and church of the Firstborn, which are written in
heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the
spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the
mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of

STUDIES IN ACTS 31
sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of
Abel." It was in the year of our Lord 30, on a Sunday, on
a May day, probably the 27th, that the miracle of
Pentecost took place. Forty days after his resurrec
tion Jesus tarried visibly upon earth, giving to his
chosen witnesses "many infallible proofs" of his res
urrection, and therefore of his Messiahship. There
came the last solemn meeting with him, when with
pitiful yearning for their ancient theocracy they
asked of him this impertinent question: "Lord,
wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to
Israel?" This, then, was their final, political, un-
spiritual prayer! It is a startling indication of the
antagonism between their ideals and the Master's
own of his Messianic kingdom. Their tuition under
Jesus, his persistent refusal to wear any crown save
one of thorns, his death, his resurrection, had failed
to disabuse their minds of that ingrained nationalism
which, cherished on the part of the Jews as a nation,
was ultimately their ruin. Christ's answer to this ill-
timed prayer was indirect. He knew that one crown
ing miracle still was needed to "guide them into all
truth." Previously he had promised them the Holy
Spirit, and had indicated the office thereof in saying,
"He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine,
and shall show it unto you." His present answer in
cludes a command, a rebuke, and a reference to his
former promise. "It is not for you to know the
times or the seasons that the Father hath put in his

32 STUDIES IN ACTS
own power. But ye shall receive power after that
the Holy Spirit is come upon you; and ye shall be
witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in Judaea,
and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the
earth." These are his last words upon earth, and
they are a Godlike answer to a very human question.
Their j)oor plans of over-matching Caesar with "iron
and blood" were limited to the "kingdom of
Israel ; ' ' his matchless plan of over-matching all souls
with truth and love found its boundaries only in ' ' the
uttermost parts of the earth."
One lesson at least his disciples had learned : they
could wait. They returned from the scene of the
Ascension, and tarried in the city of Jerusalem "till
they were endued with power from on high."
On the day of Pentecost the Savior's promise was
fulfilled. "There came from heaven a sound as of a
rushing, mighty wind, and it filled all the house
where they were sitting. And there appeared unto
them cloven tongues as of fire, and it sat upon each
of them, and they were all filled with the Holy
Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues as the
Spirit gave them utterance." This was their endue
ment. Guided, empowered thus, the Apostle Peter gave
forth the greatest sermon ever preached. The names
of the most notable preachers, and the immortal
achievements of their "tongues of fire" are not
wanting to memory when this assertion is made —
Elijah, Hosea, Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel,

STUDIES IN ACTS 33
Ezra, John the Baptist, Paul, Chrysostom, Savon
arola, Luther, Whitefield, Edwards, Spurgeon, and
many another, all of whose names thrill us more than
those of kings and their counselors. There is one
sermon never to be forgotten in such an estimate as
we are attepapting, and the name of the preacher of
it is to be mentioned always reverently, and apart
from any possible roll of names that are noblest
among men. In its ethical and spiritual values the
Sermon on the Mount is confessedly supreme. But
its author does not present it as a completion. It is
rather an inception. Not till Jesus bowed his head
in death, saying, as he did so, "It is finished," was
that sermon finished. In the Sermon on the Mount
the death of Jesus is not foretold ; there is no hint of
his resurrection; the atonement is not taught. In
these points it is surpassed by the sermon of Peter on
that first Pentecost after the ascension. It was given
to the apostle to complete what the Master had
begun, or, rather, fully to declare the completions
revealed in the living, dying, and rising of the Mas
ter. "Verily, verily, I say unto you. He that believ
eth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and
greater works than these shall he do, because I go
unto my Father." "Because I go unto my Father"
— indicative of a finished work, a foundation in its
completion, whereupon they, his disciples, were to
build the house unto completion.
Peter's sermon was, therefore, to all preceding
preachers an impossibility. To the Savior him-

34 STUDir.3 i:,' acts
self it would have been an anachronism. Its repe
tition or its equal is likewise an impossibility to
all succeeding preachers, for the occasion, the inspi
ration and the results of Pentecost can never be
duplicated. Four .factors are essential to a great sermon. In
the first place there must be a great occasion. This
t'entecost occasion had been in preparation through
the whole of the nineteen Abrahamic centuries.
God had this day in view when he said to Abraham,
" In thee and in thy seed shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed." Sinai, with all that it means, the
theocracy and all of its history, the prophecy, poetry
and tragedy of the Jews through thirty generations,
the temple worship with its endless lineage of priests
and high priests, with its altars and victims and sol
emn mimicry of types and shadows, the majestic roll
of Hebrew prophets beginning with Moses and end
ing with John the Baptist, the whole of Hebrew
history from the golden age of Solomon to the awful
days of the Maccabees, — all, all is but preparation
for the completions that were preached on Pentecost.
John the Baptist is but the last of the many fore
runners of Christ. His cry, "Repent, for the king
dom of heaven is at hand," is the summary and
conclusion, terse and terrible, in the very presence
of the Christ, of the law and the prophets from
Moses to Malachi. Standing as the representative
not alone of Elijah, but of Isaiah as well, and of
Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and Daniel, and the rest

STUDIES IN ACTS 35
of Christ's great-souled forerunners, standing as the
last old covenant prophet and the best product
of a mighty ancestry, "the greatest among them
that are born of women," he introduces the Christ,
saying, "Behold the lamb of God that taketh away
the sin of the world." This man and all that for
which he stands in his incompleteness — "the least in
the kingdom of heaven is greater than he " — is like
wise a factor in the preparation for the completions
of Pentecost.
But, as already intimated, Christ himself is the
essential and the immediate preparation for that
event. The sermon goes back and looks into the
face of prophecy, but only that it may find Christ
there. The sixteenth Psalm is quoted, and now for
the first time the veil is lifted from it, for only in the
light of the crucifixion and the resurrection can the
face of Moses, and of David, be unveiled. "Men
and brethren, let me freely speak to you of the patri
arch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his
sepulcher is with us unto this day. Therefore being
a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an
oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according
to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his
throne; he seeing this before, spake of the resurrec
tion of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell (the
world of the dead) neither his flesh did see cor
ruption." Christ in prophecy meets Christ in fact. "Ye men
of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a

36 STUDIES IN ACTS
man approved of God among you by miracles and
wonders and signs, which God did by him in the
midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: him, being
delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowl
edge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands
have crucified [and slain: whom God hath raised up,
having loosed the pains of death, because it was not
possible that he should be holden of it." The life of
Jesus, therefore, and all that was unique in it; his
teaching, his miracles, his oneness with himself in
word and deed, his death, being at once the necessary
sequel and climax to his life, and his resurrection
together with the infallible proofs of it, all, all is in
the line of preparation for the Pentecost occasion.
If the crucifixion may be likened to a mighty storm-
cloud that passed in fury, raining divine blood
upon the earth, the resurrection may be similarly
likened to the indescribable glory of the sun, when,
as though he had conquered the storm, he turns to
paint upon its darkest breast his brightest bow of
^ promised peace. The terror and the glory of the
crucifixion and the resurrection were fresh in the
minds of myriads of the people of Judasa, and their
capital city had not yet recovered from the astonish
ment of the empty sepulcher when the day of Pente
cost had fully come. , The thousands of pilgrims
who gathered from many lands to keep the feast in
the Holy City could not have been ignorant of what
had happened, for so early as the day of the resur
rection it was the topic of conversation by the way-

STUDIES IN ACTS 37
side, and whoever had not heard it was immediately
taken for a stranger. " These things were not done
in a corner."
In addition to all this, and the last circumstance to
be named as contributing to the occasion, was the
harvest feast itself, the second of the three great festi-'
vals of the Jews. Worshiping strangers were present
from many lands, and the city and the temple courts
were thronged with devout and expectant crowds.
Did they remember the young Galilean who had
twice cleansed the temple of its company of monopo
listic thieves, scourging them, and overthrowing their
money tables? Did they recall the terrible energy
of his words, and his look of divine indignation as he
said, "Take these things hence; make not my Fath
er's house a house of merchandise? " Did these
recollections connect themselves with others fresher
in mind of the dreadful noonday darkness that boded
no good of his crucifixion, of the earthquake and the
rending of the temple veil, and above all of his resur
rection, quiet, divine, and terrible defiance as it was
of Jewish malignity and Roman power? Did throngs
of curious awe-struck people go now to gaze in at the
empty sepulcher, and now upon the torn veil of the
temple? Had the story of his appearances and dis
appearances gotten abroad, and were there hopes
and fears on the part of friends and foes? Had he
not promised that he would come again, and had he
not threatened that of their temple not one stone
should be left upon another that should not be

38 STUDIES IN ACTS
thrown down? One may not unwisely guess that
there were forebodings of evil in many a heart, that
there was expectancy on the part of all, and that
when his disciples began to speak miraculously
amidst the throngs in the temple courts there was
intense excitement. It was a great occasion for
which the history of centuries, and the tragedy of
history, which to the worshipers there was the
tragedy of the season, had prepared the way. Such
preparations, such conditions, such an occasion can
never return. All is unique.
The second essential to a great sermon is a great
preacher. No man preaches taller than he is. It is
not the office of the Holy Spirit to make suddenly
and for the occasion giants of pigmies, sages of
clowns, prophets of platform jobbers, or heroes of
political cravens. From the pulpit wag, the sen
sationalist of the hour, the Cheap-John comic draw
ing card, you may expect smirks, jokes, the puns of
last year's almanac, the slang of the street, the mere
plausible tall-talk for which the multitudes having
itching ears make constant demands. Our colleges
and theological seminaries would perform a valuable
service to mankind if they would make a business,
metaphorically speaking, of strangling pulpit wags in
embryo. The prostitution of the pulpit is not the
least of the sins for which the trifler in divine things,
the small dogmatic Doctor of Divinity, the evan
gelistic buffoon, and the mere political huckster of
denominational eccentricities, must sometime answer.

STUDIES IN ACTS 39
But the pulpit and the sermon, as looked upon by
the great and serious soul, present no opportunity
for trifling. The Apostle Paul said, "We are the
savour of death unto death, and of life unto life.
Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not
as many who corrupt the word of God, but as of sin
cerity, as of God, in the sight of God speak we in
Christ." Chrysostom, already in his youth an accom
plished rhetorician, rushed away and spent six years
in lonesome study and devout meditation before he
consented to enter the pulpit. Savonarola kindled
his soul from the fires of Old Testament prophecy,
and from his pulpit kindled the fires of revolution in
Florence. With him preaching was so serious a busi
ness that when the papal agents sought to purchase
his conscience with a cardinal's cap he merely said
that he expected a cap some day red with his own
blood. Jonathan Edwards " lived, an absorbed spirit,
in the study. . . . He was a man of faith and
prayer, a man who handled the things that are unseen
as things really seen and felt; a mind shining through
a beautiful face, . . . terribly in earnest, with a
dreadful sense that sin was sin, Satan, Satan, and
Christ, Christ." The man, the real man in the
pulpit does realize that,
"There he stands
The legate of the skies, his theme divine,
His office sacred, his credentials clear.
By him, the violated law speaks out its thunders.
And by him, in strains as sweet as angels use,
The Gospel whispers peace."

40 STUDIES IN ACTS
Suited to the greatness of the Pentecost occasion
there was a great preacher. The Apostle Peter was
no longer "an ignorant fisherman," if he ever was
that. He had had three years or more under this
world's Master of masters, he had had spiritual
experiences that were worth infinitely more to him
than all the possible curricula of legalistic and rab
binical lore of his time, and above all else he was
greatly and especially inspired for this day's work.
Three years with Jesus, going about and doing good,
hearing, seeing, practicing, puzzled, asking questions,
grandly confessing Christ, and, from his standpoint
as grandly rebuking him; as grandly also, still from
his standpoint, out of crushed hopes and a broken
heart, denying him; and after all compelled to read
the meaning of these experiences in the light of the
resurrection, and for that purpose endued with and
guided by the Holy Spirit — this is the great man,
greatly schooled, absolutely subdued, totally regen
erated, positively inspired, who stands up match
lessly equipped for this matchless occasion.
The third essential to a great sermon is a great
theme. The Spirit does not go forth with the sound
as of a rushing, mighty wind, nor do the cloven
tongues of fire appear for the declaration of trifles.
Platitudes and attitudes are not the secret of heart-
moving power. The meanness of the theme belittles
the man and his pulpit; the grandeur of the theme
exalts him and it. Out of the presumable science,
philosophy, or politics of the day, there may come

STUDIES IN ACTS 41
forth any amount of pulpit oration, no doubt, rang
ing all the way from twaddle to gabble, and from
gabble to fustian, and the twaddle and gabble and
fustian may, indeed, have some seasoning of the Gos
pel in high, homeopathic solution; but are we to call
this preaching? Jesus preached about so slight a
thing as a lost coin, and a lost sheep, but his real
theme was a lost soul, and out of that theme there
grew the pearl of his parables, the one doubly and
properly named "The Parable of the Prodigal Son,"
"The Parable of Fatherly Love." The themes of
Jesus are simple, but they are sublime ere he leaves
them, for into the commonplaces of earth he pours
the spiritual content of faith and hope and love, of
repentance and forgiveness and restoration, and he
concludes by setting the whole of it in the perspec
tive of endless days.
How can one fitly speak of the Apostle Peter's
Pentecost theme! It is the theme of mankind,
of the angels, and of the ages. It is the theme of
prophecy preceding, and history succeeding, a certain
date. Once it was the theme of types and shadows
embodied in stately forms of ritualistic worship; as
the shadows give place to substance, their theme be
comes the exclusive one of apostles, martyrs, heroes
and reformers, whose names are without number. It
is still the theme, and shall ever be, of all preachers
that are preachers, of all poets that are poets, of all
martyrs and prophets and reformers and philoso-

42 STUDIES IN ACTS
phers who are genuinely so, and not the mere effigies
of their respective classes.
When Whittier would overreach himself in the
production of his finest ode, he can choose no theme
but the Christ, "Our Master." In his "In Memo-
riam," Tennyson's friend, whom he tenderly remem-
be.rs and fondly hopes again to meet, is less his theme
than the Christ, through faith in whom he lifts up
his hopes in poetic forms, till the poem becomes an
anthem and a sermon, beginning with
" strong Son of God, immortal Love,
"Whom we, that have not seen thy face,
By faith and faitli alone embrace.
Believing where we cannot prove."
And closing with
' ' That God which ever lives and loves,
One God, one law, one element.
And one far off, divine event.
To which the whole creation moves."
Our English epic, "Paradise Lost," cannot so
much as get itself introduced by its great author
without the most fervent expression of recovery
through Christ. Disobedience, death, woe, loss of
Eden, are only — "Till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat.''
It has been said there is no poetry without God.
Since "God was in Christ reconciling the world to
himself," let it be said quite as positively, there is no
poetry without Christ. And if no poetry, then also

STUDIES IN ACTS 43
no philosophy, no history, no highest life of any sort.
Henry B. Smith, formerly of Union Theological
Seminary, says, "God in Christ, reconciling the
world unto himself, is the burden of the Bible, and it
is also the burden of history." In this connection he
quotes the great Swiss historian, John Von Miiller,
who gives the results of his life-long labors, extracted
from 1,733 authors, in the striking confession, that
"Christ is the key to the history of the world. Not
only does all harmonize with the mission of Christ,
all is subordinated to it. When I saw this," he
continues, " it was to me as wonderful and surprising
as the light which Paul saw on the way to Damascus,
the fulfillment of all hopes, the completion of all
philosophy, the key to all the apparent contradictions
of the physical and moral world; here is life and im
mortality. I marvel not at miracles; a far greater
miracle has been reserved for our times, the spectacle
of the connection of all human events in the estab
lishment and preservation of the doctrine of Christ."
Christ was the Apostle Peter's theme on the day of
Pentecost. Christ, of whom Herder has said, "He is
the realized ideal of humanity;" whom Carlyle calls,
" Our divinest symbol, a symbol of quite perennial,
infinite character;" of whom Dorner says, "He is the
perfect revelation of God, and at the same time the
perfection of humanity;" of whose life Schaff says,
"It is the moral miracle of history;" — Christ, at
whose feet, inerrant, and wounded, as at the feet of

44 STUDIES IN ACTS
the Master supreme, the greatest masters of earth
unanimously, reverently bow.
Note the argument of the sermon. Jesus of
Nazareth, a man approved of God by miracles and
wonders and signs; delivered by the counsel of God,
and slain by wicked hands; by God raised from the
dead, exalted, seated at the right hand of the Most
High till his foes are his footstool; and, finally, giver
of the Holy Spirit, — these are the mighty passages
of directly inspired, impetuous, daring, apostolic tes
timony. The climax, the conclusion, the effective, heart-
piercing appeal of the sermon, are all reached in the
words that are chosen to stand as the caption of
this essay: "Therefore, let all the house of Israel
know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus,
whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ."
There is no other theme, there is no other conclu
sion for the pulpit. The platform, the forum, the
academic chair, may deal with inferior themes, and
reach other, minor conclusions, but not the pulpit.
The moment the pulpit undertakes to present or
represent any other than Christ, or to enforce truth
other than and inferior to this, namely, that God
hath made him Lord and Christ, that moment the
pulpit ceases to be the pulpit, and becomes by neces
sity something other, but not better. Forever and
forever the Christological preacher, and therefore
also the evangelistic one, must find in this sermon
his model. Surely it is with accurate, homiletic in-

STUDIES IN ACTS 45
stinct that Joseph Parker has said, "As a matter of
fact, the Apostle Peter preached the only sermon
that any Christian minister is ever at liberty to
preach. This discourse of Peter's is not nineteen
centuries old. This is the model sermon. This is
the evangelistic doctrine."
The occasion was unique. To match it the
preacher was especially chosen, peculiarly trained,
divinely-inspired. His theme was Christ. One thing
remains to make the sermon great; its effect was
great. Three thousand were "pricked in the heart;"
three thousand became inquirei-s, and were told
explicitly what to do; they did it exactly. They
received the promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit,
and in their rebirth the church of Christ was born.
Significant beyond the fact that three thousand souls
were turned to Christ is the question that they asked,
and the answer it received. They have passed away
from earth, but their question abides; it is the soul-
cry of humanity, " Men and brethren, what shall we
do?" And the answer to it, given under such cir
cumstances, and with such sanctions, must be an
abiding answer. If the pulpit is unique, if its theme
is unique, if its peculiar province is to call forth this
question, then shall not its answer be likewise
unique, and shall it not be explicit, and forever
imperative? "Repent and be baptized, every one of
you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of
sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy

46 STUDIES IN ACTS
Spirit." Repentance! Baptism! Remission! the
Holy Spirit! — here is the atonement! " God was in
Christ reconciling the world to himself," and this
is the way reconciliation began on that first Pen
tecost after the ascension, in the persons of thrice
a thousand souls.
This sermon is great in that it completely presents
the Gospel in its completion.
The manner of it is a model, the Apostle Peter
having been greatly schooled and greatly inspired
for its delivery.
It is great in its exclusion of things irrelevant.
Not one word is said about restoring the kingdom
again to Israel, though this was the last thought
uppermost with the disciples at the moment of
Christ's ascension.
It is Christological rather than theological, and
inductive rather than deductive. In a very great
manner it is barren, therefore, of metaphysics, the
ories, dogmas, and the general guess-work impu
dently conceived and dogmatically enforced of all
merely rationalistic, because merely syllogistic, and
therefoi-e merely logic-chopped theology.
It is great in presenting Christ as he presented
himself, "Approved of God by miracles and signs
and wonders which God did by him; " crucified,
buried, risen, exalted, expectant, regnant, claiming
the world at the price of his blood.
It is great in moving the hearts of the people as
fields of grain are shaken by the wind. At once to

STUDIES IN ACTS 47
enlighten the mind, to touch the heart, and to bend
man's stubborn will before God's will till cries for
mercy are forthcoming is the most majestic effect of
speech. It is great in its revelation of the new way of
access to God "through the veil, that is to say, his
flesh," commanding that "the heart be sprinkled
from an evil conscience, and the body washed with
pure water."
It is great in its promise of the Holy Spirit, and in
its extension of that promise to " all that are afar
off." It is the greatest sermon ever preached.

II.
THE FIRST CHURCH

"Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he
might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of "water by the
word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not
ha"ving spot or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it should be
holy and "without blemish."— £ph. v, 25-27.
"The church is no other than the outward, visible representation
of the inward communion of believers "witli the Redeemer and "with
one another." — SeanHer.
"Over against the di"risions of race and continent the Church
raises still its witness to the possibility of a universal brotherhood ;
over against despair and dispersion it speaks of faith and the unity
of knowledge; over against pessimism it lifts up a perpetual
Eucharist." — ne'e, W, Loch, 50

n.
THE FIRST CHURCH.
"Theu they that gladly received his word were baptized; and the
same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. ' '
— Acts ii, 41,
The word received was the conclusion of the Apos
tle Peter's sermon and his answer to the inquirers'
question. This was the conclusion: "Let all the
house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made
that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord
and Christ." This was the answer to the question:
"Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the
name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and
ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." This
conclusion and this answer were respectively creed
and charter of the new-born church. They " received
his word;" that is, they accepted the creed and com
plied with the conditions of the charter. A great
change had come over them in the few weeks since
they clamored for the crucifixion of Jesus, and
hooted around his cross, and wagged their heads in
mockery while he expired in majesty. The miracle
of the tongues and the power of the Holy Spirit
bringing proof of the resurrection of Jesus, had
broken up the fountains of the great deep in the
hearts of the hitherto impenitent multitudes, and
51

52 STUDIES IN ACTS
many doors flew open now where the Master himself
had stood knocking in vain. They "were baptized;"
that is, they acknowledged their faith in Christ
openly; they submitted, in a figure, to die with him
that they might rise with him; they took the step
that severed them from the old, and brought them
into new relations with God. In baptism they
reached the culmination of conversion, for conver
sion is immersion — the immersion of the mind in the
mind of Jesus ; of the heart in the love of Jesus ; of
the will in the purpose of Jesus;. of the body in
water in the name of Jesus, coupled with the name
of his Father and ours, and with the name of the
Holy Spirit, his and ours. So the three thousand
"were added." It is the Pentecostal plan of the
addition, and therefore also of the multiplication of
believers. Not a word is said about any further basis of mem
bership than this. Whatever brought a soul into
Christ brought him also into the church of Christ,
and the basis of the union of souls in the Head of
the church was by necessity the basis of their union
and communion in the body of it. Thus the question
of Christian union is reduced to a mathematical ex
actness. The last word to be said on the subject is
this: union with Christ is union with his church, and
those who are members of his body are therefore
"members one of another." We have made many
sad and foolish schisms, but the saddest and fool-
ishest is that between Christ himself and his owa

STUDIES IN ACTS 53
body. We cannot, somehow, seem to understand
that the church is his, and that all who are members
of him are by necessity members of it. Our difficul
ties are of our own creation. We have failed to
understand the primary union of the Savior with the
saved, of the Lord with his domain, of the Head with
his own proper body, speaking after the fashion of
the Apostle Paul; and having gone wrong in this
primary matter, we have been going wrong by
sequence in all secondary ones. Foolishly and with
measurable impudence we have dragged in our creeds
and polities; we demand places for our clashing
isms, and recognition of our pet notions; we talk of
our denominations, and propose federation of them,
as though they were the things to be united; on the
contrary, the things to be united are Christ and our
selves. When you and I are united with Christ, and
consequently with one another, we are then to go
anywhere in this world and claim our place at any
communion table that is his. In defiance of dogmas
and theologies and theometries and rituals and poli
ties and isms and schisms and ecolesiasticisms and
hierarchies, high or low, I have a right to the bread
wherever it is broken in his name, and to the wine
wherever it speaks to me of his blood — I have a right
to it if I am his. We need to reassert the primal,
Pentecostal "addition" of believers to believers.
That mode of "addition" is the solution of the
whole problem, and its proper and practical assertion
would forever forestall such talk as is too common

. 54 STUDIES IN ACTS
and commonplace about the variously proposed bases
of union, such as "The Apostles' Creed," noble, and
true, perhaps, and hoary with age, though the apos
tles themselves never dreamed of it; and "The
Quadrilateral," proposed as a basis of union by such
as, claiming the Apostolic Succession, have evidently
lost the apostolic simplicity; and the Evangelical
Alliance creed, and any number of things except the
one, Pentecostal, right thing. If we knew it, all
Christians are already united in Christ just as the
Pentecost thousands were; they all claim the
same eternal Father, they are all journeying to the
same heaven ; they have only to drop their extrane
ous, and superfluous, and mischievous peculiarities,
and bravely acknowledge their existing oneness.
If the first church was by birth a unit, by its edu
cation it continued its coherence. " They continued
steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship,
and in the breaking of bread and in prayers." The
teaching and fellowship of the apostles, prayer and
the eucharist, are the divinely-appointed means of
ordination and of co-ordination in the church of
Christ. The writer of Acts leaves the phrase " apos
tles' teaching" unqualified, seemingly suggesting
that their doctrines were so well known as to need
no iteration. And we do know, if we stop to think
about it, precisely what they taught. The Pentecost
sermon is a summary of it; the Gospels are an
enlargement of it; the epistles are the completion
of it. Day after day they must have repeated the

STUDIES IN ACTS 55
story of Christ's resurrection, and from that they
must have gone back in memory to dwell upon his
life, full of childlike simplicity and more than man
like perplexity, and clothed at once in warp and
woof of humility and majesty. They must have had
occasion, as all pastors have, to enforce his style of
forbearance and forgiveness, many and many a time,
upon his fledgling followers; often they must have
described with accuracy and with the enthusiasm of
a vivid remembrance his walk upon the waves when
tossed by the night winds, his transfiguration, sun
like pre-robing of glory for a season's communion
with glorified ones, and his strange semi-earthly,
semi-heavenly appearances after his resurrection;
and very frequently they must have turned to their
Scriptures and to the temple-worship proceeding
daily around them, to find many a prophetic promise
and sacramental type of him. The apostles were
not theologians; they had not so degenerated.
Christological! Their teachings were wholly that.
The Holy Spirit was not given to make theologians
of them, but to glorify Christ through them. They
had been trained by Jesus to trust God as children
trust a Father, and to believe in himself us both
Lord and Christ, and to go about doing good.
They were entirely and beneficently innocent of all
speculations about Monarchianism, and Eutychian-
ism, and Monophysitisra, and Monothelitism,
and Supra-lapsarianism, and Sublapsarianism, and
the Kenosis, and the Krypsis, and the genus ideo-

56 STUDIES IN ACTS
maticwn, and the genus apotelesmaticum, and the
genus inajestaticum, and of transubstantiation, and
consubstantiation, and eternal generation, and
eternal procession, and co-substantiality and tri-per-
sonality, and the voliproBse7itia, or the multivoli-
prcesentia of Christ as opposed to the absolute
ubiquity of his humanity from his very infancy —
O thank God ! The apostles were beneficently inno
cent of all this. They were too reverent and prac
tical to indulge in such meddlesome and useless
speculations. Not until the ill-starred times when
there came an alliance between the Christian faith
on the one hand and Greek speculation and Roman
dogmatism on the other, and not till men lost their
reverence in the heat and impetuosity of their pur
suit of laartisan ends was it possible to indulge in the
"profane and vain babblings" that encompass the
whole history of theology. The members of the first
church, "continuing steadfastly in the doctrine of
the apostles," lived in the enjoyment of a loving loy
alty to the personal Lordship of Jesus, and since
Jesus was a brother and a friend and a reality to
them they would have speculated quite as readily
about one another as about him. Even John, the
most mystical of all the twelve, kept through the
whole of his life to a reverently simple and absolute
declaration of that "Word," which he had seen,
which he had looked upon, which he had heard, and
his hands had handled (I. John i. 1-3). From that

STUDIES IN ACTS 57
he proceeded immediately to practical matters, for
bidding speculative ones.
It is needful to note in a word that the first church
enjoyed the fellowship of the apostles together with
their teaching. Forever and forever the teachers
whom Christ appoints are to be the " fellows," the
friends and brothers of those whom they are ap
pointed to teach. The lords over the heritage, with
their secular scepters and high miters, have ceased to
be apostolical, since with albs and crosiers and palli-
ums and red caps and clerical titles, and every pos
sible distinction between themselves and "the laity,"
from the peculiar cut of a coat to the supercilious
assumption of infallibility, such teachers have sep
arated themselves from their disciples. The fellow
ship, the friendship, the environment of the teacher
is essential to the completest efficacy of his teaching.
Hence Jesus lived among his disciples. Hence the
apostles lived among the members of the first church.
Hence the true pastor must live among his people,
and the ringing of door-bells is quite as essential as
thfe announcing of texts. From the fellowship of
the apostles, and the fellowship of all true teach
ers and pastors, out through the medium of the
church there is to go forth at last that fellowship,
which, breaking down all caste, is to compass the
whole earth, —
""When each shall flnd his own in all men's good,
And all men dwell in noble brotherhood,"
and when each man's title to reverence shall pro-

58 STUDIES IN ACTS
ceed from his ministerial rather than his magisterial
service to men.
The first church continued steadfastly in the break
ing of bread and in prayers. According to the forty-
sixth verse of the chapter this "breaking of bread "
was a daily service. It was modeled after Christ's
last supper with his disciples, which was a full meal;
after that the bread and the wine were passed,
blessed with his blessing, and set apart forever to
the remembrance of hira. Gradually changes came
both in the time and the manner of the observance
of this communal supper and communion service. In
the twentieth chapter of Acts we already have indica
tions that the daily feast had in the Gentile church at
Troas passed over into a weekly one, and that the first
day of the week was the statedly appointed time for it.
But that the communal supper, or love-feast, as it
has been called, and the communion service were
separated during the days of the apostles is not quite
clear. There are indications of such separation in
the Apostle Paul's instructions to the Corinthian
church, for in this church the supper fell under
shameful abuses, " one being hungry and another
drunken." The apostle thereupon rebuked them,
saying, " What? Have you not houses to eat and
drink in? Or despise ye the church of God, and
shame them that are poor? " Then, following this
suggestion that they should eat and drink in their
own houses, that is, that they should take their own
suppers in their own houses, he emphasizes in the

STUDIES IN ACTS 59
most solemn way the Lord's supper as commemo
rative of the Lord's death. This much is certain:
the daily communal supper was never commanded
by Christ, and from its natui-e it could not become
permanent in the church. The communion service,
on the other hand, was commanded, and its nature
bespeaks its permanence.
Before Jesus died, in anticipation of his death, he
broke the bread and blessed it, and he blessed the
wine, and gave both to his disciples as age-long,
sacred symbols of himself, afflicted though he was,
and despised, and rejected of men, yet devoted to
men, and already in intent as truly dead as when he
died. Oh, the love, the courage, the dauntlessness of
Jesus! With a present tense preceding his dea'bh he
calmly gave to his disciples and to the world a
reminder of something that was yet to be. " This is
my body which is broken for you!" "This cup is
the New Testament in my blood!" He is a Lamb
"slain from the foundation of the world." In in
tent, and no less in fact, the atonement runs through
the whole of his life, of which his death is but
the climax, of which his resurrection is the seal, it
being his second and final transfiguration never to
be followed by humiliation. The death of Jesus
is not an accident. It is an integral part of his life.
To remember his death is to remember him, and his
atoning death is his atoning self, given, devoted, in
anticipation slain, slain from the first, yet in resur
rection living forever.

60 STUDIES IN ACTS
In their direct way of looking at it, the Pentecost
Christians could never have dreamed of anything so
shocking as the Mediaeval doctrine of "blood atone
ment." To them the death-tragedy of Jesus was the
culmination of his life-tragedy, the two being bound
together as antecedent and consequent, thus forming
one mighty movement of the one transcendent life,
the whole acknowledged of God and sealed by him in
the resurrection of his Son from the dead. And
where is the efficacy of this mingled tragedy of life
and deatli and resurrection? On Pentecost it pricked
the thousands in their hearts; they cried in peni
tence and baptism unto God, and were forgiven, and
that was their atonement. After repentance and for
giveness, to talk about a divine justice or a divine
law still to be "satisfied," is ill-timed and illogical.
A father who has looked upon the face of his penitent
child and has forgiven him, is already satisfied, and
more sweetly so than by any possible other "pay
ment." To the first Christian church, therefore,
the communion service must have been a weekly
reminder of Christ and all that the apostles were con
tinually telling about him; and of that pricking in
the heart which brought them to repentance and
baptism; and of the Holy Spirit's blessed promise
thereupon of the forgiveness of their sins. In the
light of this chapter the atonement, the "¦unio
mijstica,'" well-nigh ceases to be mystical; theology
becomes Christology, and the Lord's supper becomes
a Father's feast, with the Elder Brother and all the

STUDIES IN ACTS 61
children at table, breaking bread from one loaf, par
taking of wine from a common cup, remembering the
one body and the one blood of the one Greatest
Brother, and not forgetting that " God hath made of
one blood (is it not the same?) all the nations of the
earth." The communion service thus, when prop
erly seen from the standpoint of the first church, will
set our eyes looking upon the simplest, sweetest sort,
not of doctrinal but of practical and actual atone
ment, and it will set them looking also both Godward
and manward in heaven-high and world-wide ways.
However, this question should not be studied in
the spirit of triumphant rationalism, but in caution
and reverence, since there are positions that easily
offer themselves to a hasty logic based upon the
rough and ready dealings of man with man, rather
than upon the revealed dealings of God with man.
Though the first church must be exonerated from
the Romish doctrine of the vicarious atonement, it
must nevertheless have been influenced in its views
of the death of Jesus by the sacrificial system upon
which, through all their generations, the Jews had
been trained to look with utmost reverence. The
standpoint of John the Baptist is evidently that
also of John the Apostle, and is therefore indicative
of that of the apostolic church: "Behold the Lamb
of God that taketh away the sin of the world."
John Euskin, revolting with all of his characteris
tically seer-like soul from much that is taught in
theology, has, nevertheless, with accurate, spiritual

62 STUDIES IN ACTS
and scriptural insight, avoided an extreme that has
proved too great an allurement to many a smaller
soul, namely, that the death of Jesus has no other
than ethical and evidential values for us. The fol
lowing paragraph is from his "The Art of England,"
and is so fair a comment upon many a passage in the
New Testament as to deserve a place in every such
discussion as this:
"None of you who have the least acquaintance with
the general tenor of my own teaching will suspect in
me any bias toward the doctrine of vicarious sacrifice
as it is taught by the modern evangelical preacher.
But the great mystery of the idea of sacrifice itself,
which has been manifested as one united and solemn
instinct by all thoughtful and affectionate races since
the wide world became peopled, is founded upon the
secret truth of benevolent energy which all men who
have tried to gain it have learned — that you cannot
save men from death but l)y facing it for them, nor
from sin but by resisting it for them. It is, on the
contrary, the favorite and the worst falsehood of
modern infidel morality, that you serve your fellow-
creatures best by getting a percentage out of their
pockets, and will best provide for starving multitudes
by regaling yourselves. Some day or other — proba
bly now very soon — too probably by heavy afflictions
of the state, we shall be taught that it is not so; and
that all the true good and glory, even of this world —
not to speak of any that is to come — must be bought
still, as it always has been, with our toil and with our

STUDIES IN ACTS 63
tears. That is the final doctrine, the inevitable one,
not of Christianity only, but of all heroic faith and
heroic being; and the first trial question of a true
soul must be — Have I a religion, have I a country,
have I a love, that I am ready to die for?"
The first church was a praying church. It was
ushered in by the way of prayer, for in that upper
room previous to the day of Pentecost "they all con
tinued with one accord in prayer and supplication."
It was nourished by prayer, and within the apostolic
environment it breathed the atmosphere of prayer.
The church of Christ is unique in that it is a praying
brotherhood. There are secret fraternities, and com
mercial fraternities, and fighting fraternities, but the
secret and the wealth and the weapons of the church
are in prayer. The effectual, fervent prayers of the
first church were not without startling efficacy.
When they communed they prayed; when they or
dained deacons they prayed; when they were perse
cuted they prayed; if they died, they died praying,
and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." When
Peter was in prison they prayed daily for him, and
even while they prayed he stood, to their surprise,
knocking at their gate. For the angel of the Lord
answered their prayers, taking him from the sleeping
soldiers, and leading him forth through prison doors
and iron gates that "opened of their own accord."
A i^rayerless Christian is an anomaly, and likewise a
prayerless church. Prayer belongs among the "all
things " that Jesus commanded to be taught. " Jesus

64 STUDIES IN ACTS
himself," says Mozoomdar, "lived and died in
prayer." " They saw prayer when they beheld Jesus
praying, for as he prayed the fashion of his counte
nance was altered."
"There is more wisdom in a whispered prayer
Than in the ancient lore of all the schools ;
The soul upon its knees holds God by the hand."
The laws of prayer may be traced in the prayers of
the first church. They who continued in prayer were
all believers in Christ as their Savior, and therefore
in God as their Father; such belief is the first law of
Christian prayer.
They were all obedient, having done punctually and
precisely what they were commanded to do; this is
the second law of Christian prayer.
Unarmed and in the midst of enemies who would
soon let loose the fires of persecution upon them,
they were helpless without God, and therefore de
pendent upon him; this is the third law of Christian
prayer. As shown in their community of distribution, these
Christians loved, and love is a sacred condition of
prayer. "He prayeth best who loveth best
All things both great and small ;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all."
"Prayer is the highest form of speech l!iat human
lips can try."
"A man holds himself at his best when he prays."

STUDIES IN ACTS 65
Prayer is the other half of work. It is the prov
ince of the Christian to work and pray.
The first church "had all things common, aud sold
their possessions and goods, and parted them to all
men as every man had need." This was a voluntary,
not a compulsory communism. The right to their
own property both before and after the sale of it was
recognized by the Apostle Peter in the case of Ana
nias and Sapphira. "Whiles it remained was it not
thine own? And after it was sold was it not in thine
own power?" These people were condemned for
their attempted deception, not for their retention of
a portion of their goods. Doubtless many of the
members of this church retained their own houses, as
was the case with Mary the mother of John, in whose
house they gathered to pray for Peter when he was in
prison, Acts xii. 12. The common store did not
enrich the apostles, for they said to the lame man at
the gate of the temple, " Silver and gold have we
none." Yet, that the goods were " laid at the apos
tles' feet" indicates that they had the entire control
of them. Their use of them therefore must have
been strictly for the good of the community, and not
at all for personal gain.
The dangers to which the first Christians were sub
jected, their common faith and love, and their expec
tation of the early reappearance of Jesus, led many
of them to this voluntary surrender of their goods.
After all, the communism was in distribution rather

68 STUDIES IX ACTS
than in possession. The first church had no claim
on the goods of its members, it was simply a store
house for their free-will offerings. There was no
confiscation on the part of the church, and no obliga
tion on the part of the members except the con
straint of their enthusiasm and love. But in distri
bution there was the strictest obligation resting on
the apostles to see that every one was supplied
according to his needs. As the church grew the work
became too great for them, and hence the appoint
ment of the seven deacons to whom the service of
the "tables" was committed, the apostles giving
themselves to the preaching of the word.
Such a communism of the storing and distribution
of voluntary gifts is not traceable in any of the Gen
tile churches^ and it seems to have led ultimately to
the poverty and dependence of many in the first
church, for in later years the Apostle Paul went
about among the Gentile Christians in Macedonia and
Achaia soliciting help for the "poor saints which
were in Jerusalem."
In close and profitable study the accidental must be
distinguished from the essential. In the first church
the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, the
breaking of bread, and the prayers, were essential
and permanent. The canceling of any of these fac
tors would cripple any church. But the communism
was accidental and transient, and passed away with
the transient conditions from which it arose. The
essential and abiding principle underneath this outer

STUDIES IN ACTS 67
communism was the spirit of brotherly kindness,
under the constraint of which none of them said that
aught of the things which he possessed was his own.
True stewards of God's gifts, they held their prop
erty at the service of his church. This was the abid
ing, social soul of Christianity, and it was manifested
as truly by the churches of Macedonia and Achaia in
their gifts to the "poor saints" far away, and of
another and erstwhile hateful lineage, as by those
who in Jerusalem sold their lands and laid the prices
at the apostles' feet. Out of this, the abiding social
soul of Christianity, there has gone forth through all
the centuries that bear the name of our Lord the
innumerable benefactions of his church. Schools,
hospitals, asylums, churches, missions and martyr
doms have sprung from it; and the most advanced of
civilizations owe themselves to it; and even revolu
tions have been indirectly due to it when under the
constraint of tyranny this spirit, misguided, has
become an explosive force among the multitudes of
men. This fraternal spirit in Christianity is
coming more and more to express itself in forms of
popular government and in altruistic ways. It
must become regnant throughout all the arts of pro
duction, and the avenues of distribution, till justice
and charity consort together, and the hungry are fed,
and the naked are clothed, and the imprisoned are
visited, and the sick and the sinful are ministered
unto, each according to his crying needs. Beyond all
notions of enforced state communism, which can

68 STUDIES IN ACTS
have no warrant from the book of Acts, there rises
the lofty socialism of the Master himself, " Inasmuch
as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my
brethren, ye have done it unto me." And if the
decisions of the judgment day are to rest upon jus
tice, and if justice is to be wedded with charity in the
ultimate righting of social wrongs, if this is the con
clusion arrived at by our wisest leaders of thought,
then let it be remembered that this also is the conclu
sion of Christ's pictured day of awful reckonings,
and that the parable of ministrations becomes on the
one hand the parable of sweetest invitations, and on
the other of eternal condemnations. Christianity is
not communism, but it is fraternism, and to the cold
and hungry brother at the door it does not say,
"Depart in peace; be ye warmed and filled."

m.
THE FIRST PERSECUTION

"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse
you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that
despitefully use you and persecute you ; that ye may be the children
of your Father who is in heaven ; for he maketh his sun to rise on
the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the
unjust." — Matt. v. 44, 45.
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye
huUd the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of the
righteous, and say. If we had been in the days of our fathers, we
would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the
prophets. 'Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves that ye are
children of them who killed the prophets. Fhl ye up then the meas
ure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of "vipers, how can.
ye escape the judgment of hell 1 "— Jlfott. xxiii. 29-33.
70

III.
THE FIRST PERSECUTION.
"And as they spake to the people, the priests, and the captain of
the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, being grieved that
they taught the people, and preached tlirough Jesus the resurrection
from the dead." — Acts iv. i, 2.
A REMARKABLE soui'ce of grief surely ! This is not
irony, it is history. Men may be known by what they
are accustomed to weep over, as well as by what they
delight to laugh at. They wagged their heads when
Jesus died; they now mourn when he is preached.
Thus in their mockery and their mourning these
wretched misleaders of God's ancient, chosen, and
glorious people, have given their measure to all the
world, and the world has rewarded them by keeping
their remembrance as a hiss and a by-word. In pro
portion to its valuation of Jesus the world metes out
execration, not to his murderers, but to their cher
ished hardness of heart, and the brighter the glor}"
that gathers round him the deeper the darkness intO'
which their sins are cast.
Christ's resurrection was God's answer to the
nation that murdered Christ. The empty sepulcher
and the miracle of Pentecost were the chagrin and
the confusion of the haters of Jesus. The believers
suddenly became an army numbering thousands; they
n

72 STUDIES IM ACTS
were gathered into a community, many wonders and
signs were done by the apostles, and fear came upon
every soul. The crucifixion darkness that gathered
at noonday, the earthquake and the rending of the
temple veil, the report of the resurrection and the
miracle of tongues, the new community and the con-
continued wonder-working of the apostles, was the
terrible array, mightier than an army with banners,
which God brought to front the consciences of his
rebellious and gainsaying people. By the voice of
this mighty array, as in the most majestic, mourn
ful language of forsaken love, God was still calling
to his people, and saying, "Repent, and be baptized,
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for
the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of
the Holy Spirit." This is tlje Pentecost translation
of Isaiah's tongue of fire, and of Jeremiah's mourn
ing, and of Ezekiel's rebukes, plus the superlative
emphasis of Christ's own tears and blood and empty
tomb. For a while the leaders of the nation were stupe
fied, and they offered no resistance. The apostles
preached in the temple courts, and the multitude of
believers increased daily. These days were even
more crucial to the nation than the ones that em
braced the trial and the crucifixion of Jesus, for at
that time the divine demonstration was not yet com
plete, and there was room still for excuse and prayer
and forgiveness. Therefore the prayer of the pas
sion, "Father, forgive them; they know not what

STUDIES IN ACTS 73
they do." But now the evidence is all in; the dem
onstration is complete; Christ has arisen, and the
Holy Spirit has been given; whom they have re
jected, God has accepted, and the stone of their
stumbling has been made by Jehovah himself the
head of the corner. There is no longer any excuse.
For days they have nothing to say, and they seem
cast in the balance, hesitating, terrified. There are
moments freighted with destinies, and these Pente
costal days, the birth season of the church of the
Redeemer, were the last days of grace extended to
the "children of Abraham," the revilers of Jesus.
The evidence of the Holy Spirit witnessing to the
resurrection of Jesus in miracles of speech, and with
heart-piercings, and gifts of healing, was before
them daily, and in the very precincts of the temple,
for "these things were not done in a corner." It
was their last call, and it was crucial. Beyond this
no offer could be made, for it was the call of the
Holy Spirit dwelling in the community of the be
lievers, glorifying Jesus, and convincing the unbe
lievers of sin because they had rejected him; of
righteousness because God had accepted him ; and of
judgment because by the resurrection of Jesus the
prince of this world was judged. From the day of
Pentecost their resistance of the apostles was a
resistance of the Holy Spirit, and their persecution
of the spiritually endued community of believers
was a final blasphemy.
The occasion of the first persecution was the heal-

74 STUDIES IN ACTS
ing of the lame man and the sermon that followed.
Under a vine of gold with clusters of golden grapes
as large as a man's body, sat this crippled, life-long
beggar. It is the mark of a decadent religion to
adorn its temples and neglect its men. Forty and six
years had this temple been building, and the ham
mers of its workmen were still heard in it, and the
expenditure upon its marble and gold was incalcula
ble. It seems like the irony of fate that this beggar
should have been carried daily and placed like a hun
gry, ragged, human statue in the midst of this gilded
luxuriance of architecture and art. Too frequently
it still happens that our temples have the double
adornment of beautiful gates and begging men.
Encircled by this vine of gold, and standing amidst
the clusters of its fruit of gold, the apostles stooped
to take the ragged cripple by the hand, and to say to
him, "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I
have give I thee; in the name of Jesus of Nazareth
rise up and walk." Better than the building of a
temple is the healing of a man. Immediately the
man, a cripple from his birth, leaped and walked,
and entered with them into the temple, walking and
leaping and praising God. All at once the crowds of
well-to-do worshipers became interested in their beg
gar brother, and in his benefactors, whom he held
by the hands. This gave the Apostle Peter the occa
sion for another sermon, the duplicate in tone and
substance of the one on Pentecost. It was another
of those unique occasions furnished providentially to

STUDIES IN ACTS 75
the apostles in the early days of their evidential
work. The sermon is a marvel of daring, accusing,
excusing, and appealing speech, backed by an incar
nate miracle ; for still as the apostle speaks, the man
who never had walked stands and leaps, and the
wondering worshipers stand staring, and listening
that they may learn the secret of the miracle. And
when they have learned it curiosity has passed over
into conviction, for once more they hear nothing but
the story of the Christ crucified at their hands, raised
up by the hand of God, and proving his potency to
forgive by his potency to heal. The results of Pen
tecost were well nigh repeated, the three thousand
having become five thousand before that day's even
tide. It was a beneficent work, full of holy teach
ing, and love, and healing, and hope, and forgiveness.
There was nothing unseemly in the conduct of the
apostles; they were unarmed, they stirred up no
seditions, they made no threats. Why, then, were
they persecuted?
Their words were sharper than a two-edged sword,
and their teachings more revolutionary than an army
with banners. They were persecuted for the same
reason that Jesus was persecuted; the prince of this
world had nothing in him, but everything to oppose
in him. In an age of intense and bitter hatreds
Jesus and his apostles preached love; in the midst
of a nation rankling with every possible retaliation
they preached forbearance and forgiveness; into a
world governed by armies and swords and iron seep-

76 STUDIES IN ACTS
ters they came with broken reeds, and thorn-crowned
brows, preaching disarmament. Immediately after
Jesus had fed the five thousand men with five barley
loaves and two small fishes they came to take him by
force and make him a king. What a commissariat
he would have been for an army marching against
Rome! Narrow nationalists and hateful trucklers
that they were, that was the thought uppermost
with them — they would make him a king, and their
armies should have leadership, and no need of for
aging. But when Jesus refused to be such a king,
and when he persisted in still going about and doing
good, preaching peace, and forbearance, and for
giveness, their disappointment and indignation knew
no bounds. At last, after the resurrection of Laz
arus, they gave expression to the full secret of their
opposition to him in these words: "What do we?
for this man doeth many miracles. If we let him
thus alone all men will believe on him, and the Rom
ans will come and take away our place and nation."
(John xi. 47, 48; xii. 10, 11). They even consulted
that they might put Lazarus also to death, " Because
that by reason of him many of the Jews went away
and believed on Jesus." To a nation, therefore,
hating Caesar worse than Satan Jesus was repugnant.
Hence at last he was called upon to die in political
martyrdom to his own peace principles.
There were religious reasons also for their oppo
sition to Jesus and his apostles. Jesus exposed mer
cilessly the hollowness of Phariseeism and the

STUDIES IN ACTS 77
heresies of Sadduceeism. Their slavery to Sabbath
rituals, their mummery of endless ceremonialism,
^their self-righteous disdain of everybody not of their
own set, their street-corner praying, their vain
glorious alms-giving, their tithing of mint, their neg
lect of mercy, their hand-washings and their heart-
hardenings, their utter self-abandonment to forms
and rituals and hatred and hypocrisy and supercili
ousness were met on the part of Jesus with stern
rebuke, and utter condemnation, and warnings
against an eternal hell. Upon them at last Jesus
fixed his stigma forever; they felt its sting, and they
never forgave him for it: "Whited sepulchers, full
of dead men's bones!" When the time came for
it their reply was, "Crucify him! Crucify him! "
To a people utterly false nothing is more repulsive
than truth, and to a people utterly hateful nothing
can be more revolutionary than love. Hence it was
that the light shined in darkness and the darkness
comprehended it not; that Jesus came to his own
and his own received him not.
With such a man in such a nation, one of two
things was inevitable; they must repent, or he must
perish. They had no intention of the former, he
had a full intention of the latter; that is, he intended
to j^rish that he might not perish. From the first,
Jesus knew that his face was toward the cross.
When Peter acknowledged him as the Christ, the
Son of the living God, Jesus in turn acknowledged
the title, and immediately pointed out to his aston-

78 STUDIES IN ACTS
ished disciple the pathway that a being wearing
worthily such a title must take through this world.
From the day of his temptation and triumph in the
wilderness, it was as clear to him as a mathematical
demonstration, that love can be made perfect only in
loving one's enemies, and in loving them enough to
die for them, and in loving them unto death, should
they demand it. Likewise that forgiveness can be
made perfect only in forgiving as long as the breath
of prayer can move to repentance ; and that non-re
taliation can find its perfection only in dying, not in
cursing, nor even in commanding the wrath of
legions of angels to go forth smiting. If instead of
dying Jesus had retaliated, had he smitten the nation
with sudden destruction, there would have been an
end of love and of forbearance, and a mockery of
his own peace principles. Had he given himself to
malediction instead of prayers, he would have been
false to his own sermons and parables ; if being re
viled he had reviled, if suffering he had threatened,
his superlative teaching would have fallen feebly upon
the world as having no complement in superlative
conduct. In short, had Jesus saved himself from
the cross, he would have betrayed his own principles,
and the Sermon on the Mount would never have had
a commentator. Had he not perished, his teachings
would have perished. Had he saved himself, his
life would have been in vain as reaching no climax
in the actual self-renunciation of love, so that quite
literally he died in order that he might not die.

STUDIES IN ACTS 79
Thus on the one hand there is the explanation of
persecution, and on the other, of suffering, or what
is the same, of love which is atoning and sacrificial
because self-sacrificial. Under the guidance of the
Holy Spirit, the apostles entered upon the same style
of life and doctrine that had paved Christ's way to
the cross, and as he was persecuted so were they.
In the persons of the apostles the enemies of Christ
were still fighting Christ.
This is the best evidence of their orthodoxy, or
rather, Christodoxy. There may be minor differ
ences between the teaching, for instance, of
Peter and that of John; there may be a "Petrine
doctrine," and a "Pauline doctrine," and a
" Johannean doctrine," but when we see Peter
and John and Paul identified in suffering for Christ,
we know that their enemies identified them in their
presentation of Christ. So far as " the tendency
theory" goes, all these men had a tendency to suf
fer for Christ; or "the accommodation theory,"
they all accommodated themselves to their sufferings
in a very Christlike way; or " the mythical theory,"
it is no myth that the rulers and elders and scribes
united in hating them as one without attempt
ing to discover microscopical differences of doctrine
among them. In the eyes of these enemies of the
¦cross, it was a s'ufficient condemnation that they
preached and healed and won disciples in the name
of Jesus, and as in the eyes of their enemies that
was their sufficient condemnation, so in the eyes of

80 STUDIES IN ACTS
all generations of believers it is their sufficient vin
dication. The Apostle Paul in more than one strik
ing passage appeals to the persecutions he endured as
an evidence of his loyalty to Christ, claiming to be
not the least of the apostles in that his sufferings
were not the least, and affirming that if he should
preach circumcision, that is, Mosaism or Judaism,
he would no longer suffer; " Then is the offense
of the cross ceased." Speculative schoolmen, and
dogmatic theologians, unoccupied except in endless
wranglings one with another, and in worshiping their
own syllogisms, have sought to enforce, each as final,
a multitude of dogmas ; but the cross itself stands as
the symbol of the one creed for which Christ died,
and the offense of the cross on the one hand, and
the love of it on the other, were the primitive signs
of orthodoxy and heterodoxy.
The first persecutions began timidly enough.
Late in the evening Peter and John were impris
oned. Next day there gathered together the whole
array of the religiously and politically elite of Jeru
salem, not to compliment these humble men for hav
ing done a great and kindly deed, but in self-stultifica
tion to confront them with this preposterous question :
"By what power, or by what name, have ye done
this?" To ask this question was to go and touch a
mountain clothed in thunders and lightnings more
terrible than Mount Sinai in the days when " if
so much as a beast touched the mountain, he should
be stoned or thrust through with a dart." At the

STUDIES IN ACTS 81
touch there rushed out the lightning and the thunder
of apostolic, Pentecostal speech. "By the name of
Jesus of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God
raised from the dead, even by him doth this man
stand before you whole. This is the stone which
was set at naught of you builders, which is become
the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation
in any other; for there is none other name under
heaven given among men, whereby we must be
saved." " Unlearned and ignorant men!" they ob
served superciliously of them. They marveled nev
ertheless, and made one other observation not so
gratifying, namely, that these " unlearned and igno
rant men" had been with Jesus. (See Comments, Ch.
iv. 13). And one other thing happened that was not
comforting; the man who was healed stood there,
their well-known beggar-brother, who had always
heretofore contented himself with sitting humbly in
their presence, pleading for alms. They were non
plused. They must get this man and the two
tongues of fire out of sight before they could say
another word. Then they communed and said, "A
notable miracle has been done, and we cannot deny
it." As much as to say. We would deny it if we
could ; we would lie about it if we could make a lie
go. They must find a way out of it, however, and
this time they touched more timidly their mountain
of terrors. They called the apostles, and com
manded them not to preach in the name of Jesus 1
and threatened them ! and — let them go ! And this

82 STUDIES IN ACTS
was the stroke they got for their pains: "Whether
it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you
more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but
speak the things we have seen and heard."
Evidently the authorities made a mistake in trying
to question these men. After all, the only way to
confront Christ is with hammer and nails; or the
thirteenth century Roman Catholic way, shouting,
" Kill! kill! the Lord will know his own;" or Abdul
Hamid's modern way, with sword and gun, stabbing
and shooting at leisure, and ad libitum. Only in
such ways can Christ and his apostolic followers be
answered without chagrin. And such ways are not
finally effective, for the dead Christ rises, and the
Christian martyr only begins to preach when his mar
tyrdom is complete.
Upon their release the apostles went to their own
company, grown to thousands now, and united with
them in a sublime chorus of praise, ending with the
prayer, "And now, Lord, behold their threatenings;
and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness
they may speak thy word, by stretching forth thy
hand to heal; and that signs and wonders maj' be
done in the name of thy holy Child Jesus." And the
Lord answered them with an earthquake, and with a
renewed enduement of the Holy Spirit.
Human threatenings and divine encouragements!
The apostles became giants, heroic and impetuous.
They preached and healed in Solomon's porch
(v. 12), and multitudes of believers were added to

STUDIES IN ACTS 83
the Lord, and the sick were brought from surround
ing cities, and the very shadow of Peter passing by
was potent to heal. The summary judgment upon
the first deceivers, Ananias and Sapphira, must have
contributed to the dread of the situation on the part
of the authorities, but at last their rage overmastered
their prudence, and they threw the apostles into
prison (v. 18). The next morning the high priest
and the sect of the Sadducees called the council
together, and enacted the following comedy. They
sat in state, a semi-circular row of grey beards,
"tall, good-looking, wealthy, learned (both in divine
law and divers branches of profane science, such as
medicine, mathematics, astronomy, magic, idolatry,
etc.), in order that they might be able to judge in
these matters;" they sat thus, waiting, anxious to
judge the "ignorant and unlearned" men who had
been with Jesus. These men, not destined to stay
in prison that night, were at their appointed busi
ness, teaching and healing in the temple courts.
Officers called for them at the prison, but it" was the
wrong place. Doubt grew to astonishment with the
double report of their absence from the prison, and
their presence in the temple. They were brought,
however, "without violence," and the high priest
passed upon them, unintentionally, this high compli
ment: "Did not we straightly command you that
you should not teach in that name? And behold, ye
have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend
to bring this man's blood upon us." And the quick

84 STUDIES IN ACTS
retort, — "We ought to obey God rather than men.
The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye
slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted
with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to
give repentance to Israel, and the forgiveness of
sins. And we are witnesses of these things; and so
is the Holy Spirit, whom God hath given to them
that obey him."
This is the model martyr speech. Heroism can go
no higher. Paul, and Justin Martyr, and Savon
arola, and Martin Luther, and John Huss, and Cran-
mer, and Ridley, and Latimer, and John Knox,
fronting their respective Sanhedrins, popes and
Bloody Marys, are worthy of places in the same class
with the Apostle Peter, he standing first among them
in daring speech and deed for Christ, this being his
true and only primacy.
There are two effects from being "cut to the
heart," one the Pentecost effect, the other the effect
upon the "tall, good-looking, learned" members of
the Sanhedrin. Murder was their staple argument
against truth. They had murdered Jesus, they were
now intent upon murdering the apostles. But the
prudent counsels of Gamaliel pi'evailed. Perhaps
they remembered Ananias and Sapphira; perhaps,
the escape of the prisoners; perhaps, the miracle of
tongues ; perhaps, the darknpss and earthquake and
rending of the temple veil ; perhaps, the resurrection
of Jesus. "Tall, good-looking, wealthy" misleaders
of the land, cowed, conscienceless, squirming, with

STUDIES IN ACTS 85
no reason but prejudice, and no mercy but cowardice,
on the verge of perdition, and dragging their nation
at their heels like a hound in the leash, — that is
what the Sanhedrin had grown to be. In its help
lessness and its fury and its emptiness of everything
good, lifting its heel only to kick against the goads,
and in its blindness crashing
"Up against the thick-bossed shield
Of God's judgment in the field,"
it is the type of all truckling senates, and cowardly
congresses, and time-serving, partisan parliaments.
"These first persecutions stimulated the zeal and
enthusiasm of the first disciples, and braced them for
the struggle (iv. 24; v. 41). 'It is better to obey
God than man.' In this phrase we hear by anticipa
tion the farewell of the apostles to national Jujiaism.
So, little by little, Christianity and Judaism came to
exhibit the hostility latent in their principles. Let a
man now arise bold enough to disentangle the two
systems and set them in antithesis, and we shall see
the great conflict begun by the discourses and the
death of Jesus break forth again as freely as before.
Such a man was Stephen, deacon and martyr."
In this paragraph, full of discernment, quoted
from Sabatier, there are indicated the source and the
direction of Jewish persecution against the growing
church.

IV.
THE FIRST IVIARTYR

"My Lord died for my sins- shall I not gladly give this poor life
for him?" — Savonarola.
""When the cap painted over with devils, and inscribed 'Here-
siarcli ' was put on his brow, he murmured, ' My Lord Jesus wore
for my sake a crown of thorns ; shall I not wear this Ughter dis
grace for the sake of him? I "will, indeed, and that right gladly.'"
— John Huss.
"Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the maul 'We
shall tliis day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I
trust shall never be put out." — Latimer.
"Father, forgive them; they know not what t'hey do." — Liike
xxiii. 34. 88

IV.
THE FIRST MARTYR.
"And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying. Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down and cried with a
loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he
had said this he fell asleep." — Acts vii. 59, 60.
The martyrdom of Stephen marks an epoch in the
history of the first church. That two or three years
should have passed away before the first blood was
shed is noteworthy. The shadow of the crucifixion
still rested upon the guilty nation, and the boldness
of the apostles was their best protection. At last the
storm broke, and in its fury there was a demand for
blood. In the growth of the church, in the apostles'
unanswerable logic of word and deed, in the appear
ance of new men of mark, such as Stephen, resistless
in the spirit and wisdom of his advocacy, there was
enough to convert the "children of wisdom;"
enough to enrage unto ruin typical Pharisees and
Sadducees. Through the church composed of regen
erate men, and crowned with miracles of speech
and deed, the Holy Spirit became the savor of life
unto life, and of death unto death.
The first martyr was a member of the first com
mittee. There was a growing church with its grow
ing community of goods, and the burden of their

90 STUDIES IN ACTS
distribution became too great for the apostles..
Besides, the' Grecians were murmuring that their
widows were neglected in the daily ministration.
True Christian policy dictated that Grecians should
be appointed to answer the complaints of Grecians.
In democratic style, therefore, the people were per
mitted to choose seven men from among themselves
for this daily diaconate. Whom the people chose
the apostles appointed. Here is democracy with the
sanction of aristocracy. Where the Holy Spirit
guides government is a minor matter, for over the
democracy of the people and the wise aristocracy of
the apostles rises the autocracy of the Spirit himself.
These seven men are never called deacons. Their
appointment was simply a question of the proper
division of labor, the apostles becoming thereby
more especially and fittingly deacons of the word,
and the chosen seven especially and fittingly deacons
of the "tables," or counters. They were all dea
cons, servants, ministers, but each in his own place ;
it was all the Lord's work, and they were brethren;
there was no clerical caste. The distinctive offices of
the diaconate and the bishopric arose at a later date,
and seem never within the limits of the New Testa
ment literature to have been absolutely fixed, for
men called themselves deacons, or overseers, or pres
byters according to what they were doing at the time.
Even the first seven are not rigidly fixed to the
diaconate of tables. It was not long till two of them
at least became deacons of the word ; Philip preached

STUDIES IN ACTS 91
in Samaria, and became the evangelist and baptist of
the Ethiopian officer; and Stephen attained to the
diaconate of wonders and miracles and irresistible
speech, — of martydom even!
To infer, therefore, that the appointment of the
seven is a precedent for the ordaining of deacons
such as are now found in various congregations of
Christians is unwarranted. The whole procedure is
rath«r a precedent for the appointment of a commit
tee to meet an emergency. Is there a needful thing
to be done? Appoint a proper person, or company
of persons, to do it. That is the double dictate of
common prudence aud of the Holy Spirit.
Carrying out the supposition previously made that
the Jews of Jerusalem were overawed by the scenes
of the crucifixion and of Pentecost, it is interesting
to note that the murder of the first 'martyr was
wrought at the instigation of foreign Jews, or possi
bly even of proselytes. "There arose certain of
the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians,
and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia, and of
Asia, disputing with Stephen." There were num
bers of synagogues in Jerusalem, the meeting-places
respectively of such foreign Jews as are named in the
text. Equally zealous with the Jerusalem Jews for
"the holy place," and "the law," and "the cus
toms which Moses delivered," they had not yet expe-
- rienced the terrors of opposing Christ and his apos
tles. The dread of the name of the Nazarene had
not yet settled down upon them. They were fresh in

92 STUDIES IN ACTS
the work of persecution, and to them Satan trans
ferred it. The whole of the chosen people, native
born to Judaea and foreign born, seemed fated to
stain their hands in the blood of Jesus and the proto-
martyrs. The charge against Stephen is a compliment to
him. It is an evidence of his discernment. Already
he saw further than the apostles themselves into the
genius of the Gospel and the destinies of the nation.
There was antagonism between the Gospel and the
law of Moses at many points, and if Christianity
triumphed Judaism must suffer defeat. The new
wine could not be put into old bottles. The apostles
were true to Christ and the leadings of the Holy
Spirit, but they were also traditionalists, and as such
they still "went up into the temple at the hour of
prayer to worship," and were doubtful about admit
ting the Gentiles into the church except on a Jewish
basis, and perhaps, loving both the old and the new,
fondly hoped for some providential reconciliation
between the new cloth and the old garment. But
the enemies of the cross, hating it, saw its tendencies
more clearly through their hatred than the apostles
through their love. Evidently Stephen saw precisely
what his persecutors saw, namely, that there was no
possible reconciliation between the spirit of the Jews
and the spirit of Jesus ; between his liberty and their
bigotry; between his mercy and their cruelty, his
love and their hatred, his culture and their cult.
Stephen and his enemies, therefore, occupy the same

STUDIES IN ACTS 93
standpoint as to their prevision of results should
Christianity triumph. He and they differ only in
attitude, and the difference is deadly.
The falsity of their evidence against him consists
in this, that they attributed to him as blasphemy
what he was preaching, either implicitly or explicitly,
as inevitable from the standpoint of Gospel truth.
He was accused of a double blasphemy, first against
"the holy place," and second, against "the law"
(vi. 13). His speech is an admirable answer to this
accusation, and should be studied wholly in view of
it. It is biblical, and it is a rhetorical model. It
rushes on like a stream, swollen and impassioned.
It is historical, but not accurately so. Some of its
statements are not in keeping with the records, as,
for instance, when it is said that Abraham bought
the burying ground in Sychem of the sons of Emmor,
whereas it was Jacob who made this pui'chase, Abra
ham having bought the cave of Machpelah from
Ephron the Hittite. (See Comments.) Twice the
Septuagint is quoted rather than our present Hebrew
text, and Moses is declared "learned in all the wis
dom of the Egyptians," though the Old Testament
is silent as to that, as it is likewise with regard to his
"trembling" at the burning bush. It is an inspired
speech, all but its jots and tittles. Something may
be chargeable to the reporter, and besides, mere
technical inspiration is no inspiration at all. We
must get away from that if we would entertain tho
Bible's own view of its own inspiration. The quota-

94 STUDIES IN ACTS
tions of Jesus are not always verbatim, but they are
none the less divine. On great moral questions, such
as the abolition of slavery, or the prohibition of the
liquor traffic, we may not have a single text to bring
face to face with our problem in such a way as to
make it say, "Thou shalt not enslave thy brother,"
or "Thou shalt not sell wine and beer," yet we may
feel that we have the whole Bible on our side, say
ing, with all the lightnings and thunderings of its
Mosaic inspiration, and with all the blood-marked
emphasis of its Gospel revelations, "Thou shalt
not." It is the soul of the Bible that is inspired,
and its body is the best that can be given to it in
human speech.
The inaccuracies of the speech are evidences of its
genuineness. A second century writer, at leisure in
his study, with a method by the end, would have
taken pains to be verbally exact. As the speech
stands, it bears every mark of having been delivered
to such an audience as the Jewish Sanhedrin in the
early history of the first church, and the view-point
of it is worthy of the forerunner of the Apostle Paul.
True at once to the trend of Jewish history and to
the genius of the Gospel, full of impetuosity and of
sudden adaptations to the mood of the hearers,
bristling with indirect reproofs of the localized idea
of God and his providence, and containing, in the
language of Moses himself, one crowning rebuke of
their rejection of Jesus — it is no wonder that this

STUDIES IN ACTS 95
sermon had the effect of a fire-brand upon the
already overheated tempers of its auditors.
The early part of the speech, down to the thirty-
fifth verse, is fitted to chain the attention of the
Sanhedrin, and to prove that Stephen held in rever
ence the history of his people and the law of Moses.
He had been charged with blasphemy; here all is
reverent. But with the thirtj'-fifth verse there
begins an application of history that is keener than a
two-edged sword. Moses, whom God had chosen,
through whom he showed wonders in the wilderness
for forty years, and through whom he spoke on
Mount Sinai, their fathers had rejected; they made a
calf and worshiped it, and turned back in their
hearts to Egypt, and took ujj the tabernacle of
Moloch. It was terrible to remind the proud mem
bers of the Jewish council of their nation's historic
rejection of Moses, and the idolatries of their fathers;
it was still more terrible to remind them of a pre
diction that this divinely accepted, humanly rejected
Moses had made, namely, that God would raise up un
to them of their brethren a prophet like unto himself,
whom in all things they should hear, and to apply
this prediction to Jesus, and to say to them, " Ye
stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye
do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did,
so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your
fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which
shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of
whom ye have been now the betrayers and murder-

96 STUDIES IN ACTS
ers: Who have received the law by the disposition
of angels, and have not kept it."
The Christological standpoint of this proto-martyr
is the same as that of the Apostle Peter on the day of
Pentecost, and his boldness in denouncing the lead
ers of the land as the murderers of Jesus parallels
that of the chiefest apostles. This application of
history and denunciation of the death of the Savior
at their hands, cut like a saw to the hearts of men
who once had cried, in thoughtless, heartless rage,
"His blood be on us, and on our children."
The inspiration of Stephen at this moment carried
him beyond the range of daring and triumphant
speech. Full of the Holy Spirit, he "looked up
steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God,
and Jesus standing on the right hand of God."
Granted thus at the same moment a Theophany and
a Christophany, he cried out, saying, "Behold, I see
the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on
the right hand of God." This should have overawed
his enemies, and turned them from their bitterness,
for if before he began his speech they that looked
upon him " saw his face as it had been the face of an
angel," what must have been its rapture in this
moment of ecstatic vision! But a height of per
versity, second only, as it would seem, to that which
mocked the dying Savior, was revealed in them when
they cried out, and stopped their ears, and rushed
upon him, and cast him out of the city and stoned
him.

STUDIES IN ACTS 97
The style of his dying was Christlike. If men
were not able to resist the wisdom and power of his
speaking, how could they resist the Christliness of
his dying! There is an eloquence of action mightier
than the eloquence of diction. But when human
speech has assumed its highest form in prayer and
forgiveness, and when praj'er and forgiveness and
trust are sealed unto eternal glory by calm and
sweet and heroic dying, the plea to man by man thus
made is irresistible, except by those whose hearts are
stone. They stopped their ears, they rushed upon
him, and the stones with which they crushed him
were not so hard as the hearts with which they hated
him. And these were the hearts that Jesus saw,
harder than stone, flintier than the rock, more cruel
than death, full of prejudice, big with hatred, and
alive and throbbing only with murder, when he gave
utterance to his parables of judgment, and his terri
ble simile of whited sepulchers and dead men's
bones, and his awful philippic against Pharisaic
hypocrites, fated to the condemnation of hell; ah!
these were the hearts he saw when he mourned over
Jerusalem and foretold her destruction. Had hell
been discoverable no otherwhere in the universe,
Jesus would have looked into these hearts and found
it there. Full of the conceptions of hatred, and
pregnant with bloodshed, it was from these hearts
that there came forth in the days of the siege of
their "holy place" internal discord, high-handed
revenge, secret assassination, public brawls, street
7

98 STUDIES IN ACTS
fights, multiplied murders, and all the untold woes
of fanatical rapine, which, together with the siege,
have made the name of their city as significant of
cursing and doom, on the one hand, as it is of peace
and "an eternal weight of glory," on the other.
The death of Stephen had not even the mock but
finished forms of law for its sanction, as in the case
of Jesus. The members of the council, whose busi
ness it was to protect life; whose maxim was, "The
Sanhedrin is to save, not to destroy life;" whose
president at the beginning of the trial "solemnly
admonished the witnesses, pointing out the precious-
ness of human life, earnestly beseeching them care
fully and calmly to reflect whether they had not
overlooked some circumstance which might favor the
innocence of the accused;" — the members of this
august council, composed of "middle-aged men, tall,
good-looking, wealthy, learned — none of them very
old persons, nor eunuchs, nor proselytes, nor nethi-
nim," failed to render a decision at all. According
to custom, they should have waited till the next day
before pronouncing Stephen guilty. But they lost
their gravity, and stopped their ears, and howled,
and rushed upon their victim, and the Sanhedrin
became a mob.
They should have credit for quick work. The
refinements of persecution were not yet invented.
They did not cut off his ears, or slit his nose, or
brand him with hot irons, or stretch him on racks, or
hang him with a strappado, or blow him up to burst-

STUDIES IN ACTS 99
ing with a bellows, or roast him at a slow fire, or
crown him as heresiarch with painted devils on his
cap. In a way blunt, and straightforward enough,
they crushed him with stones. The above more
deliberate and scientific and satisfactory ways of
defending the faith, and reclaiming heretics, and
propagating the Gospel, were left to the sanctified,
inventive genius of Roman Catholicism. In such
ways the "Holy Father Infallible," and "The Holy
Mother Church," have shown the world how to chas
tise their children out of paternal love for them, and
with tender solicitation for their spiritual welfare.
With such beneficent chastisements the " Holy
Mother" has murdered — the astonishing estimate
is — fifty millions of her children!
But back of all persecution, and more astonishing
than it, and sadder, lies the utter misconception of
the genius of the Gospel and the method of Jesus.
From the standpoint of Christ's commission the
heresiarch is he who does not go and teach and
preach and baptize in the name and the spirit of
Christ; and from the standpoint of the cross the
heresiarch is he who sins against the law of love.
Under Christ we have no weapons but truth and love
and forbearance and forgiveness; guided by him we
have no appeal but to the minds and hearts and
consciences of beings like-minded and like-hearted
with ourselves, and conscience-crowned as well as
we. Education was the method of Jesus. His
society is a teaching brotherhood. To him the miter

100 STUDIES IN ACTS
and the crown were equally repugnant. He dis
dained the sword, and healed its wounds. His death
is the seal upon his life of a true teacher's limitless
love, and his resurrection is proof of a perfect teach
er's rightful regnancy. He is not persecutor, and
therefore destroyer, but he is educator, and therefore
Redeemer. Master of masters in moral and spiritual
realms he cries to his followers with the emphasis of
pierced hands and thorn-marked brow, "Go teach."
His misrepresentatives, enthroned, crowned, scep-
tered, mitered in Csesar's fashion, have spoken their
anathemas and their excommunications with threat-
ehings of hell and the horrors of the battlefield, and
out of hearts full of the hatred from which murder
springs, they have cried, "Go kill."
Seven times on the cross Jesus opened his lips, and
there continued to speak as never man spake. Two
of his matchless utterances find close resemblance in
the words of his dying disciple: "Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do;" "Father,
into thy hands I commend my spirit." Oh, the
heights and depths of Christ's manward love and
forgiveness, and of his Godward love and trust!
Heights and depths measured, yet measureless by
these last prayers of his passion ! We in our days of
delight, repeating our easy and customary forms of
prayer, attain too often only to the semblance of love
and forgiveness and trust. But he who through days
of distress, or amidst a storm of crushing, mangling
stones prays thus for his enemies and himself has

STUDIES IN ACTS 101
attained to the reality of discipleship in the school of
Christ. The first martyr claimed by right of Christly
dying, Christly glory.
"And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and
saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled
down, and cried with a loud voice. Lord, lay not this
sin to their charge. And when he had said this he
fell asleep."

V.
THE FIRST GENTILE CONVERT

"Calvary made an irrevocable breach between the religion of the
past and of the future. Jesus, iu dying, guaranteed his \rork
against any unintelligent or timid reaction. From the outset he
planted his cross between Christianity and Judaism; and so often
as his disciples are tempted to retrace their steps, they find it
placed as an impassable barrier between them and their nation.
The cross, in fact, was the real motive principle of all the progress
which ensued ; it was this which gave impulse and impetus to the
primitive church, and drove it irresistibly beyond the limits of
Judaism. ' ' — Sabatier. 104

THE FIRST GENTILE CONVERT.
"Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with
them." — Acts xi. 3.
"God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common
or unclean. "^4cts x. 28.
The conversion of Cornelius and his household
equals in its progressive significance the miracle of
Pentecost. Once more the Apostle Peter, endued
with the Holy Spirit, stands in the forefront of the
evangelistic movement. The keys of the kingdom
are in this man's keeping, and it his province to go
forward opening doors of prophecy, and of liberty,
and of salvation till the Gentiles come to Christ's
light, and their kings to the brightness of his glory.
On the day of Pentecost the Church of Christ was
born ; on the day of the conversion of Cornelius she
reached her majority. From that time she was ready
to go forth "conquering and to conquer." On that
day she cast aside the leading strings of Judaism,
and declared herself equipped for heavenly minis
tries among the Gentile races of all the world. In
the conversion of Cornelius the young church gave
the challenge of her spirituality and universality to
decadent Judaism and the cramped and cramping
forms of the Mosaic ritual. Through the lips of her
105

106 STUDIES IN ACTS
chosen first apostle, moving still under the impulse
of the Holy Spirit, she asserted her heavenly queen-
liness, and published at the same time the platform
of her world-wide regnancy, saying, "God is no
respecter of persons; but in every nation he that
feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted.
with him." "All zones are one seed-field.
And one the fostering sky;
Best germs the ripened ages yield
On world-wide pinions fiy.
"High human hearts are one.
And one their God above;
And genial every star and sun
To faith and hope and love."
Perhaps a period of ten years lies between the
conversions of Pentecost and the conversion of Cor
nelius, but in the plans of the Savior these two acts
belong to the same drama. The full obedience of
the commission requires them both as the inception
of Christ's world-wide kingdom. The second chap
ter of the book of Acts is not complete without the
tenth, and the two rise up from among the others in
a kind of lonely majesty. In both there is the pres
ence of the Apostle Peter; in both the Holy Spirit
speaks miraculously; in both Jesus is presented as
the crucified and risen Lord and Christ; in both
there is the offer of the remission of sins through
the acceptance of Jesus as Savior; in both there
breathes the spirit of prayer wherein souls are seek-

STUDIES IN ACTS 107
ing a higher life, and the culmination of both is in
the joy of conversion.
Yet these two chapters differ by the breadth of
whole horizons. The first of them speaks to us of
the inception of Christ's kingdom; the second, of its
extension; if the first means birth, the second means
breadth; if the first indicates a center, the second is
a circumference; if the first shows us a divinely
commanded " beginning at Jerusalem," the second
enters upon the divinely prescribed " uttermost parts
of the earth." It was a new day in philosophy when
the law of gravitation, applying to an apple, was seen
also in its application to the solar system and the
constellations. Likewise it was a new day in the
church when the Jerusalem Christians were con
strained by the account that the Apostle Peter gave
them of the conversion of Cornelius to " hold their
peace, and glorify God, saying. Then hath God also
to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life."
Cornelius was a Gentile, and without becoming a
Jew he became a Christian. That is the point of
most significance in our present study. On the high
way leading from Jerusalem to Gaza Philip had
preached to the Ethiopian officer, and close by the
road, in a lake of water lying in the Wady el-Hasy,
according to the suggestion of Edersheim, he had bap
tized him. But this man was a proselyte, and he had
been to Jerusalem to worship, and there was therefore
nothing irregular about his reception into the church.
Furthermore, both Philip and Peter had preached

108 STUDIES IN ACTS
among the Samaritans, and many of them had been
brought to Christ, and churches had been established
among them, as shown by the enumeration in the
thirty-first verse of the ninth chapter of Acts. The
Samaritans, however, were semi-Jews, and they were
a circumcised people. But the conversion of Cor
nelius and his household was unique. He and his
were publicly and avowedly Gentiles ; they had never
been either to Gerizim or to Jerusalem to worship ;
they gave no attendance at the altar; they had no
part or lot or pride in the lineage of Abraham ; they
were Gentiles, pagans, dogs, Romans. To receive
them into the fellowship of the church without sub
mission to the requirements of the Mosaic law meant
the abrogation of that law, and this to the Jew
meant the height of treason. The Jews charged Ste
phen with saying that Jesus of Nazareth would destroy
their Holy Place, and change the customs that Moses
had delivered to them, and upon that charge they
stoned him to death. In the conversion of Cor
nelius, therefore, there were the beginnings of revo
lution, possibly of disaster to the young church, cer
tainly of those misunderstandings and explanations
and persecutions and alienations which are the birth-
pains of liberty, and the growing-pains of progress.
From one view-point it seems like an enigma of
Providence that such a fruitful cause of dissension
should have been introduced so early into the church,
and that the Jewish and Gentile Christians should,
within twenty years of Christ's crucifixion, stand

STUDIES IN ACTS 109
fronting each other in determined antagonism. But
victory is the fruit of battle, and the way of peace is
necessarily the way of the sword. It was in this
sense that the Prince of Peace said, "I come to
bring a sword on the earth." The Gospel, universal
in its genius, must become universal in its methods,
and in doing so it must break away from the barriers
of carnalism and formalism and localism and tribal
ism. Jerusalem could never be the religious capital
of the world; the Jewish altar, smoking with the
blood of rams, could never give to the world the sweet
assurance of the remission of sins; the Jewish Sab
bath, burdened with numberless slavish and super
stitious precepts of Rabbinism, could never convey
to the world the joy, the freedom, and the inspira
tion of the Lord's Day, bearing with it round the
globe once weekly the eucharistic reminders of the
Lord's death; the negative precepts uttered by the
thunders of Sinai could never rise to the divine
altruism of the Golden Rule; nor could the feasts
and fasts and tithings and sprinklings of a mere
ethnic cult ever become of world-wide, spiritual con
cern. "The law was given by Moses, but grace and
truth came by Jesus Christ." One thing or the
other: the new rhovement must settle down within
the narrow dimensions of the old, or it must break
away like a growing child from his cast-off garments.
" Moses for a people; Christ for the world." Look
ing back upon all the dreadful history that came
upon the Jews during the generation that saw Jesus

110 STUDIES IN ACTS
perish on the cross, one must see that had the new
movement confined itself to the limits of Judaism it
must inevitably have been buried, like a child in the
grave of its mother. The salvation of the movement
was in its enlargement. The historic necessities were
that the Church of Christ should extend her offer of
salvation to all the world, or be herself condemned
to destruction. -She must seek to save the nations if
she would be saved by them. The time had come
when the apostles of the cross must go boldly to Cor
nelius, looking out from his fortress in Caesarea upon
the waters of the Mediterranean; to Lydia, praying
upon the banks of the Gangites ; to the jailer in Phil
ippi, amidst his granite walls and iron bars, and
say to each and all of them, "These fortresses and
river banks and prison walls are as holy as the Holy
of Holies when here, through Christ, j'ou present
your bodies as living sacrifices unto God, esteeming
such sacrifice reasonable service." The Holy Spirit
saw fit to make Cornelius the occasion of such
enlargement, and the first fruits of it, and the
Apostle Peter the instrument of it.
That we may appreciate these two men in their
meeting and their mutual relations, we must first
study them apart, remembering that each, on his
pathway to find the other, was under the guidance
of the Holy Spirit. God had these men in training
for their meeting. As typical Jew and typical Gen
tile, yet iDrepared, the one for the declaration, the
other for the reception of the Gospel, they meet;

STUDIES IN ACTS 111
and thereafter they stand before the world, not as
representatives of the deplorable schisms and
hatreds among men, but as types together, mutual
and fraternal, of the "new man in Christ."
The Jews esteemed it their religious and political
duty to hate the Gentiles. From the days of Abraham
their theory and their practice had united in making
them an exclusive people, and from the days of the
captivity in Babylon they were a fanatical people,
hating all not Jews, and courting their hatred. By
the rivers of Babylon they dreamed and sang of
revenge, but never of forgiveness, saying with awful
imprecation, "O daughter of Babylon, who art to be
destroyed, happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as
thou hast served us ! Happy shall he be that taketh
and dasheth thy little ones against the stones!"
There was a tradition that at Mount Sinai the Jews
were cleansed from the impurities that cling to man
kind by reason of the relations between Eve and the
serpent, and which still cling to all the rest of man
kind. They said God cares more for one Israelite
than for all the rest of the world. Gentile babes
were unclean from their birth. The Mishna forbids
aid to a Gentile mother in her hour of need, or the
giving of nourishment to her new-born babe, lest a
child should be brought up for idolatry. One maxim
reached the height of scowling hatred: "The best
among the Gentiles, kill; the best among serpents,
crush its head."
Chosen of God as a medium and a means to a

112 STUDIES IN ACTS
beneficent end, they mistook themselves as being the
beginning and the end of God's purposes, and con
cluding that he had cast off all other people, they
settled down into the rankest of Pharisaical self-
complacency, and from the standpoint both of their
hatred and their exclusiveness, they interpreted their
prophecies concerning the promised Messiah. Dur
ing the generation of which we are speaking, the
Romans were their special objects of hatred because
they were the political lords of the land, and were
looked upon as being the despoilers of the glory of
Israel. Hating Rome worse than sin, and Caesar
worse than Satan, they naturally planned for a Mes
siah who should be a prince, and a soldier, and a
political redeemer. How absolutely were they dis
appointed in Christ! He rebuked their hatred while
he healed their sick ones, refused their proffered
crowns while he fed their multitudes, and preached
forgiveness while he paid tribute to Csesar, till at last
they said, "If we let him thus alone, the Romans will
come and take away our place and nation."
Now the Apostle Peter was a true Jew, born and
bred with all the inherited and inculcated antipathies
of his race. Hence his rebuke of Jesus, as recorded
in the sixteenth chapter of Matthew, and his mourn
ful but inevitable denial, as recorded in the twentj'-
sixth chapter. Hence also his pathetic and patriotic
question at the ascension of Jesus: "Wilt thou at
this time restore again the kingdom to Israel 9 ' '
Up to the time of Pentecost this man had had line

STUDIES IN ACTS 113
upon line, precept upon precept; yet there was
required a miracle of spiritual guidance lest he
should speak amiss, and launch forth upon a crusade
against the Gentile enemies of his people and nation
instead of proclaiming the spiritual triumphs and
heavenly promises of the true Messiah. But the
heights of heavenly-directed speech attained by this
apostle on Pentecost are to be surpassed, should he
still submit to that Spirit which was guiding him
into all truth.
When Cornelius sent for Peter, he was "lodged in
the house of one Simon, a tanner, whose house was
by the seaside." With this tanner he had lodged
many days, unconscious that this was a preparation
for his further departure from old prejudices, and
for the braving of uncleannesses. Tanners were
esteemed unclean. This man's house was by the
seaside, possibly for convenience, but certainly be
cause he was not permitted to live in the town of
Joppa. The rabbis said, "It is impossible that the
world can do without tanners, but woe unto that man
who is a tanner! " They released a widow from the
law requiring her to marry her deceased husband's
brother, if that brother happened to be a tanner.
"He is lodged in the house of one Simon, a tanner.""
It needed no other description; everybody knew"
where that house was, for everybody was accustomed!
to shun it. And that Peter, the primate of the apos
tles, should bear the stigma of such lodgings, shows
that he had not been under the tuition of Jesus in
8

114 STUDIES IN ACTS
vain. However, there must be another revelation
before he is ready for his very largest work; and still,
in the face of that revelation, he will cry out, after
his old style, "Not so, Lord!" throwing, as was his
wont, his corrections into the face of Christ's revela
tions. "Not so. Lord! for nothing common or un
clean hath at any time entered into my mouth."
True Jew! True disciple! Denying and converted!
Correcting and corrected ! Noble ! Abased ! Shrink
ing! Daring! Impulsively resisting, yet consider
ately following, the guidance of the Holy Spirit!
We are inclined to tears, and we are forced to
admiration, while we rank him among the greatest
and truest of our human brothers and leaders.
Imperatively the voice from the vision answered,
"What God hath cleansed, that call not thou com
mon or unclean." The echoes of this imperative
voice were still sounding through his soul, while
another voice was calling at the gate, and saying,
"Is Simon, whose surname is Peter, lodged here?"
God's plans had come together as hand locks hand,
and on the morrow Peter went with them, " doubting
nothing." It would be hard to find a nobler representative
than Cornelius in the person of whom the Gentile
world might lay claim to the blessings of the Father's
new kingdom. He is a worthy leader of the Gentile
hosts, who through faith in Christ have "subdued
kingdoms and wrought righteousness." None of the
centurions who are mentioned in the New Testament

STUDIES IN ACTS 115
are ignoble, and Cornelius stands foremost among
them. His character is sketched in four words : he is
devout, God-fearing, charitable, prayerful. But this
bold outline gains immensely in vividness when we
look beyond to the awful background on which it is
drawn. From the thousands of gods in the Roman
Pantheon, representatives of the vanities, lusts,
cruelties, and idolatries of all the world, this man
turned to the worship of Jehovah, gathering as he
could from the Jews around him accurate notions
of the supreme and holy Deity. In the midst of a
nation thronged with millions of human chattels he
made his servants members of his praying household.
Living among a vindictive and hateful people his
hand was open to them with alms; and though he
might naturally have been superciliously proud of
his Roman name and lineage, he is nevertheless so
humble as to send for spiritual guidance to a Jew
lodged with a tanner.
At last these two Spirit-led, chosen men, meet.
It is a scene for an artist. The Roman soldier, clad
in breast-plate and helmet, falls down to worship
at the feet of the fisherman Jew. The Jew, no longer
thinking of Gentile pollution, lifts him up, saying:
"Stand up; I myself also am a man." And so side
by side they walk, entering into the house, mutually
explaining all that their visions had not explained,
the soldier of the cross and the soldier of the sword,
brothers already potentially, their hearts swelling
with mutual love under the inspiration of hopes

116 (studies in ACTS
reaching heaven-high and world-wide. This talking
and walking with the centurion, and entering into
his house is the beginning of the sublime pageantry
of Christ's international, blood-bought, Spirit-born,
brotherhood. The apostle began his sermon before the centurion
and his household by the frank statement of the last
revelation that he was ever to receive. His first
great revelation was that Jesus was the Christ, the
Son of the living God. Of this he was finally con
vinced by the resurrection of Jesus. His second
great revelation was the plan of salvation as an
nounced to the inquiring believers on the day of
Pentecost: "Repent and be baptized, every one of
you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission
of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit." His third great revelation he announces
in these words : " I perceive that God is no respecter
of persons; but in every nation he that feareth him
and worketh righteousness is accepted with him."
In this he reached the summit of the mountain up
which he had been traveling, and stumbling, from
the day that the Savior called him to leave his boats
and nets. Higher in the ways of revelation it is not
possible to go. The Apostle Paul knew a certain one
caught up into the third heaven, but what he saw
there it was unlawful to tell in this world.
Aside from this final revelation, standing as an
introduction, the apostle's sermon is the same that
he preached on the day of Pentecost, modified only

STUDIES IN ACTS 117
in minor details to meet the needs of the occasion.
While he was declaring the resurrection of Jesus,
and his reigning and judicial authority, and the
remission of sins through faith in him, the Holy
Spirit fell upon the hearers precisely as upon the
apostles and others on the day of Pentecost. This
was at once the Savior's sign of acceptance as re
garded the Gentiles, and his seal of approval as re
garded the apostle's preaching to them. Immediately
it enabled the Apostle Peter to challenge the adverse
opinion of his Jewish brethen, the six who had ac
companied him, as to the acceptance of the Gentiles,
and afterward, as recorded in the eleventh chapter,
to offer to the Jerusalem church such a defense of
his course as could not be gainsaid. Here is the
challenge: "Can any man forbid water, that these
should not be baptized, who have received the Holy
Spirit as well as we?" Breaking the silence that
followed, "he commanded them to be baptized in
the name of the Lord." Evidently the apostle
places baptism here as the culmination of conversion.
It was the last step of the pathway that Cornelius
traveled entering the church. If the six Jewish
brethren wished to challenge the reception of Cor
nelius into the church, there at the waters of baptism
was the place to do it. There and then they should
speak, or forever hold their peace. They dared
not demand circumcision, they dared not refuse
baptism, and without the former, and upon the
basis of the latter, they accepted the fellowship of

118 STUDIES IN ACTS
the Gentiles, "tarrying certain days" with them,
and "eating with them." All this is indicative of
the place that baptism held in the economy of the
first church, and in the minds of the first Christians.
By the conversion of Cornelius a great mystery
was made plain. The Apostle Paul refers to this as
a dispensation of the grace of God, and as a revela
tion, " which," he says, " in other ages was not
made known unto the sons of men as it is now
revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by
the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs,
and of the same body, and partakers of his promise
in Christ by the Gospel" (Eph. iii. 5, 6). To the
generous souls among the Israelites it must have
seemed surpassingly strange that God should cast
off the myriads of the nations around them. Isaiah
and Jeremiah could understand it only in view of
an ultimately extended reception of them. "It is
a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to
raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the
preserved of Israel; I will also give thee for a light
to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation
to the ends of the earth" (Isa. xlix. 6). This large-
hearted longing of Isaiah, boldly and beautifully
expressed, is representative of such Old Testament
passages as seem to stand in conflict with the exclu
siveness shown in God's choice of Abraham, and the
permanence of the Jewish cult and rites, which over
and over again are enjoined upon the people for
ever. There stood the mystery of nations rejected

STUDIES IN ACTS 119
of God; hated by all but all of the chosen people;
yearned over by few; yet with manifold blessings
promised to them in the very covenant, which, by the
exclusiveness of its carnal ordinances, seemed to
cut them off forever. To a people worshiping the
letter of their law rather than its spirit; mistaking
their own divinely-appointed office as an end within
itself; supposing that their ceremonial types and
shadows were the eternal substance of spiritual
things; mistaking their promised Messiah for a
greater Moses to match and over-match the Caesars;
failing to perceive that his fulfillment of the law
was the end of it rather than the confirmation of
it; schooled by generations of a history mostly mourn
ful to a life and death loyalty to the customs of
their fathers, — to such a people it was an inscruta
ble mystery that the cast-off peoples were ever in
any way to be made one with themselves. The
estrangement between Jews and Gentiles seemed
incurable; their mutual hatred, ineradicable; and
the wall between them, impregnable. But lo!
Cornelius is converted, and to those who, like the
apostles Peter and Paul, have the eyes to see it,
the mystery is solved. That conversion was a
revelation and a revolution. Therein "old things
passed away; all things became new." In the flesh
of Jesus there was "abolished the enmity, even the
law of commandments contained in ordinances," and
in him there was made "of twain, one new man."
We are to bring this miracle and this mystery face

120 STUDIES IN ACTS
to face, and we are to gaze upon the former till the
latter is no more. Only so can we understand the
conflict that was soon to be waged in the first church,
for, mournfully enough, the conversion that brought
peace to the noble Roman became a storm center
in the kingdom of his new-found Master.
In summary : 1st. The tenth chapter of The Acts
presents us with a parallel to Pentecost. There is
the same preacher, the same supervision of the Holy
Spirit, the same presentation of Christ, the same
miracle of conversion. Yet there is an advance
upon Pentecost.
2d: It presents us with a good man, non-Chris
tian, non-Jew, made a Christian, but not made a
Jew. 3d. It presents us, therefore, with a revelation
which was a revolution, and with a conversion that
unveiled the mystery of ages.
4th. It presents us with the Apostle Peter's path
of progress till he reached perfection in revelation.

VI.
THE FIRST GENTILE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

"By revelation he made known unto me the mystery, which in
other ages was not made kno"«Ti unto the sons of men, as it is now
revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit ; that the
Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, aud of the same body, and partakers
of his promise in Christ by the Gospel." — Eph. iii. 3-6,
"It was from Antioch, and with the co-operation of its church,
that Paul undertook his great missionary tours into Asia Minor
and Greece." — Schaff, 123

VI.
THE FIRST GENTILE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
"Now they that were scattered abroad upon the persecution that
arose about Stephen traveled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and
Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto Jews only. And
some of them were men of Cyprus, and Cyrene, which, when they
were come to Antiocb, spake unto the Greeks (Revised Version),
preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with
them, and a great number turned unto the Lord." — Acts xi, 19-22,
Antioch was the third city in the Roman empire,
Rome being first, and Alexandria second. Eastward
it commanded the region Ij'ing toward the fertile val
leys of the Tigris and the Euphrates; northward,
Asia Minor and the highways leading thence to
Rome; westward, by way of the Orontes, the shores
of the Mediterranean. As an evangelistic center,
Antioch had points of advantage over any of her
sister cities. Babylon was too far to the east to
influence the growing western world. Alexandria
had Egypt for her background, but the world's
progress did not lie in that direction; and, be
sides, that city was so speculative as to spoil
Christianity almost as soon as she had received it.
Jerusalem was doomed to destruction by reason of
its exclusiveness. Antioch was cosmopolitan. All
things considered, it was a strategic point to be
gained and held by the Christian faith, and from
which to propagate that faith.
133

124 STUDIES IN ACTS
Nature had adorned Antioch with the splendor of
rivers and the majesty of mountains; commerce had
poured her wealth into it, and the Seleucid princes
had spared no pains to enrich it with the works of
human grandeur and art. Renan, as quoted by Prof.
B. A. Hinsdale, in his "Jewish Christian Church,"
has given the following description of its popula
tion: "It was an inconceivable medley of merry-
andrews, quacks, buffoons, magicians, miracle-mon
gers, sorcerers, priests, impostors; a city of races,
games, dances, processions, fetes, debauches, of un
bridled luxury, of all the follies of the East, of the
most unhealthy superstitions, and of the fanaticisms
of the orgy. The great corso which traversed the
city was like a theater, where rolled, day after day,
the waves of a trifling, light-headed, changeable,
insurrection-loving populace — a populace sometimes
spirituel, occupied with romps, parodies, squibs, im
pertinences of all sorts."
But there were solider elements in its make-up as
indicated by the presence of its Roman soldiers, and
a colony of Jews, of whom Nicolas, the proselyte,
was a representative. Cicero speaks of the city as
"distinguished by men of learning and the cultiva
tion of the arts." Certainly the dark and trifling
side of the picture of its people is relieved by the
readiness with which they received Christianity, and
the energy with which they propagated it. In the
time of Chrysostom, the population was estimated at

STUDIES IN ACTS 125
200,000, more than half of whom were Christians.
The persecution that followed the death of
Stephen had its beneficent side. As the eagle stirs
up her young, and tosses them from the nest, com
pelling them to fly, so by the hand of persecution the
children of the " Mother Church " became missiona
ries, and Phenice received the Gospel, and Cyprus,
and Antioch, and doubtless many intervening cities.
This missionary work was at the first confined to the
Jews only. But the men of Cyprus and Cyrene,
"when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the
• Greeks, preaching the Lord Jesus." Upon the more
liberal-minded Jews, who had been brought up in
lands foreign to Judaea, the leaven of the Gospel was
having its legitimate effect. Love was allying itself
with the fundamental sense of humanity in passing
beyond the arbitrary lines of clannishness and nation
alism. So when they came to this great city and
saw its needs, they no longer refrained, but boldly
preached to the Greeks as well as to the Jews.
These missionaries seem to have reached by a more
natural course the conclusion which, in the case of
the Apostle Peter, came by the way of miracle. Had
they themselves entertained any doubt as to the
correctness of their course, the Lord stood ready to
remove it, for "his hand was with them," and a
great number turned to him. "By their fruits ye
shall know them." When the preaching of the
Word brings forth beneficent results in lives re
newed, it is not becoming to censure seeming irreg-

126 STUDIES IN ACTS
ularities in its presentation. As the Lord himself
came to the defense of his faithful and aggressive
missionaries in Antioch, so he has risen up in de
fense to-day of his missionaries in India, and China,
and Japan, and Africa, and in hundreds of the
islands of the sea. From the standpoints merely of
the humanity and the ethics involved in missionary
enterprises, and the evident transformations of pagan
peoples in personal conduct and social customs, the
mouths of the cynics should forever be stopped.
And when we add to this those spiritual and eternal
considerations upon which our Savior placed so
much of the emphasis of his life and teachings, it
becomes a matter simply of ignorant and heartless
impertinence to seek to throw so much as a straw in
the way of missionary progress. Let the adverse
critics of missions do three things : let them in the
first place remember the ancient missions from which
have resulted, by the lapse of centuries, the present
conditions of civilization in Europe and America, —
missions which began precisely here in Antioch, were
carried forward by the immortal labors of the Apos
tle Paul into Asia Minor and Europe, and thence still
further extended among the Goths and Saxons and
Angles, by such as Ulfilas and Augustine and Columba
and Boniface; in the second place, let them ponder
the statistical tables of modern missions standing
boldly out from an awful background of heathen
and idolatrous conditions, where hatred and lust
and superstition rankle within, and lechery and

STUDIES IN ACTS 127
lies and clannishness and infanticide and widow-burn'
ing and priestcraft and tribal wars and cannibalism
rage without; — let them note the transformations
that have passed over such greater islands as Mada
gascar and Borneo and Sumatra and Celebes and
New Zealand, and at least three hundred of the
lesser islands of the Pacific Ocean; and the revolu
tion in Japan, the result of Christian influences; and
the missionary explorations of Africa, together with
the conversion of whole tribes ; and the encouraging
advances that have been made in China, where the
50,000 native Christians are but an earnest of the
millions confidently expected by the most experi
enced missionaries; and the still greater advances in
India, where, at the present rate of increase, another
century will see 100,000,000 of native Christians; in
short, let them consider the great and beneficent
work that has already been accomplished, remember
ing, meanwhile, that the majestic enterprise of
world-wide evangelization has but just begun ; and in
the third place, let them pray, really, devoutly pray,
"Thy kingdom come;" — then there will be an end
of unfriendly criticism.
These unnamed and unknown men of Cyprus and
Cyrene, who, when they had got as far as Antioch,
dared to break away from traditionalism and do an
irregular thing, preaching to the "Greeks," are not
only the worthy heralds of the Savior, who in the
glory of his resurrection state stood up in a more
than manlike boldness of originality and sublimity of

128 STUDIES IN ACTS
conception, commanding them to do this very thing;
but they are also the worthy forerunners of Paul
and Barnabas and Ulfilas and Augustine and Carey
and Morrison and Moffat and Martyn and Living
stone and Zinzendorf, and a great host which no
man can number, as nameless here as these men of
Cyprus and Cyrene themselves, but not nameless, we
know, where the inerrant record of prophets and
apostles and heroes and martyrs is kept.
At last the news of this irregularity in Antioch
reaches the church in Jerusalem, and again the
Lord's plans are seen to meet as hand locks hand.
By the conversion of Cornelius, and the Apostle
Peter's explanation and defense of his conduct in
admitting this Gentile to full fellowship, the Jerusa
lem church was made ready for the news from Anti
och. When the Apostle Peter completed his de
fense, saying, "What was I that I could withstand
God?" they held their peace, and glorified God, say
ing, "Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted
repentance unto life." It is wonderful how these
Jewish Christians were overcoming their abhorrence
of the Gentiles. Properly weighed, it would be hard
to find a more fraternal and progressive sentiment
than this. Here is the expression of a breadth of
brotherhood that could have sprung only from the
life and teachings of Christ, and that could have been
nurtured into ripeness only by the Holy Spirit. By
the side of it that high-sounding Americanism, "Life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," pales into a

STUDIES IN ACTS 129
mere political shibboleth, for we do not live it as we
ought; and the turbulent Frenchmen of the days
of the reign of terror, shouting, "Liberty, fraternity
and equality!" while they were cutting off one
another's heads, have given us, by way of contrast
with the action of the Jerusalem church, the most
fearful exhibition of the sentiments of liberty and
equality, shorn of the love of Jesus and the potency
of the Holy Spirit.
Instead, therefore, of condemning the progressive
and even revolutionary work of the Antioch mission
aries, the Jerusalem church found it in full keeping
with the work done at Caesarea, for which they had
already glorified God. Instead of coming upon them
as a shock, and creating a revulsion against the
Gentiles, the report came rather as " good news
from a far country, and as cold water to a thirsty
soul." And surely it is competent to suppose that
once more they glorified God, and again joined in
the wondrous acclaim, "Then hath God also to the
Gentiles granted repentance unto salvation."
As to their action, we are not left to speculation;
they did a beautiful thing. " They sent forth Barna
bas that he should go as far as Antioch." Why
Barnabas? Why not James the legalist, the rigid
and ascetic Jew? Why not the Apostle Peter him
self? No, they send the "Son of Consolation," the
large-hearted, liberal-handed exhorter of the church.
He is the man who sold his land and gave the price
of it to the church; he is the man who introduced

ISO STUDIES IN ACTS
Paul to the church, and vouched for the genuineness
of his conversion, and stood by him in his disputes
with the Grecians. Why should they send this "Son
of Consolation?" Had the Jerusalem church no
professional theologian, with a hard and fast system
of dogmatics, that she could send? Had she no pro
fessional watch-dogs of the faith, no heresy-sniffers,
no arch-inquisitors that she could send to Antioch
to spy out their irregularities? Where was her Tor-
quemada? Where at the very least was her "Angel
ical Doctor," with his "Method of Aristotle," and
his twenty-three folio volumes of speculative theol
ogy? Why not send him to show the young converts
of Antioch whether realism or nominalism was the
true philosophy, or to show them the difference be
tween the satisfaction to justice that Jesus wrought
in his sufferings and the merit of his obedience to
the law, "by virtue of which the redeemed are enti
tled to the rewards of eternity? " O surely they will
send some one who can logic-chop the scaffolding of
the new temple they are building in Antioch, and see
that it is all done the way the grandfathers did it,
and "fashion it according to the pattern shown in
the Mount!" Surely the Mother Church will see
that the Antioch Church is made from her own stere
otype plates, and she will demand that there be no
innovations, no progress, uo liberty, and if things do
not go along the chalk-line of legalism she will issue
high-sounding documents with damnatory clauses,
and grow furious with the thunders of her excommu-

STUDIES IN ACTS 131
nications! Where were the Pecksniffs of the Jeru
salem church, the non-progressives, always suffering
from an attack of conscience, the anti-brethren, who
would make a test of fellowship of circumcision, or
of a music box, or of a syllogism, or of their own
deified dogmatism? O thanks to the Mother Church!
She had such characters, as we shall find, but she
kept them as long as she could in the dark, where they
belong. She refused to appoint them to disturb the
peace of the young Gentile church. If they will go
on such a mission of infernalism they must go self-
appointed, as such characters for the most part do.
It is a mission of fellowship, not of censorship; a
mission of love, and not of law, that the Mother
Church has to perform. And out of her love, not
her legalism, she sends her "Son of (lonsolation,"
his credentials being that he was a son of consolation,
a good man, full of the Holy Spirit, and of faith. In
addition to the Apostle Paul's panegyric in the thir
teenth chapter of I. Corinthians it may be added.
Christian love is not blind; she sees; she has com
mon sense ; she does not send out a misfit of bigotry
upon her fraternal ministries, but she chooses with
clearest insight the precisely fitted minister for such
offices. When this good man came to Antioch
and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and, true to
his character and his mission, he exhorted them (he
was only an exhorter) that with purpose of heart
they should cleave unto the Lord.
In this exhortation Barnabas justifies his mission.

132 STUDIES IN ACTS
Whatever other religions may demand, the one essen
tial of Christianity is this cleaving to the Lord
Christ. Personal loyalty to his personal Lordship is
the sum total of his demands upon us, and it is also
his graciously extended privilege to us. To cleave to
Christ is to cleave to all that is Christly, and that is
atonement. The form of our confession, the sub
stance of our creed, and the rule of our lives as
Christians is practically this: " O Christ, where thou
goest I will go ; where thou lodgest I will lodge ; thy
people shall be my people, and thy God, my God."
Or this, " I am persuaded that neither life, nor death,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things
present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord." Or this,
"Alone, O Love ineffable!
Thy saving name is given;
To turn aside from thee is hell,
To walk with thee is heaven.
"Apart from thee all gain is loss,
AU labor vainly done ;
The solemn shadow of thy cross
Is better than the sun.
"Not thine the bigot's partial plea.
Nor thine tlie zealot's ban;
Thou well canst spare a love to thee
Which ends in hate of man.
"O Lord and Master of us all!
¦yVhate'er our name or sign.
We own thy sway, we hear thy caU,
"We test our lives by thine."

STUDIES IN ACTS 133
Under the leadership of this good man the church
grew: "Much people was added unto the Lord."
Enlargement in one direction called for enlargement
in another. This church must have an assistant pas
tor, or, more properly, above all other pastors it
must have one fit to be their leader. " Then de
parted Barnabas to Tarsus to seek for Saul; and
when he had found him he brought him to Antioch.
And it came to pass, that a whole year they assem
bled themselves with the church and taught much
people." Barnabas knew Paul by companionship
with him better than we know him by his epistles,
and he chose him for that place as inerrantly as a
great general chooses his captains for strategic
encounters. As he had introduced Saul to the
church in Jerusalem, so now he introduces him to
the Antioch church, and here among Gentiles, among
Christians mostly Gentile, the young Jewish zealot
and rabbi, the Pharisee of Pharisees, the student of
Gamaliel, finds the basis of his life work. So sur
prising are the destinies marked out by God for his
chosen workmen! If the church could always have
some good Barnabas for its adviser! If Barnabas
could always find the Paul suitable for the place ! If
Paul and Barnabas could always content themselves
to be teaching much people, and not seek to be
"lording it over God's heritage! " If the church
were always willing to be thus taught and shep
herded ! — how much foolish and unlearned talk
might be spared about "the eldership," and "the

134 STUDIES IN ACTS
ruling elders," and "the deacons," and "the bish
ops," and "the presbyters," and their respective
functions and official dignities ! Up to this point we
have heard nothing about the bishops and deacons of
the church in Antioch. Possibly they were there,
possibly not. Of one thing, however, we may be
sure: where Paul and Barnabas were, and such
"prophets and teachers" as were associated with
them (xiii. 1), the teaching function eclipsed all
else. Always in the church the maximum of intelli
gence means the minimum of surveillance; the
maximum of love, the minimum of law; and the
maximum of fraternity, the minimum of machinery.
"And it came to pass . . . that the disciples
were called Christians first in Antioch." At last it
began to dawn upon the world that here was a dis
tinct people, neither Jews nor Gentiles. In Jeru
salem they seemed to be merely a sect of the Jews ;
here in Antioch they attained to distinctiveness, and
a name for them was inevitable. The world names
its genera and species as naturally and necessarily as
Adam named the beasts of Eden. The naming of
the disciples, therefore, indicates progress; it marks
the appearance of a new species; it is one of the
milestones of the earliest church history. Is there
nothing in names? There is a distinctive move
ment back of every distinctive name. History makes
no mistake in this matter. Let the man who loves
the union of Christ's people and yet pleads that his
denominational name means nothing, ask history

STUDIES IN ACTS 135
if, like an insane mother, she has given a name
where no really distinct child existed.
With reference to one another, Christ's followers
were called brethren; with reference to God, chil
dren ; with reference to their character, saints ; with
reference to their Master, disciples; with reference
to the Savior, believers; as distinguished from the
world by the sum total of their relations to Christ,
Christians. None of these names are used in the
New Testament as the names of the church, or of
any of its congregations. There is no " Brethren
Church," or "Children's Church," or "Saints'
Church," or "Disciples' Church," or "Christian
Church." Taken together, the Christians in the
world were designated by pleonasm " the Church of
God," or "the Church of Christ," but most simply
and most frequently as " the church," there being of
course but one; the congregations of Christians were
designated always by location, never, never, never by
denomination. There were no denominations, and
our whole system of isms and their denominational
namings is abnormal. There were the churches at
Antioch, and Corinth, and Ephesus, and Smyrna^
and Laodicea, and Thyatira, but in every case it was
simply and sublimely and unmistakably " the church"
there. It is our denominational environment that is.
crowding us into such expediencies as "Disciple"
with a big D to it, and " The Christian Church " with
a big THE before it. At normal, if Christians ever
get back to that condition, they will simply say " the

136 STUDIES IN ACTS
church," and then proceed to give its place name
rather than its party name. There must be denomin-
ationalism in denominational names; there may be in
the names "Brethren," "Saints," "Disciples," and
even "Christian." Sectarianism is first in the spirit
and then in the name, and it may be in the spirit in
spite of the name, for the very sink of sectarian
blasphemy consists in wearing exclusively the name
of Christ for the purpose of browbeating all the rest
of the world. It is axiomatic that all Christians can
unite in Christ, and in the name of Christ, and it is a
corollary that there is no other basis of union.
Their creed must be the creed of Christ; their name
the name of Christ; their spirit the spirit of Christ.
No doubt sacrifices must bo, made of many a dogma,
and pet polity, and cherished name, and denomin
ational whim, and the haughty looks of lineage. But
then God is able of the stones to raise up seed unto
Luther, and Calvin was not crucified for us, nor were
we baptized in the name of supralapsarianism. And
beyond all else, when we see others casting out devils
in Christ's name we must have charity enough not to
anathematize them because they follow not with us.
In a double direction "sweet charity" was bridg
ing the chasm between Jew and Gentile. Out of
love the church in Jerusalem gave Barnabas to
Antioch. But there came forewarnings of a famine,
and Judea seems to have been especially afflicted.
Out of love the Antioch church, "every man
according to his ability, determined to send relief

STUDIES IN ACTS 137
•unto the brethren who dwelt in Judaea. Which
also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands
of Barnabas and Saul." Christianity is full of sur
prises, and this is one of them, that there should
have been in such an age, between peoples so sun
dered by birth and environment, and by every
antipathy that can spring from such breeding
grounds of hatred as the politics and religions of
that day were, such a reciprocity of love. Above
there is given Renan's description of the population
of Antioch, an unlikely conglomerate of human
creatures surely from which to expect a show of
substantial charity toward foreigners. But place
beside it this paragraph from Mr. Charles Loring
Brace's "History of Humane Progress:" "Under
the old Greek and Roman habits of mind, the
stranger was mainly looked upon as a barbarian and
enemy. Something of the same savagery, which
in Stanley's travels through Africa made almost
every new tribe he met with at once attack him
like a dangerous wild beast, animated the ancient
races, both barbarous and civilized, in their rela
tions to foreigners. Stoicism indeed cultivated
a more humane feeling toward the learned and re
fined; but the masses of the people in the ancient
world were full of prejudices and hostility against
those not of their own race or country. It is true
that the Roman Empire, with its imperial unity,
tended to melt different peoples together under one
rule, and strangers and enemies gradually became

138 STUDIES IN ACTS
only those outside the limits of this grand domain.
Toward those, however, the old barbaric feeling
and custom were strong as ever. That expression
in Plautus, 'A man is a wolf to the man he does
not know,' is probably an echo of an old Roman
proverb, and utters a common sentiment of the
Italian peoples."
Add this further paragraph from the same writer:
"The world never needed charity and compassion
as it did in the centuries just following Christ.
The irresponsible and despotic authority of Rome
had stripped some of the richest provinces of the
ancient world of every vestige of wealth for the
sake of adding to the incredible extravagance and
display of the imperial court and city. The system
of taxation in distant communities was like that
in the states of European Turkey in this century.
It soon left nothing to the unfortunate peasants,
and mortgaged their harvests years before. Nor
did the taxes always reach the imperial exactor.
Knavish tax-gatherers, peculating officials, and local
rings, plundered the money which was wrung from
half-starved farmers. Incessant wars and conquests
added to the misery of the laboring classes; and
slavery, as we have shown, depressed the industry
and wasted the means of the whole empire. Vast
masses of proletaires were gathered in the cities,
especially in the imperial capital; and poverty,
orphanage, abandonment of children, with wide-

STUDIES IN ACTS 139
spread pauperism prevailed, as they have scarcely
ever been known in the history of the world."
Among the systems of philosophy of those times
Stoicism is reckoned as the loftiest and most
humane; with many it passed for religion as well;
but it left its disciples saying actually: "Trouble
not thyself; thy neighbor sins, but he sins for
himself; " and practically also, trouble not thyself;
thy neighbor suffers, but he suffers for himself.
Into this world of tribal pride and corresponding
scorn; of wars and conquests and slavery and
rapacious taxation; of the indifference of the Stoic
and the wantonness of the Epicure; into this wolf
like world, three hundred years before it could
claim a hospital for the sick or an asylum for the
deficient, came the spirit of Jesus, breathing peace
and helpfulness. The Greeks had their fabled god
dess of Fortune, bearing high her cornu-copia, but
Christianity is that goddess in reality. Fortune
and plenty spring from love. Regardless of lati
tude and longitude Christian love pours out her
plenty with actual human hands on famine-smitten,
and fever-smitten, and plague, war, fiood, and
storm-smitten spots of earth. And what is more
wonderful, over all but infinite desert distances
of human alienation she throws her spell of peace
and brotherhood. Agabus, the brother prophet,
foretold the sufferings of Christian Jews; Christian
Greeks immediately responded, sending relief,
"every man according to his ability."

140 STUDIES IN ACTS
The Jerusalem church began with a community
of goods; it was her form of sisterly love. The
Antioch church began with a collection for for
eign sufferers; and that was her form of sisterly
love. "Thou," cries St. Augustine, apo.strophizing
the church, "thou bringest within the bond of
mutual love every relationship of kindred, every
alliance of affinity;, thou unitest citizen to citizen,
nation to nation, man to man, not only in society,
but in fi'aternity. Thou teachest kings to seek
the welfare of their peoples, and peoples to be
subject to kings. . . . Thou showest how to all
love is due, and injury to none."*
Sixteen years later the Apostle Paul, meditating
upon a similar exhibition of charity by the Gentile
churches of Macedonia and Achaia toward "the
poor saints that were at Jerusalem," exclaims:
"Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift."
* I/tKE MunAi, page 430.

VII.
THE FIRST MARTYR APOSTLE

"Then came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her
sons, worshiping him, and 'asking a certain thing of him. And he
said unto her, 'What wouldest thou? And she said unto him. Com
mand that these my two sons may sit, one on tby right hand, and
one on thy left hand in thy kingdom. But Jesus answered and said,
Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink the cup that I am
about to drink? They say unto him, "We are able. He saith unto
them, My cup indeed ye shall drink; but to sit on my right hand
and on my left is not mine to give, but it is for them for whom it
hath been prepared of my Father. ' ' — Matt, xx, 20-23
143

VII.
THE FIRST MARTYR APOSTLE.
' ' Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to
vex certain of the church. Aud he killed James the brother of John
with the sword." — Acts xii, 1, 2,
James was the first of the apostles to seal his tes
timony with his life. Perhaps he was prominent in
some of the more public functions of the church,
sitting thus by the side of Christ, and therefore
smitten. Perhaps, being a "Boanerges," he was ter
ribly pronounced in his profession. Perhaps, having
been one of the Savior's inner circle of three, he was
for that reason more a mark for the enemies of
Christ, the greater love entailing the greater danger.
But conjectures apart, the fact is he was first, and
his death "pleased the Jews."
The death of James is a tragedy responding to a
prophecy. The mother of James and John, vanity
led, and leading her sons, asked that they might sit,
the one on the right hand, and the other on the left,
of the Lord in his glory. "Can you drink the cup
that I shall drink?" "We can." "You shall in
deed." . . . "And he killed James the brother
of John with the sword." Thus the Savior's proph
ecy passes into somber history, and the young man's
vanity is forever forgotten in the true man's baptism
143

144 studies in acts
of blood. It is ever thus that the Savior, rebuking
our magisterial vanities, appoints us to ministerial
functions, demanding that we shall come with our
lives in our hands, if we would be worthy of places
on his right and on his left. There were immensi
ties of differences between the Son of God and these
" earthly vessels," yet in the day of trial they proved
themselves the worthy repositories of his heavenly
treasure. They hazarded their lives, they resisted
unto blood, they drank the cup, they have their
places at his side.
James is a representative of all the apostles. Not
one of them denied Jesus after his resurrection, and
to most of them sooner or later Christ's cup of death
was presented, and they partook of it "in remem
brance of him," a holy eucharist of evidence and love,
sealed by blood.
John, own brother to James, lived to a great old
age, and though his was not a martyr's death, yet in
his tarrying he tasted of deeper bitterness in the
persecutions that assailed the church, and the names
of Nero and Domitian are sufficient to recall the
crowd of mournful metaphors he has left us of the
terrible times in which he saw his "little children"
perishing under fearful tribulations.
Herod Agrippa I. was the son of Aristobulus, and
grandson of Herod the Great. The emperors Cali
gula and Claudius had restored to him the kingdom
of his grandfather, consisting of the tetrarchies of
Herod Philip, and Herod Antipas, and Lysanias, and

studies in acts 145
the provinces of Judasa and Samaria. We may asso
ciate and execrate the remembrance of the three
Herods as follows: Herod the Great, murderer of
babes; Herod Antipas, murderer of the Baptist;
Herod Agrippa, murderer of James. Renan calls
Agrippa a vile Oriental, and says that, "In return
for the lessons of baseness and perfidy he had given
at Rome, he obtained for himself Samaria and
Judaea, and for his brother Herod the kingdom of
Chalcis. He left at Rome the worst memories, and
the cruelties of Caligula were attributed in part to
his counsels." "The orthodox (Jews) had in him a
king after their own heart." His income from
rapacious taxation was the equivalent of two million
dollars annually. His well nigh absolute and tyran
nous power is shown in his oppression of Tyre and
Sidon, whose commerce he had impeded if not
ruined, and by his favoritism to Beyrout. Evidently,
this Herod is one of the monsters of history, " crafty,
selfish, extravagant, vainglorious, unprincipled and
licentious." In his "Napoleon le Petit," Victor
Hugo has the following paragraph, colossal in mer
ited sarcasm:
" History has its tigers. The historians, those im
mortal keepers of ferocious animals, exhibit to the
nations that imperial menagerie. Tacitus has seized
and confined eight or ten of these tigers in the iron
cages of his style. Behold them! theyare frightfuli
and superb; their spots constitute a part of their
beauty. This is Nimrod, the hunter of men; that is
10

146 STUDIES IN ACTS
Busiris, the tyrant of Egypt; that other is Phalaris,
who caused men to be baked alive in a brazen bull,
that he might hear the bull bellow; here is
Ahasuerus, who tore the scalps from the heads of
the seven Maccabees, and caused them to be roasted
alive; there is Nero, the burner of Rome, who
wrapped the Christians in wax and bitumen, and set
them on fire like torches; there is Domitian; here is
Caracalla; there is Heliogabalus ; that other is Corn-
modus, who has this merit the more in the horror
he inspires, that he was the son of Marcus Aurelius;
there are the Czars; those, the Sultans; there go
the popes, — behold among them the tiger Borgia!
see Philip called the Good, as the Furies were called
Eumenides; see Richard III., sinister and deformed;
behold, with his great face and huge belly, Henry
VIIL, who, of five wives that he had, murdered
three! see Christiern II., the Nero of the North;
behold Philip II., the demon of the South! They
are frightful; hear them roar; consider them one
after the other. The historian brings them out
before you; the historian exhibits them, furious and
terrible, at the side of the cage, opens for you their
jaws, lets you see their teeth, shows you their claws.
You can say of every one of them, 'It is a royal
tiger.' In truth they have been taken upon their
thrones. History leads them forth across the ages.
She takes care that they shall not die ; they are ber
tigers." Victor Hugo neglects to name him, but Herod

STUDIES IN ACTS 147
Agrippa I. belongs in this cage. In him there were
the two requisites for a wholesale persecution of the
church. Being a Jew, he hated Christians, and being
a king, he had the authority to execute. In the daj's
of Pontius Pilate the Jews were greatly troubled to
get Jesus crucified, for there stood the Roman
authority precisely in the way of their designs.
They could not defy it, and to placate it incurred
risk and humiliation. But nov/ they have a superb
tool in that trinity of Jew, king, and monster. Per
haps a general persecution was planned, such as that
under Nero, or Domitian, or Trajan, or Diocletian;
or such as the later persecutions of Protestants by
Roman Catholics in France and Germany and Spain
and Portugal and Holland, under that most awful
and infernal perversion of the religious sentiment
known as the Inquisition. The conditions were all
present for such an attack. There was the religious
intolerance of the Jews, which, like a smouldering
flame, had been held in check for thirteen years, or
possibly fourteen, counting from the day of Pente
cost; the religious and the political functions of the
state were in accord for the first time since the birth
of Jesus, and the king cared to make himself popu
lar with the multitude at the expense of a despised
sect. If such was the plan, and if the apostles
James and Peter were intended to be but the first
sufferers in a general destruction, then the miracu
lous interference, by which Peter was saved to the
Christians and Herod was lost to their enemies.

148 STUDIES IN ACTS
appears to us as the arm of the Lord shielding his
young church.
And may we not see in this kindly protection of
his church an amazing extension of mercy and of
evidence to the nation also? The Savior's merciful
offer of cumulative evidence to the rebellious nation
has been noted previously, but an attempted sum
mary and emphasis of it is now in place. The resur
rection of Jesus should have been sufficient ; to that
is added the miracle of Pentecost; a church num
bering thousands, and endued with marvelous pow
ers of love and speech and prayer, rises up as if by
magic; the apostles, being imprisoned, are miracu
lously released; Stephen's speech is irresistible; per
secution itself ministers to the enlargement of the
church, and now, in climax of evidence, if there can
be climax after the resurrection, Peter is unaccount
ably delivered from prison, and Herod suffers an
awful death. Surely in all this the Savior's pierced
hands are still uplifted before the gaze of the nation,
and the people are still invited to look, and believe,
and cry out, as Thomas did, "My Lord and my
God." Will this people never relent? Will they
never repent? Will they forever stand in fierce
opposition to incarnate love and reason? Will they
persist in cherishing "the passions that make earth
a hell?" "Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with
iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that are cor
rupters : they have forsaken the Lord, they have pro-

STUDIES IN ACTS 149
voked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are
gone away backward."
Repent or perish, was the burden of John the
Baptist's message; it was the burden, likewise, of
the preaching and the life of Jesus ; and his church
was still crying out with irresistible speech, and
wonderful growth, and miracles of prayer and de
liverance. Repent or perish! The warning is older
than John the Baptist, and more recent also than
Christ and his apostles. Isaiah repeats it many
times in chapters of righteous wrath and deepest
pathos; Jeremiah mingles it with his sobs and
prayers and pleadings; aud these greater prophets
are joined by many a Minor Prophet, such as Micah
and Hosea and Habakkuk, both in the sternness of
their denunciation of sin and in the pathos of their
plea for repentance. Gibbon in his " Decline and
Fall of Rome," and Carlyle in his "French Revolu
tion," and Victor Hugo in his "Les Miserables "
are but modern voices upraised with the mighty
comments of history in defense and confirmation of
the ancient prophets.
" The Lord will roar from Zion,
From Jerusalem will he utter his voice;
And the pastures of the shepherds will mourn,
And the head of Carmel will be parched."
This from Amos is but one example of the everlast
ing warning against the consequences of sin. Or
it may take this form:

150 STUDIES IN ACTS
"Rome shall perish; write that word
On the blood that she has spilt;
Perish, hopeless and abhorred,
Deep in ruin as in guUt."
Or it may take this form: "And as some spake of
the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones
and gifts, he said: As for these things which ye
behold, the days will come, in the which there shall
not be left one stone upon another that shall not
be thrown down." When we look for the comment
of history upon this prediction of Jesus, and upon
the course of the Israelites in their rejection and
their attempted destruction of him, and in their
rejection of his church and their attempted destruc
tion of it, we have only to turn to the account of
the siege of Jerusalem and the devastation of Judaea
by the armies of Rome in the years of 69 and 70.
The murder of James, the arrest of Peter, and
the intended general persecution, were steps of the
downward way along which this nation was walking
so consistently to ruin. The release of the Apostle
Peter and the death of Herod were the plans of
Providence protecting the church, and seeking to
turn the nation from destruction.
Peter was saved by the punctiliousness of the
king and the prayers of the Christians. Though
the king would murder, and murder for political
capital, yet he would not do it during the Passover.
This gave the opportunity for earnest and united pray
er in the apostle's behalf. Prayer is the language of

STUDIES IN ACTS 151
extremity, and the answer to it is God's opportunity.
When Jesus was in agony he prayed, and when
the members of his church could lift no hand
of help to their leader they turned to God.
And the prayers both of the Master and of his
church were answered, — his in resignation, theirs by
the angel of deliverance. While they were praying
Peter was knocking at the door, for he had con
sidered the thing, and he would make himself known;
the news should run from house to house throughout
the whole church, and in his deliverance the hand
of the Lord should be exalted.
Here follows one of the strangest of the incon
sistencies of our poor mortal style of faith. These
Christians believed; they prayed; they had seen
miracle upon miracle; yet they declared the maiden
mad who reported to them the answer to their
prayers; they were incredulous, they said: "It is
his angel!" Are we not of the same lineage? Do
we not reason while we pray, counting one by one,
and saying: Here is the limit to the Lord's hand?
Behold the two chains, and the two soldiers, and
the prison door, and the keepers of the door, and
the iron gate leading to the city! No, it is impos
sible. We will pray, but God cannot answer that
way. May be Herod will relent. May be the peo
ple will not clamor for the apostle's death. May
be — but God can break those chains and open those
doors easier than move the hearts of that king and
his stubborn people. The iron gate " opened to

152 STUDIES IN ACTS
tliem of his own accord," but the will of Herod
moved not. Perhaps the Lord knows the easier
way to the deliverance of his servants. Perhaps
the lesser miracles astonish us most.
The death of Herod, so simply related and so
summarily dismissed in this chapter, is described
at length by Josephus as follows: "Now when
Agrippa had reigned three years over all Judaea,
he came to the city of Caesarea, which was formerly
called Strato's Tower, and there he exhibited shows
in honor of Csesar, upon his being informed that
there was a certain festival celebrated to make
vows for his safety. At which festival a great
multitude was gotten together of the principal per
sons and such as were of dignity thoughout his
province. On the second day of which shows he
put on a garment made wholly of silver and of a
contextilre truly wonderful, and came into the
theater early in the morning, at which time the
silver of his garment being illumined by the fresh
reflection of the sun's rays upon it, shone out after
a surprising manner, and was so resplendent as to
spread a dread and shuddering over those that
looked intently upon it, and presentlj- his flatterers
died out, one from one place, and another from
another (though not for his good) that he was a
god. And they added: Be thou merciful unto us,
for although we have hitherto reverenced thee only
as a man, yet we will henceforth own thee as supe
rior to mortal nature. Upon this the king did

STUDIES IN ACTS 153
neither rebuke them nor reject their impious flat
tery. But as he presently afterwards looked up
lie saw an owl sitting upon a certain rope over his
head, and immediately understood that this bird was
the messenger of ill tidings, as it had once been
the messenger of good tidings to him; and fell into
the deepest sorrow. A violent pain also arose in
his belly, having begun with great severity. He
therefore looked upon his friends and said : ' I
whom you call a god am commanded presently to
depart this life, while Providence thus reproves the
lying words you just now said to me, and I who
was called by you immortal am immediately to be
hurried away to death. But I am bound to accept
what Providence allots as it pleases God, for we
have by no means lived ill, but in a splendid,
happy manner.' When he said this his pain became
violent. Accordingly he was carried into the palace,
and the rumor went abroad everywhere that he
would certainly die in a little while. And when
he had been quite worn out by the pain in his
bowels for five days, he departed this life."
There are deaths that seem judicial. More than
the course of nature and the force or the play of cir
cumstances seems to be involved in this one of
Herod. The death of Antiochus Epiphanes is a
striking parallel to it. The account may be found
in the ninth chapter of the Second book of Macca
bees. Threatening to make Jerusalem the common
burying-place of the Jews, he was smitten with a

154 STUDIES IN ACTS
remediless pain in the bowels; at last his flesh fell
away; worms rose up out of him; his presence was
unendurable to his army. Loathed by others and a
horror to himself, he died finally in a strange coun
try, in the mountains, branded by his historian as a
murderer and a blasphemer. Charles IX. of France,
who gave the order for the slaughter of the Hugue
nots, crying furiously, "Kill them all that none be
left to reproach me," died in less than two years after
the awful day of St. Bartholomew. Prof. Fisher
says, "On his deathbed brief intervals of sleep were
disturbed by horrible visions. He suffered from vio
lent hemorrhages, and sometimes awoke bathed in
blood, which recalled to his mind the torrents of
blood shed by his orders on that dreadful night. In
his dreams he beheld the bodies of the dead, floating
on the Seine, and heard their agonizing cries." In
company with these one other may be named whose
cringing and shameful death was scarcely a match
for his mean and murderous life. Nero, who was
saluted as a god, and the savior of the world; who
procured the murder of his mother; who kicked his
second wife to death; who set Rome on fire, and
played the fiddle while he saw it burning; who lit up
his gardens with Christians dipped in tar and set
blazing; who polluted politics, and degraded society,
and contaminated everything that he touched ; Nero,
political harlequin, sensualist, clown, dilettante, cow
ard, assassin, incendiary, persecutor, matricide, uxori
cide, wholesale murderer, above all others the shame.

STUDIES IN ACTS 155
the terror, the brute, the fiend incarnate, — Nero, at
last despised of Rome and deserted by his armies,
kicked over the table where he was sitting, packed
poison in a golden box expecting to need it, decided
to mount the rostrum and appeal to the people, then
threatened to rush into the Tiber, but set off instead
to the villa of a friend, barefooted, in a faded coat,
with masked face. Once there, cringing, whining,
vacillating, he had not the courage to commit suicide.
He ordered his grave digged ; he collected marble for
its adornment, and wood for his funeral pyre, and
begged some one to show him how to die. In the
last moment, when the horses' hoofs were clatter
ing around him, and the centurion approached to
arrest him, he held a dagger to his throat, and the
hand of a literary slave thrust it in. As the death-
stare came upon him they were surprised that his
eyes should seem to be starting from his head.
Would that of such dying wretches we could so
much as speak in Schiller's fine phrase:
"O thou sinner majestic,
AU thy terrible part is now played."
But these sinners are not majestic; they are mean.
Side by side in the twelfth chapter of Acts there
rests the record of the first martyr apostle and the
first king who dared to lay his hand upon an apostle.
Peter and Paul perished under Nero, and Nero per
ished amidst political turmoils and personal terrors
that were unspeakable. Jerusalem and Rome in the

156 STUDIES IN ACTS
persons of their representatives rejected the Savior
of the world, and Josephus has painted for us in
lurid pictures the destruction of the one, and Gibbon
in stately chapters the fall of the other.
""Why do the heathen rage,
And the people imagine a vain thing?
Tlie kings of the earth set themselves,
And their rulers take counsel together
Against the Lord, and against, his Anointed, isayiag,
Let us break their bands asunder,
And cast away their cords from us.
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh;
The Lord shall have them in derision.
Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings;
Be instructed, ye judges of the earth.
Serve tbe Lord with fear,
And rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Sou lest he be angry,
And ye perish from the way
"When his "wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all they that put their trust in him."

VIII.
THE FIRST FOREIGN MISSIONARIES

"Panl as a missionary and shepherd of souls is great indeed.
There is nothing in all antiquity to compare with the record of
his travels and triumphs. Feeble in body, li"ving by his toU like a
working-man, this weaver of Tarsus enters the vast world of
Paganism, another Alexander, to conquer the faith and the reason
of mankind. Merely to form such a resolution was heroic. Dark
ness covered the earth; the peoples, to use the language of the
prophet, were sitting in the valley and the shadow of death. Paul
entered, alone at first, into these depths of darkness, "with the Gos
pel torch iu his hand; and wherever he went he left in his track
from Damascus to Rome a succession of young expanding churches,
the radiant centers of new life, the fruitful germs of modern society
forming already in the midst of the old world. In all this, I repeat,
there is something truly heroic." — Sabatier,
158

VIII.
THE FIRST FOREIGN MISSIONARIES.
"Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have
appointed them." — Acts xiii, 2,
The Holy Spirit speaks. The church obeys. With
fasting and prayer and the laying on of hands Bar
nabas and Saul are sent away. Thus the Antioch
church sacrifices her foremost teachers, and becomes
the mother of missions. A more memorable journey,
under feebler human auspices, and fraught with
greater consequences was never undertaken. Many a
king in fullness of royal trappings, with armies fol
lowing, has set out upon missions so mean that his
tory has refused to take the smallest note of them ;
but these two poor Jews and their majestic mission
will never be forgotten.
The Antioch Church was herself the result of mis
sionary enterprise, but rather incidentally so than
intentionally so. In her inception and growth the
genius of Christianity outran the definite plans of its
foremost advocates. Not the apostles and prophets
of Jerusalem, but " men of Cyprus and Cyrene " first
spoke to the Greeks in Antioch, " preaching the Lord
Jesus." These men were not put forth by the Jeru
salem church, but by the hand of persecution, and
159

160 STUT)IES IN ACTS
their missionary work sprang from the daring spon
taneity of Christian love. Divine love is a divine
leaven, and whether systematically or otherwise, it
works wherever it is, its affinity being for man as
man. This is the secret both of sporadic and of
systematic missions.
But now in the mission of Barnabas and Saul there
is definlteness of purpose and plan. The circle wid
ens. The church is in the pathway of progress. The
genius of the Gospel asserts itself in a way hitherto
untried. In the conversion of Cornelius, and the
acknowledged legitimacy of the work among the
Greeks of Antioch, the freedom of the Gospel from
the forms of Mosaism has been declared. The very
success of the Gospel in Antioch was the demonstra
tion of its power over Gentiles and idolaters. Thus
the foundation for foreign work was laid, and it
was most fitting that the church in Antioch should
build thereon.
It is highly significant that this new movement pro
ceeded under the leadership of new men. Except for
the council in Jerusalem "the apostles and elders "
drop out of the history. Peter is lost sight of.
From the home of Cornelius we follow him back to
Jerusalem ; we listen to his defense of that high deed
of Gentile conversion in Caesarea, and thereupon we
practically bid him farewell. His primacy seems at
an end, and the stage of history in the book of Acts
is visited no more by the college of the twelve. Two
apostles (for Barnabas and Saul are both called apos-

STUDIES IN ACTS 161
ties in Acts xiv. 14), unknown to the Pentecost Chris
tians, take the leadership of the evangelistic move
ment, and fill the pages of its recital to the exclusion
of all others. Let those who insist on the absolute
ness of the number twelve, and on the continued
primacy of Peter, note this addition to the number,
and note also that if the Apostle Peter stood first on
Pentecost and in the home of Cornelius, the Apostle
Paul stands first in Cyprus, and Iconium, and Derbe,
and Lystra, and Ephesus, and Philippi, and Athens,
and Corinth, and Rome. The Holy Spirit is not
bound to names or numbers, and there may be for us
a lesson in the fact that the witnesses who were
especiaUy trained by the Master himself are now
superseded by those who never knew him face to
face in his mighty style of speech and deed.
The yoke-fellowship of Barnabas and Saul is de
lightful, and it is suggestive of the methods of the
Holy Spirit that he should send these two tried
friends forth on such a mission. Barnabas was the
first to trust Saul and vouch for him in Jerusalem;
when he needed a helper in Antioch he thought of
-Saul far away in Tarsus, and journeyed thither to
find him; then he brought him to Antioch, and they
worked together for a whole year; when there was a
charity offering to be sent to Jerusalem, Barnabas
and Saul "were intrusted with it; they returned to
gether from Jerusalem, and now they are sent out
together to brave the hardships and dangers and sor
rows and joys of missionary pioneering in a pagan
n

162 STUDIES IN ACTS
world. The friendship of Barnabas and Saul in the
New Testament matches that of David and Jonathan
in the Old, only the former is unfortunately marred
at the last. Still, for all that dissension about Mark,
no doubt they would both join David in saying each
of the other, —
"I am distressed for thee, my brother;
Very pleasant hast thou been unto me ;
Thy love was wonderful, passing the love of women."
Barnabas' fitness for the foreign field is seen in
this, that he was an experienced Christian, having
been very early a member of the Jerusalem church;
that he was self-sacrificing and generous, having
given his property to the church ; that he was gifted
in the ministries of exhortation and consolation;
that he was quick to love and trust and see the better
side of everybody, as shown in his ready reception of
Saul, and the introduction he gave him to the mother
church; and that already he had had experience in
Antioch, which was at the first practically a foreign
field. In its inception he seems to have been the
leader in the work, having been first trusted by the
Jerusalem church, and first named by the Antioch
church. Early in their first tour abroad, however,
Saul's name was changed to Paul (Ch. xiii. 9), and
from that time on he was the recognized leader in
the work. At a later date Barnabas developed two
points of weakness; in Antioch he was "carried
away " by the dissimulation of Peter and the preju
dices of certain Jerusalem Judaizers, and in Paul's

STUDIES IN ACTS 163
opinion his love for his nephew John Mark warped
his judgment in the choice of a fellow minister for
their proposed second journey. Paul would have
nothing to do with a deserter. "So Barnabas took
Mark and sailed away to Cyprus," and thereafter we
hear nothing of them except as they are mentioned in
a generous way by Paul in various of his letters.
Evidently Mark was restored to the confidence of
Paul, and became "profitable to him for the minis
try." (II. Tim. iv. 11). Perhaps both Paul and Bar
nabas were excusable for the quarrel. At all events,
the missionary forces were doubled, and later recon
ciliations followed.
The parting of the ways of these two mission
aries is the signal at which the writer of Acts drops
the curtain upon Barnabas, as previously upon
Peter. During the years 47 and 48 they labored
together; in 50 thoy visited Jerusalem together in
behalf of the liberty of the Gentiles; in 51 they
parted, and the rest of Acts from that date, begin
ning with the fortieth verse of the fifteenth
chapter, is devoted to the labors and trials of the
Apostle Paul. This portion of the book may there
fore be called a missionary manual, or it may be
styled the biography of the prince of missionaries.
In attempting to speak of St. Paul's apostieship,
or what is the same, his missionary character and
career, one feels the burden both of the greatness
of the theme and the wealth of material. Even
Luke's missionary biography is not an adequate

164 STUDIES IN ACTS
presentation of the man and of his work; our
hero's autobiography must be taken into account,
and that means the whole of his thirteen epistles.
To the greater purposes of his writings an autobi
ography was incidental, but inevitable. No one
would accuse him of setting out intentionally upon
such a poor business as the writing of an autobi
ography, but his life was so identified with his
works that in telling about the latter he must bring
whole pages out of the former. His tears, his
groans, his prayers, his joys, his logic, and his love
were in the churches he established, and they are
also in the pages he has written. The defense of
his apostolic office, the recital of the perils and
persecutions he endured, his championship of Gen
tile Christianity, and his reasons for it, his fatherly
care of the churches, his passionate love of
Christ, his heroic endurance in the cause of Christ;
and the background to all this, the hatred, the
zeal, the conscience with which he once persecuted
Christ — in short, the soul of the man with its
storms and revolutions, with its peace and prayers
and bitter tears, with its unconquerable faith and
unspeakable visions, and finally, with its eager
expectancy of the crown of life eternal, speaks in
every one of his immortal letters. His soul is a
part of his style. His pen was vital with his own
blood. If he wrote at all he could not but pro
duce an autobiography. For this reason his epis
tles must be in our mind's eye quite as much as

STUDIES IN ACTS 165
the book of Acts while a feeble attempt is made
to characterize him.
It is not proposed to speak here of the Apostle
Paul's missionary work, but of his equipments and
character as a missionary. Nature was lavish in
her endowments upon him of mind and heart
and will. He was perfectly balanced in love, in
logic, and in purpose, and his mold was that of
a giant. His home life in Tarsus must have con
tributed in a goodly degree to his knowledge of
Greek, and of the Greek-speaking, pagan peoples
of Western Asia. To such a nature as his this
would bring by revulsion a more intensely Jewish,
but also, after his conversion, a more cosmopolitan
style of thought. His education in Jerusalem at
the feet of Gamaliel gave him an intimate ac
quaintance with the law of Moses, and made him
a zealot for the traditions of his race. The re
flection of his pride and zeal in race and caste
and legalism is in many a passage of his epistles,
where the experience is turned to good account in
his debates with Judaizing Christians. "If any
other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might
trust in the flesh, I more; circumcised the eighth
day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin,
an Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law,
a Pharisee ; concerning zeal, persecuting the church ;
touching the righteousness which is of the law,
blameless." Such was Saul when he stood listen
ing to the speech of Stephen, and holding the

166 STUDIES IN ACTS
clothes of the enraged men who stoned him to death.
A typical man, only that he was a Jew; a typical
Jew, only that he was born in a foreign city; a
typical Pharisee, only that he was honest; and a
typical inquisitor, only that he was converted.
Farrar has invited us to note that many times in
the providence of God the destroyer of a creed or
system has been bred in its inmost bosom. Sakya
Mouni, in Brahminism; Luther, in Augustinianism;
Pascal, in Jesuitism; Wesley and Whitefield, in
Anglicanism; Paul, in Phariseeism. Revulsion
against false and deadly systems is a mighty in
spiration to great and honest souls. Paul had the
inspiration of a double revulsion, first from the
heathen environment of his childhood home; and
secondly, from the equally deadly, if not quite so
abominable, Pharisaic environment of his manhood
home, and legal studies.
Add to all this his point blank conversfon. His
change was a complete "about face." In a double
sense he was smitten to the earth, and in a double
sense he saw a light above the brightness of the sun.
Where the first inquisitor fell to the ground on his
way to Damascus there fell also his pride and his
prejudice, the former in his own people, and the
latter against aliens; in his baptistn he buried his
old life, and ever afterward counted it but refuse
that he might win Christ, and be found of him, not
having his own righteousness. From his baptism
he arose in newness of life to walk with Christ.

STUDIES IN ACTS 167
There is nothing half and half about him. With
the Apostle Peter, release from the law was a long
process, requiring repeated revelations, and contin
ual supervision of the Holy Spirit; with the Apostle
Paul this release was like the snapping of a chain,
and the fall of dungeon walls, and the flash of noon
day light. Immediately he seized upon the genius
of the Gospel, and the logic of love became to him
the soul of liberty. Where others of his race
groped and stumbled, he saw and ran; and the
conclusions to which they were forced by stress of
facts, he seized by grasp of intuition. The abso
lute and sudden revolution in his mental attitude
is, from every human standpoint, a psychological
enigma, and critics adverse to the Gospel have pro
nounced it a miracle. His cry when smitten to the
earth, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" waa
his oath of allegiance to his new-found Lord. It
was, to him, what a Roman soldier would have called
the sacramentum. All his reverence for the fathers,,
all his allegiance to the law of the fathers, he trans
ferred suddenly and irreversibly to Christ. Like a
man who is lost, and suddenly finds himself in an old
and familiar spot, the world swung round. His faith
was fixed forever; his repentance was revolutionary;
scales fell from his eyes; Christ became to him a sun
always at meridian; he uttered the word, "Lord,'*
and the word went with him to his dying day.
These factors, namely, by way of summary, his rich
native endowments, his liberal education, mingled

168 STUDIES IN ACTS
of Greek and Hebrew elements, and his thorough
conversion accompanied with revulsion from pagan
idolatry and Jewish legalism, made him the cham
pion of liberal Christianity. He saw the antithesis
in nature, and the inevitable conflict in practice be
tween love and law; between prohibition and inspira
tion; between deadly technicality and a vital spirit
uality. It required such a soul to break the crust
of custom, and to declare an emancipation from
the carnal ordinances and empty types of Mosaism;
to show that circumcision was nothing, and uncir
cumcision nothing; to rebuke the Gentile Christians
for trying to follow the lead of Judaizers in the
observance of Mosaic clean meats and new moons
and Sabbaths; and to put baptism with Christ, new
ness of manhood in Christ, and the exaltation of the
cross of Christ in absolute, and glorious, and ever
lasting antithesis to all mere legalism, and formalism,
and dogmatism, and sectarianism, and idolatry of
every sort. In the person of Peter Christianity had
its "apostle of the rock; " in John, its "apostle of
love; " in Paul, its apostle of emancipation and
evangelization. And his work of emancipation is not done so long
as the church is burdened with rituals, and mum
meries, and legalistic notions of the New Testament,
which usurp the place in the soul of a vital kinship
with Christ, which are like a continual malaria to
spirituality, and which impede the way of progress;
nor his work of evangelization, so long as hundreds

STUDIES IN ACTS 169
of millions of our race still sit in darkness and in
the shadow of death. It was by no accident that
Luther espoused the book of Galatians, claiming it
for his bride, and that the Reformation followed.
It was not by feeble insight into the needs of his
times that he called the book of Romans "the mas
terpiece of the New Testament, and the purest Gos
pel," assuring us that it can never be too much
studied, and that the more it is handled the more
precious it becomes. It would seem morally impos
sible to come under the mastery of the Apostle
Paul's thought, and still dote upon the jots and
tittles, the trifles and technicalities, that vex mis
guided disciples and minds of smaller mould than
his. In the reasonable sacrifice of our own living
bodies, all other sacrifices, whether ujDon Jewish or
pagan altars, are, from his standpoint, forever ful
filled, and done for, and forgotten. In the Sabbath
rest that remains for the children of God, the ever
lasting peace of soul that comes of repentance and
forgiveness, all other Sabbaths find their full sig
nificance and their permanent antitype, and the
Mosaic rest days are transplaced by Christian memo
rial ones. Under his plea for justification by faith,
the whole of that baneful, all but world-wide trust
in the meritoriousness of works goes down abso
lutely; and under his law of love, coupled with expe
diency, a thousand of our questions, whether trifling
or important, about times, and seasons, and rituals,
and vestments, and choirs, and societies, and gov-

170 STUDIES IN ACTS
ernments, and amusements even, are at once re
moved from the arena of legalistic and dogmatic
debate, to that of prayer and brotherly counsel, and
"the common sense of most." Such was the man
whom the Holy Spirit thrust forth into the pagan
world to be first and freest, the ablest and safest
herald of the cross to those peoples whence there
has sprung by the lapse of centuries our Western
Christendom. The divine wisdom of the choice may
be seen by way of contrast in the deplorable misfits
that sometimes get themselves into our mission
fields nowadays, — small souls, the mouthpieces of a
hobby or a whim; the lispers of provincial shibbo
leths; the infallible dogmatists, who cannot forget
that they are the tools of a party or a sect, while
presuming to herald a Savior whose truth and love
are as universal and unfettered as the rains and
rays that his Father and ours sends upon the good
and bad alike. It is deplorable when gnat-strainers
get into mission fields, microscopically searching out
this small wing of heresy, and that small leg of
irregularity, omitting, meanwhile, the weightier mat
ters of mercy and truth, and swallowing much (as
is the rule with such characters) that is big with
personal animosity, and bitter with sectarian hatred
and strife.
A few other points must be noted as factors in
the problem of the Apostle Paul's immense influ
ence. The word missionary itself is suggestive of
the first that may be named. Translated, the word

STUDIES IN ACTS 171
apostle must read missionary, just as the word bap
tize, translated, must read immerse. Thus we
should read, "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called
to be a missionary, separated unto the Gospel of
God." (Romans i. 1.) And again, "Paul, called to
be a missionary of Jesus Christ through the will of
God." (I. Cor. i. 1.) And again, "Paul, a mission
ary not from men, neither through man, but through
Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him
from the dead." (Gal. i. 1.) The thought of send
ing, as embodied in this word, was a predominant
one with Christ, and the thought of being sent
became predominant with his chiefly chosen twelve.
After a night of prayer he called to him his dis
ciples, "and he chose from them twelve, whom he
named missionaries." (Luke vi. 13.) In many a
form the Master reiterates the thought. "I chose
you and appointed you that ye should go and bear
fruit, and that your fruit should abide." "As the
Father hath sent me, even so send I you." This
last while he was breathing upon .them and saying,
"Receive ye the Holy Spirit." This act stands very
close, both in point of time and in the Scripture
context, to our Lord's final message to his mission
aries, the crown of all his instructions, namely, "Go
ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to
every creature." The Apostle Paul came under the
complete mastery of this predominant thought.
Though he acknowledged himself as one "born out
of due time," and "not meet to be called a mis-

172 STUDIES IX ACTS
sionary because he persecuted the church of God,"
yet he never failed to defend himself as one dis
tinctively sent of Christ. His life was wrought out
under this ruling ideal. His mission was to be
Christ's missionary. To this end he magnified his
office. In utter abandonment of self he made full
proof of his ministry, seeking by every means lawful
and by all things expedient to honor his "high call
ing of God in Christ."
Again : He came under the mastery of Christ's sim
ple and predominant creed. The Apostle Peter saw
no more clearly than the Apostle Paul that Christ
is all and in all. His creed was Christ. He said, "I
know whom I have believed." Christ, to the Jews a
stumbling-block, to the Greeks foolishness, was to
him the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Into
whatever dark places daylight creeps, it may still be
traced back to the sun. So of the activities and
the teachings of Paul; back to Christ they all run,
proclaiming him as their source. This singleness
of creed, bodied forth in the sublime personality of
Jesus, and declared and defended by Paul, exclu
sively, and without compromise, gave him immense
jDower over decadent Mosaism and the destructive
idolatries of the pagan world. Through the preach
ing of Christ and the resurrection of Christ, he
wrought moral and spiritual revolution wherever he
went. Among the idolaters of Ephesus, the philoso
phers of Athens, and the rulers of Rome, he lifted
up his voice alike in the name of Christ, glorying

STUDIES IN ACTS 173
in the cross, saying, "I am not ashamed of the
Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation, to
every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also
to the Gentile." This made him an iconoclast of
old and futile forms; a destroyer of hateful and
harmful distinctions between man and man ; a cham
pion of liberty and progress to the church and
the world; a wise master-builder of churches; a
father to young men in the ministry; a collector
and distributer of alms, and an unrivaled writer of
letters to the churches and children of his Gospel
ministry and love.
Again : The Apostle Paul came under the power
of a predominant purpose. "Buried with Christ in
baptism," — it is his own phrase — he arose "to walk
in newness of life." As he voices the unity of
his creed in many forms of speech, so he gives
expression to his singleness of purpose in a multi
tude of texts: "For me to live is Christ; to die is
gain." "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me;
and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live
in the faith of the Son of God." "This one thing I
do: forgetting the things that are behind, I press
toward the mark of the prize of our high calling in
Christ Jesus." "I determined to know nothing
among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified."
"Ye are all the sons of God through faith in Christ
Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into
Christ have put on Christ. There can be neither
Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free,

174 STUDIES IN ACTS
there can be no male and female; for ye are one in
Christ Jesus. And if ye are Christ's, then are ye
Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the prom
ise." "God was in Christ reconciling the world to
himself." "We in Christ's stead pray you, be ye
reconciled to God." This is a hasty gleaning of
texts showing the all-inclusive because all-exclusive
purpose of Paul. He narrowed that he might deepen
the channel of his life. The losing of life in order
to find it is the secret of all great living. This
was Paul's attainment as it was Christ's command
ment, and it is admirable. It made him a tower
of strength to the infant church, and a blessing to
all ages. Having written himself down in a lowly
way as the "bond-servant" of Jesus Christ, he has
shown us in his life such exaltation as comes only
by the way of the readiest, lowliest, loftiest service.
Surely if our Lord ever had a servant upon earth
who could with right and with reverence lay claim
to the stigmata of the Master himself, saying, "I
bear branded on my body the marks of Jesus," that
servant was the missionary Paul, in labors more
abundant than others, "in stripes abovemeasure, in
prisons more frequent, in deaths oft."
In the last place, he came under the power of a
predominant love. Farrar in his life of Paul calls
the thirteenth chapter of I. Corinthians "the most
glorious gem, even in the writings of St. Paul."
John is known pre-eminently as the apostle of love,
but he nowhere excels Paul in his teachings regarding

STUDIES IN ACTS 175
love unless it is when he gathers up the whole philos
ophy of creation and religion in that sublime trinity
of words, " God is love." Moses proved himself the
worthy leader of a great people in that he was willing
to die for them, and his strenuous, determined, anx
ious care for them rushes to its climax of expression
in this self -sacrificial prayer: "Yet now, if thou wilt
forgive their sin — ; and if not, blot me, I pray thee,
out of the book which thou hast written." Paul
reaches the same climax of human love for his " kins
men according to the flesh" when he says, "I could
wish myself accursed from Christ for them." Such
words are so foreign to us that they astonish us, and
we try to explain them away. But Paul meant what
he said. That height and depth of love, however
foreign it may be to a church shamefully self-com
placent in non-apostolic, non-missionary lethargy, was
to Paul an inspiration born of the self-sacrificial love
of Jesus. Moses was a type of Christ; Paul was
Christ's disciple ; the one is a forerunner, the other a
follower of the Christ. Yet they stand side by side
in a devotion to their people that was glorious, and
side by side also in their exaltation to an eminence of
love wherein they are surpassed only by One, and to
that One they both direct us, saying, each in his
appropriate and peculiar way, "Behold the Lamb of
God, that taketh away the sin of the world."
Such was the man whom the Holy Spirit chose,
saying, "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the
work whereunto I have appointed them," and who

176 STUDIES IN ACTS
was sent forth into the world of reeking paganism
that gathered around the Mediterranean Sea in order
to " kindle a fire of faith that should burn to its very
water's edge," but who in doing so was called upou
to front every form of peril by sea and by land,
among idolaters and among false brethren; was
called upon to endure — but no language can match
his own — "Thrice was I beaten with rods; once was
I stoned; thrice I suffered shipwreck; anight and a
day I have been in the deep. In weariness and pain-
fulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in
fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those
things that are without, that which cometh upon me
daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak,
and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I
burn not? If I must needs glory, I will glory in the
things that concern my weakness. The God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, he who is blessed
forevermore, knoweth that I lie not."
A chain of churches marked his pathway, and in
Caesar's household Christians were found before he
died; and though under the worst of emperors his
poor body was led to martyrdom out along the Ostian
way, yet within three hundred years a successor to
that emperor became himself a confessor of Christ;
and along the mighty roadways of Rome, upon which
her armies had marched forth to war and had re
turned in triumph, there passed many and many a
missionary of the cross, heralding in peace the name
of the Prince of Peace.

STUDIES IN ACTS 177
Other missionaries have equaled or even surpassed
the Apostle Paul in special directions, but not one
has been his compeer in the totality of his sufferings
and achievements. William Carey surpassed him as
a linguist; perhaps Adoniram Judson equaled him in
physical endurance and sufferings for Christ's sake;
David Livingstone was a heroic sufferer and a greater
pioneer; Henry Martyn reminds us of him in the
energy and intensity of his movements, and the per
manent impression he made wherever he went; in
martyrdom there have been many who died as unwav
eringly as he. But taken for all in all it is the judg
ment of students that no saint has equaled him.
"The elements were
So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up,
And say to all the world, This was a man."
As a pioneer missionary, building " not on other
men's foundations;" as a "wise master builder of
churches; " as a defender, on the one hand of the
liberty of the church against Judaizers, and on the
other of the faith of the church against philoso-
phists ; as the creator of a literature received above
all others as unimpeachable and canonical; as dis
criminating with absolute nicety between the essen
tial and the expedient in Gospel work and worship ;,
as a sympathizer even unto tears with the weeping,,
unto joys with the joyous, and unto heart burnings;
with those who stumbled ; as a fearless proclaimer of
the cross and the resurrection of Jesus ; as a tender
13

178 STUDIES IN ACTS
and pathetic pleader for souls; as an inspirer of
men; as a distributer of alms; and finally, as a ready
and triumphant martyr, he stands before the world
as its accepted foremost saint. And standing thus in
his lonely grandeur, he asks us to forget him while
we behold the Christ in him, calling himself the
chief of sinners while we behold him as the chief of
saints. His epitaph is chiseled by his own hand, not in mar
ble, but upon the heart of the world wherever Christ
is loved, and wherever history is true to her noblest
treasures: "I have fought a good fight; I have fin
ished my course; I have kept the faith; henceforth
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give to me
at that day ; and not to me only, but to them also
that love his appearing."

IX.
THE FIRST FOREIGN MISSIONARY JOURNEY

"How easy it must have been for Jews of the Diaspora, who
had been converted when visiting Jerusalem at their festivals, to
induce some of them (the apostles) to carry the Gospel to their
countrymen outside; or other members of the primitive Church
might in their commercial travels bear the Gospel to the syna
gogues of the Diaspora. But this spread of the Gospel was entirely
incidental, and the Acts are right in representing the organized
missionary journey of Barnabas and Saul as an epoch-making
event." — Weiss. 180

IX.
THE FIRST FOREIGN MISSIONARY JOURNEY.
"So they being sent forth by the Holy Spirit, departed unto
Seleucia; and from thence they sailed unto Cyprus." — .lets xiii, 4,
It WAS a dreadful world into which Barnabas and
Saul were sent. In many a passage, but especially in
the first chapter of his letter to the Romans, the
Apostle Paul has set the brand of infamy upon it,
and, Cain-like, it must bear that brand forever. An
cient paganism was a sink of perdition with modern
parallels nowhere except among modern pagans and
idolaters. Only those who know heathenism in the
centers of its influence can appreciate the apostle's
terrible arraignment of it. Our missionaries who
return to us from the islands of the Pacific, and from
India and China and Africa, and from lands domin
ated by the grosser forms of Roman Catholicism,
tell us that we know nothing of the spiritual darkness
that broods like a pall over the very temples of
idolatry; of the social distress and the fearful sins
that destroy men's lives here and forever, and of the
thraldom of superstition that forbids like a chaos the
entrance of order. Buddha and Brahma and Con
fucius have done nothing to lift their peoples above
the grossest forms of idolatry, and the physical tor
tures and shockingly obscene rites that too fre-
181

182 STUDIES IN ACTS
quently accompany idol worship. The misguided
devotees of Brahmanism aud Buddhism and fetish
ism have been led to the cultivation rather than the
destruction of castes and class distinctions with their
inexpressible hatreds and their innumerable cruelties;
they have not frowned upon polygamy and lechery
and base tantric forms of worship; they have not
forbidden widow-burning and infanticide and human
sacrifices; they have enslaved men; they have de
graded women; they have adored cattle and mon
keys; they have worshiped snakes and devils; they
have neglected the poor, the sick, and the insane,
except to torture them with exorcisms; and myriads
upon myriads of men and women have been left to
corrupt themselves in those things that they know
naturally as brute beasts.
The ancient idolaters and the modern ones are
therefore alike described by Paul when he says,
"Even as they refused to have God in their knowl
edge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind to do
those things that are not fitting; being filled with all
unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, mali
ciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit,
malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God,
insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things,
disobedient to parents, without understanding, cove
nant-breakers, without natural affection, unmerciful;
who, knowing the ordinance of God, that they that
practice such things are worthy of death, not only do

STUDIES IN ACTS 183
the same, but also consent with them that practice
them." Farrar suggests that Tarsus itself, the birthplace of
Paul, was, because of its paganism and its pollutions,
no unfit burial-place for Julian the Apostate. "The
seat of a celebrated school of letters," he says, "it
was at the same time the metropolis of a province so
low that it was counted among the three most vil
lainous k's of antiquity, Kappadokia, Kilikia and
Krete. What religion there was at this period had
chiefly assumed an orgiastic and oriental character,
and the popular faith of many even in Rome was a
strange mixture of Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Phry
gian, Phoenician and Jewish elements. The wild
fanatical enthusiasms of the Eastern cults shook with
new sensations of mad sensuality and weird super
stition the feeble and jaded despair of Aryan pagan
ism. The Tarsian idolatry was composed of these
mingled elements.
"The traditional founder of the city was the
Assyrian, Sardanapalus, whose semi-historic exist
ence was confused, in the then syncretism of pagan
worship, with various representatives of the suu-
god — the Asiatic Sandan, the Phoenician Baal and the
Grecian Hercules. The gross allusiveness and origin
of this worship, its connection with the very types
and ideals of luxurious effeminacy, unbounded glut
tony and brutal license, were quite sufficient to awake
the indignant loathing of each true-hearted Jew.
And these revolts of natural antipathy must have

184 STUDIES IN ACTS
been intensified with patriotic disgust in the hearts of
a people in whom true religion has ever been united
with personal purity when they saw that at the main
festival of this degraded cult the effeminate Sardan
apalus and masculine Semiramis, each equally detest
able, were worshiped with rites which externally
resembled the pure and thankful rejoicings of the
Feast of Tabernacles. St. Paul must have witnessed
this festival. He must have seen at Anchiale the
most defiant symbol of cynical contentment with all
which is merely animal in the statue of Sardan
apalus, represented as snai3ping his fingers while
he uttered the sentiment engraved upon the pedestal,
'Eat, drink, and enjoy thyself, the rest is nothing.'"
Godet says that the Apostle Paul's picture of the
unnatural vices prevalent in Gentile society is con
firmed " in all points by the frightful details con
tained in the works of Greek and Latin writers."
Macaulay has left us, in his "Fragments of a
Roman Tale," a description of the utter moral laxity
among the noble Romans in the days of Caesar and
Cicero. Revelry, gambling, conspiracy, lewdness,
brawls and assassinations filled the minds and occu
pied the time of an aristocracy rendered inordinately
brutal by wars and inordinately rich by conquests.
If anything were wanting as an evidence of the
coarse cruelty and inhuman abandonment of the
times it would be abundantly supplied by the barest
description of the amphitheaters, and of the bloody

STUDIES IN ACTS 185
plays demanded by the people and furnished by their
rulers. More and more the old martial spirit, culti
vated by generations of warfare, took to gloating
itself upon scenes of bloodshed deliberately planned
and executed for the Roman holidays. The crimes
of Nero and Caligula did not prevent them from
standing well with the people so long as they were
able to furnish bread and games for the unemployed,
and that class included nearly the whole of the popu
lation minus the slaves, who did the work, and of
whom there were sixty millions in the empire. In
the time of the republic sixty-six days in the year
were given up to shows; during the empire, a hun
dred and seventy-three. The expenses were enor
mous, sometimes reaching as much as $75,000.00 on a
single performance. "In the year 80 A. D., Titus
gave a show that lasted a hundred days, and exhib
ited in one day five thousand wild animals." In the
games at Berytus he compelled thousands of Jews to
fight and die. As if to color the degradation and
cruelty of the age by an unintentional sarcasm, this
emperor was seriously called "the darling of the
human race." Trajan (98 to 117 A. D.) gave a show
that lasted four months, in which he exhibited ten
thousand men and eleven thousand wild beasts.
Claudius (41 to 54 A. D.) entertained Rome with a
shain sea fight in which nineteen thousand men were
engaged. Augustus, who was emperor when Christ
was born, testified in a codicil to his will that he had
exhibited eight thousand men and three thousand

186 STUDIES IN ACTS
five hundred and ten wild beasts. At a comic per
formance dwarfs were set to fighting dwarfs, and
every expedient was tried and no cruelty shunned to
bring out new sensations. " Prisoners would appear
on the stage in gorgeous clothes, from which sud
denly flames would burst forth and consume them.
Ixion was seen on his wheel. Mucins Scaevola was
seen to put his hand into a coal fire and keep it there
till it was burned off. Orpheus was presented with
his harp amid a smiling nature, to all appearances
charmed with his music. When the spectators began
to grow weary with the show a wild beast would rush
out from the foliage and tear him to pieces amid the
laughter of the public."
When a victim was down and put up his hand
pleading for his life he might be spared if the people
put up their fingers; but he must be finished if they
turned down their thumbs. The women who
thronged the amphitheaters were usually quick to
say by the latter sign, "Do him to death." Once
when food was scarce for the beasts in the menagerie
Caligula proposed to feed them on criminals. If a
gladiator showed fear he was prodded forward into
the battle with hot irons.
The emperors while thus engaged in slaughtering
beasts and murdering men for the amusement of the
people, were prone to dote upon mistresses and race
horses. Caligula had a horse that he fed from a
marble manger, sometimes, however, inviting him
to his own table, and dining him on almonds and

STUDIES IN ACTS 187
raisins. The licentiousness and trifling of the empe
rors were in turn imitated by the people, and found
public expression in shows that were as shameful as
those above described were cruel. Charles Loring
Brace tells us in a significant paragraph that "the
extremes to which licentious shows were carried can
not even be explained in modern writings." He
says, "In fact, few classical scholars who have not
waded through the disgusting mire of a large part of
Roman literature, can have any idea of the depth of
obscenity and immorality which it reached. Athen-
aeus, Petronius, Apuleius (in his lighter works),
Juvenal, and many others, only show how debased
even genius and talent may become under such influ
ences as so much of the. Greek and Roman religions
furnished. Even the universal suffering and ruin of
the Roman Empire had no influence on the public
appetite for these enjoyments. In Salvian's bitter
epigram, the empire ridet et moritur, laughs while
dying." Again he says, speaking of the same and other
writers: "It is not that, like Juvenal, they pick out
extreme immoralities for a biting sarcasm; b,ut they
allude casually and without shame to excesses and
habitual vices whose very name is lost to modern
ears. Even Cicero says soberly that it was held a
disgrace among the Greeks not to indulge in unnat
ural vices. He did not say that his own countrymen
fell even lower."
Such was the "heartless cruelty, the unfathomable

188 STUDIES IN ACTS
corruption," and the disgusting frivolity of the peo
ples for whom the philosophy of Socrates, the morals
of Seneca, and the politics of Cassar had done their
utmost. Slaves that were not wanted were slain;
wives that were not wanted were divorced; children
that were not wanted were abandoned. By and by
emperors that were not wanted were assassinated,
and the soldiers put the empire up for sale to the
highest bidder. That was the style of world pro
duced by the boasted arts of Greece, the laws of
Rome, and the swords of the Caesars.
However, the very failure of philosophy and art
and idolatry and legislation and conquest, in short, of
the forces at work in the ancient world, to produce
happiness and purity and perpianence must be looked
upon as a negative preparation for the coming of
Christ. By doing its utmost, and by failing in its
utmost, humanity learned to despair of itself. It
proved "adequately and magnificently both that it
could not save itself, and how splendidly worth
saving it was." "Eternal hopes are man's,
"Which when tliey should maintain themselves aloft
"Want due consistence; like a pillar of smoke,
That with majestic energy from earth
Rises, but, having reached the thinner air.
Melts and dissolves, and is no longer seen."
A true estimate of the preparation in history for
Christ and his message cannot fail to include the
facts of Greek civilization and Romaii government.

STUDIES IN ACTS 189
The above was a negative preparation, but these were
positive. More marvelous than the conquests of
Alexander were the permanent results that he left
behind him. The historian Arnold, as quoted by
Creasy, says: "Asia beheld with astonishment and
awe the uninterrupted progress of a hero, the sweep
of whose conquests was as wide and rapid as that of
her own barbaric kings, or Of the Scythian or Chal
dean hordes; but, far unlike the whirlwinds of
Asiatic warfare, the advance of the Macedonian
leader was no less deliberate than rapid. At every
step the Greek power took root, and the language
and the civilization of Greece were planted from the
shores of the ^gean to the banks of the Indus, from
the Caspian and the great Hyrcanian plain to the
cataracts of the Nile; to exist actually for nearly a
thousand years, and in their influence to endure for
ever." Creasy, in his "Fifteen Decisive Battles of the
World," says: "Within thirty years after Alexan
der crossed the Hellespont the Greek language was
spoken in every country from the shores of the
.^gean to the Indus, and also throughout Egypt—
not indeed wholly to the extirpation of the native
dialects, but it became the language of every court,
of all literature, of every judicial and political func
tion, and formed a medium of communication among
the many myriads of mankind inhabiting those large
portions of the Old World."
Rome conquered where Greece had conquered, but

190 STUDIES IN ACTS
she did not drive out the language and the influence
of Greece. To her was committed the mission of
legislation and centralization. With imperial reck
lessness of cost she bridged rivers and tunneled
mountains and paved her roadways to the limits of
her domains. Over these she sent out her armies to
garrison and hold, or to invade and conquer, and
through her armies she impressed her imperious will
upon the world at her feet, bringing at least political
order out of what had previously been a chaos.
Augustus, through his long and peaceful reign, held
the provinces of the empire as in a leash, imposing
laws upon the conquered nations as effectually as the
Greeks had imposed their language.
When these two facts are placed together there is
furnished the explanation of the following thought
ful paragraph: "Follow St. Paul and see his cir
cuits ; watch him claiming the safeguard of the same
Roman citizenship in the Macedonian town aud the
capital of Palestine, laying hold at Caesarea on the
horns of a central tribunal at Rome, borne thither by
the sails of the carrying trade in the ' ship of Alexan
dria,' meditating a journey into Spain, numbering
among his Roman converts, as seems probable, one
who had a direct connection with Roman Britain,
writing in the same Greek to Rome and to the high-
landers of Galatia, never crossed in his journeys by
any track of war, never stopped by challenge of
frontier or custom house; these are so many object
lessons to show what the 'Pax Romana' and the

STUDIES IN ACTS 191
Roman unity of power and organization imported for
the growth of a world-religion."
History, the most accurate and truly philosophical,
is the best commentary on the Apostle Paul's pro
found observation, "When the fullness of time was
come, God sent forth his Son." It was in the same
opportune time that the apostle himself and his
fellow-workers were, sent forth, a time marked by
religious perversion and moral decay on the one
hand, by unity of Greek culture and Roman domin
ion on the other.
Into that world, therefore, though all too briefly
and inadequately described, Barnabas and Paul were
sent forth. It was an enterprise full of the beauty of
holiness and the sublimity of faith. When nations
set themselves against nations, it is with the bar
barous splendor of thousands upon thousands of
armed men; but when the Lord sets himself against a
world in wickedness, it is in the persons thus of two
lonely men, without sword or shield, and armed only
with the story upon their lips of a third Man who had
died on a Roman cross, "whom they affirmed to be
alive." There is the more than martial tread of a
divine heroism through the whole history of missions.
The missionary walks by faith, not by sight, and as
his commission is divine, so his victory is preassured.
Setting sail from Seleucia, Barnabas and Saul must
have felt that they were consecrating their little
merchant ship to new uses, and that her white sails
were made by their mission the wings of peace and

192 STUDIES IN ACTS
love and forgiveness. The Mediterranean Sea was
called, from its commercial importance, "The Mar
riage Ring of Nations." Through the work of these
missionaries it was destined to become, within little
more than a generation, the marriage ring of
churches of the redeemed.
The chief incidents of this first missionary journey
are the conversion of Sergius Paulus, the preaching
and persecution in Pisidian Antioch, the preach
ing and persecution in Iconium, the preaching and
persecution in Lystra, and the preaching in Derbe;
then upon the return journey, the confirming of the
churches, and the ordaining of elders in each of
them. Sergius Paulus, the proconsul of the island of
Cyprus, is described as "a prudent man, who called
for Barnabas and Saul and desired to hear the word
of God." At the same time he was keeping with
him Elymas the sorcerer, a false prophet, a renegade
Jew, calling himself Bar-jesus. Judged by his equals
and superiors in Roman society, Sergius Paulus was
not censurable for keeping his household prophet,
though of such a character. Through all ages those
who have been devoid of the knowledge of the true
God and of trust in him, have been the victims of
false prophets, magicians, sorcerers, wizards, witches,
astrologers, sibyllists, augurs, casters of horoscopes,
dream interpreters, spiritualistic mediums, strolling
fortune-tellers, mahatmas, or some such quack mira
cle venders. Pharaoh had his magicians; Nebuchad-

STUDIES IN ACTS 193
¦nezzar, his astrologers; Saul, when he had lost God,
sought the witch of Endor, and there were scarcely
any of the heroes of Greece or the rulers of Rome
who were not in some way or other the patrons
of Delphic oracles, or Pythian priestesses, or dream
ers, or prognosticators, or ventriloquists, or deceivers
of some sort. "There was scarcely a Roman family
that did not keep or consult its own fortune-teller,
and Juvenal describes the Emperor Tiberias as
seated with a herd of Chaldeans on his rock at
Capri." The emperors Nero and Vespasian and
Domitian, all of whom persecuted Christians, enter
tained each a superstitious regard for his pet sor
cerers. Naturally, this household sorcerer withstood Bar
nabas and Saul, seeking to turn away the proconsul
from the faith. Strangely enough, such abnormal
people are the first to recognize the man with a holj-
mission, and to confess him. The demonized man
in the synagogue at Capernaum was the first to con
fess Christ, saying, "Let us alone; what have we to
do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? I know thee
who thou art, the Holy One of God." The instincts
of fear are supernaturallj'' quick, and in such matters
they are inerrant. At St. Paul's rebuke Elymas was
smitten with blindness, and Sergius Paulus became a
believer, "being astonished at the doctrine of the
Lord." It was probably in the year 47 that the rulers and
elders in the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch noticed
13

194 STUDIES IN ACTS
two strangers seated among the worshipers there, and
sent to them, saying (in a way that seems to us
delightfully antique and fraternal), "Ye men and
brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the
people, say on." They little dreamed of the storm
they were inviting. Led by this invitation, the Apos
tle Paul "stood up, and beckoning with the hand,
said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audi
ence." Thereupon he delivered a sermon (xiii. 17-
41), the outlines of which may be clearly traced in
that of the martyr Stephen. There is the same his
toric background, there is a similar use of prophecy,
there is the declaration of the Messiahship of Jesus,
and in both there is the same fearful warning against
the rejection of Jesus, enforced by the mournful his
toric rejection of the prophets of Israel by the
fathers of Israel. Stephen's sermon was not lost
upon the young man who held the clothes of his mur
derers, and in the providence of God Paul the apos
tle is more than a compensation for Stephen the
martyr. This sermon was the honest and daring con
fession of a mistaken man. Ten years before, possi
bly fourteen, Paul had sanctioned the murder of
Stephen for preaching that sermon, but he could not
murder the sermon. It lived in his soul, and lived
the more vitally there since it was eloquent with a
brother's blood, still "crying to him from the ground."
He must have pondered over that sermon, and prayed
and wept over it. And now, having nurtured it
in his soul with prayers and tears aud meditations.

STUDIES IN ACTS 195
the opportune time has come for its delivery, and he
will preach it, though he, too, must put his life in
jeopardy for it. No wonder that nearly the whole
city should be roused by such a preparation and
delivery of sermons. They were not able to resist
the wisdom and spirit with which this new Stephen
spake. But the Apostle Paul, in this Antioch sermon,
makes two noteworthy advances upon Stephen. The
latter was cut off before he could declare the resur
rection of Jesus; Paul declares it fully. Probably
Stephen would not have declared the insufficiency of
the law of Moses as contrasted with the all-sufficiency
of the Gospel. This Paul does in the following
words, which are the first statement of a position
that he was afterward to maintain and defend by
much reasoning and under many persecutions.
" Be it known unto you, therefore, men and breth
ren, that through this man is preached unto you the
forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are
justified from all things from which they could not be
justified by the law of Moses."
Meyer suggests that this is but the major premise
of the proposition; that the minor premise, namely,
by the law of Moses there can be no justification, is
prudently left to be inferred. This doctrine of justi
fication by faith, with its antithesis, no justification
by law, is in reality but another voicing of the
soteriology preached by the Apostle Peter on the day
of Pentecost. In his answer to inquiring believers.

196 STUDIES IN ACTS
"Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the
name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins,"
there is implied the same antithesis as regards the
law. He, too, leaves a minor premise prudently
unexpressed. But this minor premise of salvation,
namely, freedom from the law of works with its im
plied meritoriousness, prudently unexpressed on the
day of Pentecost, and now but half expressed by the
Apostle Paul, was destined to become the one great
root of bitterness in the Apostolic Church. And
again, after fifteen hundred years of church histoiy,
mostly mournful, the Apostle Paul's major and
minor premises of salvation were destined to become
the logic of liberty from the bondage of Roman
Catholicism. There are striking parallels on the
one hand between the Jewish church of the first
century and the Romish church of the sixteenth, and
on the other, between Paul the emancipator from the
one and Luther the emancipator from the other.
The beginnings of history are hidden in the souls of
the heroes of history. When Saul of Tarsus cried out,
"Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" there, in his
expressed heart-loyalty to the Lordship of Jesus, was
the beginning of more than a biography. When
Martin Luther was ascending Pilate's staircase in
Rome upon his knees, counting beads, rosary in
hand, with the promise of absolution awaiting him
on the top stair, there came to his mind the text,
"The just shall live by faith." He arose and fled in
shame and humiliation from the place, and that was

STUDIES IN ACTS 197
the beginning of the' Reformation. The theses
against indulgences were a consequence of the in
spiration born in that supreme moment. It is true
that Luther himself says of the theses, " In fourteen
days they ran clear through all Germany, for all the
world was complaining about the indulgences; and
because all the bishops and doctors were silent, and
nobody was willing to bell the cat, Luther became a
renowned doctor, because at last somebody took hold
of the thing." But it was Paul's sermon in Antioch
with a German gloss upon it, suiting it to the times,
that ran through all Germany in fourteen days, and
has not ceased running through all true Protestant
ism in opposition to the meritoriousness of Phari
seeism and Roman Catholicism, and in short all
forms of idolatry and paganism.
The results of the preaching in Antioch were the
rejection of the Gospel by the Jews, " contradicting
and blaspheming; " in consequence, the declaration
of a special mission to the Gentiles; thereupon the
conversion of as many as were disposed to eternal
life (Variorum Bible, Variorum rendering), accom
panied with joy and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Many times in Luke's history the marvels of Paul's
mission are left enshrined in few and simple words.
We are told for instance (xiv. 1) that Paul and Bar
nabas went into the synagogue of Iconium and so
spake that " a great multitude both of the Jews and
also of the Greeks believed." Later we are told,
quite incidentally, as it would seem (vs. 21-24), that a

198 STUDIES IN ACTS
church was organized in that city, and that elders or
bishops were appointed over it. All this is written
down with no expressions of astonishment. It seems
that the faith of the ancient Christians was such that
they were no more surprised at conversions and the
organization of churches, even in those densely pagan
lands, than we are at the growing trees and the fruits
in an orchard. When Christ was presented the cause
was there; the effects were a matter of consequence.
In Iconium, however, persecutions arose, they, too,
being a matter of consequence, and written down
with equal calmness. Having tarried " a long time "
in that city, the apostles finally, when an assault was
made, fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities far in the
interior of Lycaonia, or Wolf-land.
In Lystra the Apostle Paul wrought the miracle
of healing upon the lame man. He and Barnabas
were immediately taken by the shallow and impul
sive idolaters of the city for their tutelar deities;
Barnabas for Jupiter, he no doubt making the bet
ter personal appearance; and Paul for Mercurius, he
being the chief speaker, and apparently the servant
of Barnabas, the greater god. Oxen and garlands
were brought to the door of the house where they
were staying, and they jWOuld have been worshiped
with a sacrifice, had they not rebuked the people
with every demonstration of disapproval and horror,
rending their clothes, and running in among them,
declaring themselves as " men of like passions," and
preaching to them the vanities of idolatry, and the

STUDIES IN ACTS 199
claims of the true God "who made heaven, and
earth, and the sea, and all that are therein." The
fickle people were restrained from worshiping them,
but now, being disillusioned, they were open to the
advances of Paul's enemies. Persuaded by " certain
Jews who came from Antioch and Iconium," they
who yesterday would have worshiped Paul, to-day
stone him and leave him for dead. " The missionary
of the cross," it has been said, " is absolutely im
mortal till his work is done." As Christ viewed it,
as the Holy Spirit viewed it, Paul's work was not
done, and he was not dead. While they stood round
him, he rose up, and presently he went with them
into the city. The next day he and Barnabas went
to Derbe, where they made many disciples (Vario
rum Bible), and from which they returned by the way
of Lystra, and Iconium, and Antioch, " confirming
the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to
continue in the faith, and that we must through
much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God."
Verse twenty-three of chapter fourteen, should be
noted for its bearing upon the primary steps in the
organization of the Pauline churches. A plurality of
"elders" or " bishops " (xx. 28; Titus i. 5 and 7),,
was "ordained " or " elected " (Variorum rendering)
in every city.
Were these apostles heroes? They went directly
back to the cities in which they had been persecuted.
and stoned. They went customarily into the syna
gogues of their brethren by blood, and preached doc-

200 STUDIES IN ACTS
trines that they knew to be revolutionary and unpal
atable; they hazarded their lives in the defense of
their faith, and in the confirmation of their newly-
baptized brethren. Admiration for their noble ten
acity of purpose, the solicitude of their watch-care,
and the tenderness of their love, cannot be kept
within small bounds.
Having returned to theii; home church in Antioch,
they gave a missionary rehearsal, the first of which
we have any record, unless it be that of the Apostle
Peter upon his return from the home of Cornelius.
In sending out her chiefest teachers as missionaries,
the Antioch Church proved her apostolicity. In
gathering together to hear from her missionaries " all
that God had done," and " how he had opened the
door of faith unto the Gentiles," she proved by her
interest that her spirit was the spirit of Him who
died for all men. And still, as of old, the church that
is truly apostolic speeds away the representatives of
Christ and herself to far-off lands, and welcomes
also her returning missionaries, and hears with
joy the story of their achievements. Forever and
forever, the church that intelligently and truthfully
•calls herself apostolic must hear and heed the com
mand, " Go ye into all the world and preach the
Gospel." And forever, except for such obedience,
the true church must realize the blasphemy of claim
ing the promise, " Lo, I am with you always."

X.
THE FIRST CHURCH COUNCIL

"This little picture marks the beginning of Christian liberty.
A wrong step here, and Christian liberty would have been lost.
Paul was raised up at the very moment of time. He who made
havoc of the church kept it together; it was an arm terrific; —
whether to strike or to build its energy was superhuman. Paul
enlightened the whole church— even James himself became ahnost
a poet under the inspiration of this new voice." — Joseph Parker.
202

X.
THE FIRST CHRUCH COUNCIL.
"The apostles and elders and brethren (in other words, the whole
church, see verse 22) send greeting unto the brethren who are of the
Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia ; Forasmuch as we have
learned that certain who "went out from us have troubled you "with
words, subverting your souls ; to whom we gave no such command
ment ; it seemed good unto us, ha"ving come to one accord, to
choose out men and send unto you, "with our beloved Barnabas and
Paul, men that have hazarded their lives for the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. "We have sent, therefore, Judas aud Silas, who them
selves also shall tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it
seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no
greater burden than these necessary things: that ye abstain from
things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from things stran
gled, and from fornication ; from which if ye keep yourselves, it
shall be well with you. Fare ye well." — Acts xv. 23-29,
Neander calls this the first public document of
the Christian church. It is the expression of a vic
tory and a compromise. To appreciate the victory
it is necessary to remember that there was a party
of the circumcision, Judaizers, Pharisee saints, in
the Jerusalem church. When the Apostle Peter
returned from Caesarea after the conversion of Cor
nelius, "They that were of the circumcision con
tended with him, saying, Thou wentest in to men
uncircumcised and didst eat with them." This
phrase, "They that were of the circumcision," is
Luke's gentle designation of the party. All the
203

•20i STUDIES IN ACTS
members of the Jerusalem church were circumcised,
but they were not all champions of circumcision as a
condition of salvation. For the time being these par
tisans were silenced by Peter's statement of the case,
and especially by his argument based upon the fact
that the Holy Spirit had been given to Cornelius and
his household. But they were the professional heresy-
hunters of the church, and, like all such characters,
they evidently felt that to them was committed the
keeping of the faith, and that they must " contend
earnestly for it." They were silenced, but only for a
season. Biding their time, they at last hit upon the
supreme opportunity for mischief-making in the Gen
tile church in Antioch. They went down, presumably
with authority from the apostles, and said, "Except
ye be circumcised, after the manner of Moses, ye
cannot be saved" (xv. 1).
It was a square issue, for Paul and Barnabas had
been teaching otherwise. Was Christianity to be the
religion of mankind, or was it to settle back into an
ethnic cult, a scarcely improved form of Mosaism, a
new patch on the old garment, with "rents made
worse?" It was the old, old question that we have
constantly to face, the question between men of
the letter and men of the spirit; the question be
tween stagnation and progress, between formalism
and freedom, between legalism and love. And
further, it was a question between era and era in his
tory; between dispensation and dispensation in the
providence of God; and finally, between the prophets

STUDIES IN ACTS 205
of God speaking with a transient voice, and the Son
of God, who is the Alpha and Omega, whose yea is
yea, and whose nay is nay for evermore.
Surely if ever literalists and legalists had a strong
case it was this. Were the thunderings upon Mount
Sinai to be forgotten? Were the blessings upon
Gerizim and the curses upon Elnil no longer to be
courted and dreaded? Were not the Sabbaths of
Israel and their passovers and their circumcision to
be observed "throughout all their generations?"
Was not Moses sent of God? Could the moral law
be done away, and was not the ceremonial law done
up with it verse by verse? Should the phylacteries
upon their door posts and the rolls of their Torah
be thrown to the ash pit, and that by men who had
no new Torah in their hands, but only a word upon
their lips? Was the Holy City to lose her prestige,
and was the hated Gerizim after all, or Antioch, or
any other place, to become quite as acceptable to
Jehovah as the place toward which his people h-ad
turned their faces in prayer through many genera
tions? In short, were the chosen people to be no
longer the chosen people? and v.ere their sacred
places, their sacred books, their sacred days, and
their sacred names to go for naught?
And how could Paul meet such appeals to law and
custom and prestige except by what would surely
seem to his opponents as forced interpretations of
passages from the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah
and Hosea; or by an appeal to the fact of Gentile

206 STUDIES IN ACTS
conversions, with the evident fruits of the Spirit
aside from the law, an argument easily depreciated
by legalists; or by pleading the supremacy of Jesus,
in which case his opponents could readily show to
their own satisfaction that Jesus indorsed the author
ity of Moses, having, as was supposed, lived in
conformity to the law of Moses?
It was one of those cases in which the soul of the
prophet rises up to the intuitive perception of what
is right, and in spite of law and logic says, "You are
wrong; the heart also has its logic; the Holy Spirit
speaks ; here are my facts fronting your syllogisms ;
what will you do? "
"When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small
dissension and disputation with them, they deter
mined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of
them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles
and elders about this question." In this appeal
Jerusalem is recognized, according to Prof. W. M.
Ramsay, as " the administrative center of the
church." The appeal is appropriate also in view
of the claim by the Judaizers that they were com
missioned by the apostles (xv. 24). As indicating
the urgency of the case, and the baleful influence of
the Judaizers, it should be remembered that Peter,
when he was in Antioch, was won over by them,
and that even Barnabas " was carried away by their
dissimulation." Paul alone stood firm. His quick
and incisive rebuke had its effect on Peter. " I said
to Peter before them all. If thou, being a Jew,

STUDIES IN ACTS 207
livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the
Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do
the Jews? " (Gal. ii. 14). This happened, according
to Prof. Ramsay, before the council in Jerusalem,
and not, as most critics suppose, afterward, and the
adjustment helps to clear up several hard questions.
Every indication therefore is that the Antioch church
was disturbed to its very center, and since that
church was the mother of Gentile Christianity the
whole of the Apostle Paul's movement in behalf
of a cosmopolitan faith Was endangered.
To Paul the period of waiting for the decision
of the council must have been a season of anxiety.
Should the case go against him it involved one
of two consequences, either a schism in the church,
or a shrinking back of the Faith from her youth and
vigor and expansion like an old and lifeless wine into
an old and worthless skin. "Paul would rather
*
have died," says Farrar, " would rather have suffered
a schism between the Church of Jerusalem and the
churches of her Gentile converts, than admit that
there could be no salvation out of the pale of
Mosaism. . . . He intended, at all costs, by
almost unlimited concessions in the case of indi
viduals (referring to the circumcision of Timothy
and Titus), by unflinching resistance when princi
ples were endangered, to establish, as far at any rate
as the Gentiles were concerned, the truth that Christ
had obliterated the handwriting in force against us,

208 STUDIES IN ACTS
and had taken it out of the way, nailing the torn
fragments of its decrees to his cross."
The debate came on, and there was "much dis
puting." The "false brethren" were there with
every advantage of local associations, national preju
dices, centuries of history, the written law with its
positive injunctions for all generations, and, more
than likely, with warnings of persecution from with
out should a word be spoken against the law of
Moses or their Holy Place. But the Apostle Peter
rose up, and true to his Pentecost courage and
inspiration repeated his experiences in Caesarea ten
years before. He appealed to the witness of the
Holy Spirit on that occasion in the acceptance of the
Gentiles, and challenged them to put a yoke upon
the neck of the Gentiles, which, he said, "neither
we nor our fathers were able to bear." Thereupon,
in true Pauline style, he declared that the grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ is the only ground of salvation
for Jews and Gentiles. There were times when
Jesus spoke in such a fashion that no man answered
him a word, and the Apostle Peter seems to have
learned from the Master something of that power of
speech which leaves an opponent unmasked and non
plused. "Then all the multitude kept silence," till
at last Barnabas and Paul rose, "declaring what
miracles and wonders God had wrought among the
Gentiles by them." Thus were the hard and fast
theologians of the day, the men with an a priori
creed, cast iron, and all but the "anathema sit" to

STUDIES IN ACTS 209
it, the men rooted and grounded in their grand
fathers' ways, thoroughly honest, thoroughly logical,
thoroughly stubborn, the typical, self-appointed con
servators of the faith, the anti-progressives, knife in
hand — thus were they smitten with facts. Peter and
Paul and Barnabas united in putting Caesarea and
Antioch and Derbe and Lystra and Iconium over
against Mount Sinai. In all these places God had
spoken through the Holy Spirit, receiving the Gen
tiles, no knife in hand. Traditional prejudice must
give way to received practice; a priori theories to
the logic of facts; God's ancient law engraved on
stone to his latest word written upon fleshly tables
of the heart; the carnal to the spiritual, shadow to
substance, type to anti-type. Peter and Paul and
Barnabas pursued the inductive method, collating
facts, treating them as legal tender, and upon them
basing conclusions, thus anticipating the Baconian
method by sixteen centuries. They were the three
mighty Protestants of the ancient church.
Last of all James spoke. He was the most inter
esting figure in the council. As "the brother of the
Lord," he would be looked upon with loving rever
ence; as the bishop of the church in Jerusalem, his
word would be final, not as dictatorial but as repre
sentative ; as a man of extreme holiness, he would be
honored by all parties. "Tradition," says Farrar,,
"as embodied in an Ebionite romance, represents
him as wearing no wool, but clothed in fine white
linen from head to foot, and — either from some
14

210 STUDIES IN ACTS
priestly element in his genealogy, or to, symbolize his
episcopate in Jerusalem — as wearing on his forehead
the petalon, or golden plate of high iDriesthood. It
is said that he was so holy and so highly esteemed by
the whole Jewish people that he alone was allowed,
like the high priest, to enter the Holy Place; that he
lived a celibate and ascetic life; that he spent long
hours alone in the temple praying for the people, till
his knees became hard and callous like those of a
camel; that he had the power of working miracles;
that rain fell in accordance with his prayers ; that it
was owing to his prayers that God's impending wrath
was averted from the nation; that he received the
title of 'The Just,' and 'Rampart of the People,' and
that he was shadowed forth in the images of the
prophets." Such was the traditional man, perhaps not very
unlike the real man, who now rose to speak. Having
first commanded a hearing, he indorsed the speech
that Peter had just made, fortifying it with a proph
ecy from Amos, quoted from the Septuagint, and
declaring that the reception of the Gentiles, recently
wrought by the Holy Spirit through Peter and Paul
and Barnabas, was in the plans of God from the
beginning. Whereupon he gave his sentence that
the Gentiles should not be troubled, that is, by the
Judaizers, but that they should be exhorted to
abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornica
tion, and from things strangled, and from blood.
The last sentence of this speech (verse 21) contains

STUDIES IN ACTS 211
a double argument for the proposed compromise.
First, because Moses was read in the synagogue every
Sabbath the Jews need not fear for the law; the
apostles to the Gentiles were not interfering with this
arrangement; secondly, because this was the case the
Gentiles should be the more ready to abstain from
these, to the Jews, most shocking things. That for
nication and idolatry should be coupled together
seems inevitable when it is remembered that much of
the pagan worship was accompanied with the vilest
orgies; that the worship of Venus under various
forms and names was widespread, and that in
Cyprus, the ancient center of her worship, the pollu
tions accompanying it became a scandal even to the
surrounding pagan countries. The thing here con
demned as a sin both by the legal and instinctive
purity of Judaism, coupled with Christian sanctions,
was in all that pagan world "so completely a matter
of indifference that Socrates has no censure for it,
and Cicero declares that no pagan moralist ever
dreamed of meeting it with an absolute prohibition."
Here is one of the great secrets of both Jewish and
Christian antagonism to idolatry, and the modern
Parliaments of Religion that cover up or condone the
same pollutions existing rampant in the Buddhistic
and Brahmanistic cults of this day, will probably not
get very far on the road toward harmonizing the
ancient Hebrew purity, still cardinal in Christianity,
with the ancient idolatrous impurity, still a factor of
pagan worship.

212 STUDIES IN ACTS
"The apostles and elders and the whole church"
agreed to the compromise proposed by James, and
wrote to the Gentiles in Antioch a delightfully fra
ternal letter, and sent it by the hands of Barnabas
and Paul, accompanied by two of their own chief
men, Judas and Silas, who were instructed to teach
the same things by word of mouth, which, being
prophets, they did with much exhortation. When
the letter was read to the Christians of Antioch, they
"rejoiced for the consolation."
Four points are to be noted: First, The decision
was a triumph for the Apostle Paul and his co-work
ers. They could now go out into the Gentile world
and preach the Gospel as free from the fetters of
legalism as though they were presenting mathemat
ical axioms. It is true that the great apostle was
followed and troubled by Judaizers as long as he
lived, but they could never again claim the authority
of the Jerusalem church. As this Judaizing party
was the occasion of the first church council, and con
sequently of the first document of the Christian
church, so by its persistence it occasioned the major
part of the literature that we owe to the Apostle
Paul. Galatians and Romans cannot be understood
aside from this controversy. It appears also in
First and Second Corinthians, and in Ephesians, and
Colossians, and Philippians, and First Thessalonians.
To the end this great man remained true to the trust
that Christ had committed to him, as to a "chosen
vessel," the trust of Gospel truth and Gospel love

STUDIES IN ACTS , 213
and Gospel liberty; and when he penned his farewell
to Timothy he had two things upon which justly to
congratulate himself — he had " fought a good fight"
(with Judaizers, no doubt), and he had kept "the
faith." Secondly, The decision, like most compromises,
was but a temporary settlement of the dispute.
De Pressense, quoted by Prof. B. A. Hinsdale, says:
"The barrier was lowered, not removed. Thus, no
sooner was the decision communicated, than it re
ceived various interpretations. Paul drew from it
inferences which were undoubtedly by implication
contained in it, but which were not equally evident to
the minds of all." Several questions of importance
were not touched upon in the decision ; the relation
of the Jewish Christians themselves to the Mosaic
law was very prudently left in abeyance ; likewise the
social relations of Jewish and Gentile Christians;
these and some other questions, such as the release
of all Christians from the Jewish altar worship, and
cleansings, and fasts, and Sabbaths, were left to be
wrought out for us by the Apostle Paul's incisive dis
tinctions between Moses and Christ, between the law
and the Gospel, the former as preparatory and tem
porary, the latter as all-sufficient and final. The
tenacity of the Judaizing party for the law of their
fathers is most pathetic. Spite of the decision of
the council, and the sanction of the Holy Spirit in
the reception of Gentiles, and Christ's formally de
clared supremacy, they could not seem to get over

214 STUDIES IN ACTS
their fondness for the letter of the law. God's final
warnings to them in the utter de.struction of Jerusa
lem, and the temple, and the altar forms of worship
there, were unheeded. They continued their opposi
tion to the progressive forms of the faith until they
fell logically into the heresy of denying the divine
nature of Jesus ; they branded the Apostle Paul as a
heretic, and became themselves the Ebionite secta
rians of the first and second centuries, and dwindled
by the middle of the latter century into insignifi
cance. Thirdly, This council was thoroughly democratic.
Grant that the reading " and brethren," in the twen
ty-third verse is a corruption; yet the democratic
character of the council is shown by the twenty-
second verse, which reads: "Then pleased it the
apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send
chosen men of their own company to Antioch with
Paul and Barnabas." No one assumed autocratic
authority. Even Peter is designated in the speech
of James by his old, unapostolic name, Simeon.
Perhaps it is for these reasons that Farrar contends
that the council was not a council at all. According
to the Anglican and Romish notions of a council
as being thoroughly aristocratic, the laity and infe
rior orders of the clergy not being admitted, this
was not a council. But if open debate in the spirit
of the Holy Spirit with the right of suffrage ex
tended to all; if a decision arrived at by "the com
mon sense of most;" if, in short, brotherly counsels

STUDIES IN ACTS 215
and brotherly conclusions constitute a council, this
was a council.
Lastly, As the presence of sin magnifies the work
ings of grace, so the intensity of Judaism magnifies
the Christly charity and liberty of the Jerusalem
church. Even as a compromise, the decision is won
derful. James and others must have felt that it
broke the trend of the centuries. It was revolution
ary, and they knew that to the Jews as a nation, it
would appear as a denial of the faith of their fath
ers. It was a reverent and painful slap in the face
of tradition. But the Holy Spirit, genius and guide
of the new age, was imperious; he demanded this
break in the centuries, and to him the church was
loyal. This was an hour freighted with destinies,
and these men were fitted for the emergency by " the
power from on high." How reverently they couch
their decision ! And what historic majesty there is
in it! "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit — and to
us!"

XI.
THE FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY IN EUROPE

""Where should Paul be studied, loved and venerated it not in
England? Are not English Christians in a very special sense his
spiritual chUdren? Do they not owe to him the character of their
religion, the form of their doctrine, even their principles of religious
liberty and civil right ? Is not Anglo-Saxon society his work ?
Does not his spirit pervade the thousand ramifications of English
civilization, extending from indi"ndual conduct to the highest scien
tific activity, and from domestic life to political debates in Parlia
ment ? " — Sabatier, "All zones are one seed-field,
And one the fostering sky;
Best germs the ripened ages yield
On world-wide pinions fly." — Joseph Cook.
218

XI.
THE FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY IN EUROPE.
"And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man
of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia
and help us." — Acts xvi, 0,
This vision has the strangeness of romance, the
sternness of history, and the pathos of prayer. It is
the way by which the Holy Spirit signifies to Paul
that he has been appointed as the actor in a new
march of events. The waves of Gospel influence
must be kept rolling outward, and this is the signal
for an advance. Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria, the
uttermost parts of the earth (Acts i. 8) — that is the
Savior's programme; and the Apostle Paul, guided
by the Holy Spirit, has now the primacy in carrying
it out. Peter is not again named in Acts ; Jerusalem
has already become second to Antioch ; the work of
Barnabas even, is left in obscurity, and the historian
deals only with this foremost man upon the foremost
confines of the pagan world.
Twice the Holy Spirit interfered with Paul's plans
before the directing vision was granted him. When
he had "made a missionary progress" throughout
Phrygia and the region of Galatia, he evidently de
sired to preach in "Asia," but the Holy Spirit for
bade him (ch. xvi. 6). Then he wanted to go
219

¦2'20 STUDIES IN ACTS
into Bithynia, "and the Spirit suffered him not."
So passing through Mysia, and at the same time pass
ing it by, he came down to Troas. Paul's traveling
companions at this time were Silas, who accompanied
him from the home church in Antioch, and Timothy,
a son in the Gospel^ whose home was in Lystra,
whose mother was a Jewess, whose father was a
Greek, and whom Paul circumcised, not as a matter
of compulsion but of concession.
At Troas, however, a third companion announces
his presence in the briefest and least pretentious of all
imaginable ways. He simply says "we" (xvi. 10) — ,
and then goes on writing about the whole company.
In this way the writer of Acts identifies himself with
the history he relates. Paul is his hero, and he but
the humblest of fellow- workers. It is a shrewd and
very interesting guess of Prof. Ramsay's, that Luke
was a Macedonian; that being a physician he had
come to Troas on business; that through professional
services he became acquainted with Paul, and was
converted; that he himself was the "man of Mace
donia" whom Paul saw in a vision; that Philippi was
his home, and that he was Paul's first host and
helper in this, the first city in that part of Mace
donia. The Apostle Paul's voyage across the ^gean Sea
must have seemed to him lilce a progress merely from
province to province. All that woidd was Rome, and
all these provinces were hers. But as we see it his
voyage was from continent to continent, so does the

STUDIES IN ACTS 221
perspective of centuries enlarge rather than diminish
the plans of Providence. The following paragraph,
from an eloquent lecture by Joseph Cook, will help
us to seize upon the historic significance of the call of
the "man from Macedonia:"
"Before the battles of Marathon and Salamis, Asia
predominated in the world's affairs. Since those
contests she has always held a second rank. This
steel-gray narrow sheet of murmurous salt water has
been thus visibly touched in human history by that
finger at whose contact the hills melt and the moun
tains smoke; and, therefore, even after 2,300 years
the waves flash here, between the bleak, rocky
shores, with a light better than that of the sun.
Greek civilization, on that great day when the women
on Salamis, according to the prophecy, boiled their
meat with broken oars, was in process of preserva
tion for you and me. And among the corpses which
shut out the moonlight from the depths of this clear
water on the night after the battle, the plans of Prov
idence for the education of Rome, of London, of
Paris, and of Boston were advancing."
Troas and Neapolis, therefore, are only dots on the
map ; in the larger sense, quite literally, the Apostle
Paul set sail from Asia and landed in Europe, and
the ship that bore him carried a more precious freight
by far than was ever borne by the fleets and trans
ports of Xerxes, or Philip of Macedon, or Alexan
der, or any of the Caesars. Beyond Macedonia was
Rome; and beyond Rome, Germany; and beyond

222 STUDIES IN ACTS
Germany, Britain; and beyond Britain, America; and
still beyond America, an Asia that was not in the
dreams even of the greatest of the Caesars. And
toward all these nations the face of Paul was turned,
though he knew it not; and through him westward
the Gospel was destined to take its course, guiding
and inspiring the course of empire, till it should en
compass the earth. What mighty works were yet to
be wrought by Greece and Rome, and by the bar
barians that Caesar presumed to have conquered!
What battles and victories ! What governments, civ
ilizations, progress! What mistakes, sorrows, revo
lutions and triumphs, both of war and peace! And
the "man of Macedon " uttered the cry of deepest
need, and the pathetic prayer of all these "kindreds
and tongues and peoples and nations " through their
centuries of struggle when he said to the missionary
of the cross, "Come over and help us."
It was an ancient custom of the Jews to meet by a
river side for prayer when no synagogue was at hand.
One of the exiles of the great captivity sang:
" By the rivers ol Babylon,
There we sat down, yea we wept
"When we remembered Zion ;
We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof ;
For there they that carried us away captive,
Required of us mirth, saying,
Sing us one ol the songs ol Zion."
Finding, as it would seem, no synagogue in the
city of Philippi, Paul and Luke, therefore, on the
Sabbath sought the customary place of prayer by the

STUDIES IN ACTS 223
river. There they found Lydia, "a seller of pur
ple," and her household, worshiping God. The
Lord opened her heart; she attended to the things
that Paul spoke; she was baptized, and her house
hold. Luke's record of this first conversion in
Europe (xvi. 14, 15) is precise, unadorned, and beau
tiful. It is his style to state facts; he seeks little
from the arts of rhetoric; but here in the statement
of the fact he produces a picture, and the circum
stances and the associations unite in giving to it the
character and the sacredness of an ancient master
piece. There is no incompleteness about it. There
is the place and the spirit of prayer; there is the
preacher and his audience; there is the declaration of
the Gospel and its confession in baptism; there is the
sisterly hospitality that springs from gratitude for
the gift of faith and hope and love. And all this is
set within the somber background of Greek and
Roman history. The city was named for Philip, the
father of Alexander the Great, and was a monument
of his empire. A hundred and sixty-eight years
before Christ it fell into the hands of Rome. Ninety-
four years before the visit of Paul, not far from
Lydia's place of prayer, occurred the battle of
Philippi, which decided the fate of the republic of
Rome, and introduced the imperial system. Here
Cassius and Brutus committed suicide, the former
before, the latter after the battle was lost. But in
this humble baptism there was the beginning of a
mightier and more beneficent movement for Europe

224 STUDIES IN ACTS
and the world than could possibly spring from the
battlefields of Greece and Rome. One cannot for
bear the reflection that perhaps the nearest approach
in modern times, as regards historic interest, to this
baptism in the Gangites was that one in the Ganges,
when, in the year 1800, on Christmas day, Chrishna
Pal confessed in his body, at the hands of William
Carey, the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Dr. J. M. Stifler has an interesting suggestion in
explanation of Luke's care in describing this conver
sion: "Since the beginning of a new stage finds
record here, we have some repetitions of features
seen before. Years have passed away, the Gospel
has spread far and wide, but baptism has not been
mentioned since the story looked at Peter in the
household of Cornelius. When the Gentile work
began it was necessary to show that baptism would
attend it, but after that mention there is no other till
we come to the household of Lydia and the jailer.
For here again we are at the center of a new circle."
The same author brings together other parallels
that are interesting. "Samaria triumphed over
Simon Magus. Paphos left Elymas groping in blind
ness. The strong man armed is again encountered
(referring to ch. xvi. 16-18), only to suffer the spoil
of another of his chattels. The meeting of an evil
spirit on the entrance of the Gospel into Europe, is
in harmony with the cases above cited, is in harmony
with the hindrances of divine grace from the dawn
of history. Satan blocks the way as soon as it is

STUDIES IN ACTS 225
entered." This insane slave-girl, ventriloquist and
soothsayer, is another example of those numerous
" dabblers in the black art " that belong to the times
of Paul. Of course her advertisement of Paul and
his missionary co-workers as the servants of the most
high God, and the preachers of the way of salvation,
was such as to bring the sobriety and dignity of the
Gospel into disrepute. The triflers of the city must
have jeered continually at seeing this crazy girl fol
lowing the missionaries, and calling after them. At
last Paul rebuked the spirit, and healed her. This
destroyed her commercial value, and brought down
upon him the persecution of her owners, for there
were not wanting men so mean as to make specula
tion out of such maladies, and people so superstitious
as to pay the price of such fortune telling. It was
easy to call out the mob by shouting that the customs
of the Romans were endangered, and the result was
that Paul and Silas were beaten and imprisoned.
This gave the occasion for the midnight prayer and
praise meeting in the prison; the earthquake; the
opening of the prison doors; the loosing of the pris
oners; the jailer's intention to kill himself, suppos
ing his prisoners were gone; Paul's gracious inter
ference and timely preaching, and the conversion of
a household the same hour of the night.
The immersion of the jailer and his household
offers no difficulties to scholarly exegetes. " The
rite may have been performed," says De Wette, " in
the same fountain or tank in which the jailer had
15

226 STUDIES IN ACTS
washed them." Meyer, as quoted by Hackett, sug
gests that the water was in the court of the house;
and that the baptism was that of immersion, which,
he says, "formed an essential part of the symbolism
of the act." The fact that the jailer brought them
out of the prison before their baptism and that they
did not come into his house till after it had taken
place is favorable to immersion rather than affusion ,
for the latter could most likely have been performed
either in the prison or the house, as also the washing
of their stripes.
A manly trait in the character of Paul is shown in
that he refused to go secretly away bearing the
wounds and humiliation of his unjustified whipping.
The lictors sent, saying, " Let these men go." " Nay
verily," said Paul. "We are Romans; we are un
condemned; they have beaten us; they shall not
thrust us out privily; let them come themselves and
fetch us out." Paul gloried in necessary sufferings
for Christ's sake, and he never murmured at persecu
tions incurred in the way of duty; but he was a
stranger to monkish asceticism, and superstitious
trust in the meritoriousness of penances would have
been a horror to his transparent soul.
The next church established by Paul was in the
city of Thessalonica. This city was named after
a sister of Alexander the Great; it was on the direct
road from Philippi to Rome; it was situated at the
head of the Thermaic Gulf, and has been an impor
tant point from Paul's day to our own. To the

STUDIES IN ACTS 227
apostle this was one of the most satisfactory of all
the churches. His first letters were written to it;
he comforts the members of it in their persecutions;
exhorts them to rejoice unceasingly; assures them of
his deep love, and while praying for them, craves
their prayers.
In Berea the apostle found exceptional Jews,
"more noble than those in Thessalonica," in that
they readily received the word, and candidly exam
ined the Scriptures to confirm it. To the great mis
sionary this experience must have been as delightful
as it was rare; but the inevitable happened. Mali
cious Jews from Thessalonica followed him, and
again, as usual, he was persecuted and driven out.
Athens has an imperishable charm for the student.
It was the birthplace of Greek history and philosophy
and rhetoric. Immortal names are associated with it,
and the masterpieces of their genius are the admira
tion of the centuries. "Were Plato, Socrates, and
Demosthenes the only forms visible from the Acrop
olis, that eminence would be the loftiest outlook on
the globe over human intellectual history. At the
west summit of the Parthenon there is a point from
which are visible the groves of Plato's Academy, the
daily haunts of Socrates, the Pnyx of Demosthenes,
the grounds of the Lyceum of Aristotle, the Mars'
Hill of Paul, the Propylea of Phidias and Pericles, —
the theatre of .3]schylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, —
the mountain slope once the seat of Xerxes, — the
path to Marathon of Miltiades, and the Salamis

228 STUDIES IN ACTS
straits of Aristides and Themistocles." In the time
of Paul Athens was the home of philosophy and
frivolity, of art and idolatry. Petronius says it was
more easy to meet a god than a man in Athens.
" There were more statues in Athens than in all the
rest of Greece put together." All this would be the
more displeasing to Paul since he was trained in a
school that prohibited the representation in art of
the human form. And besides, the conventional
nudity of Grecian art must have seemed a shocking
degradation to the severely chaste and lofty morals
of the Hebrew missionary. "It is all very well,"
says Farrar, "for sentimentalists to sigh over 'the
beauty that was Greece, and the glory that was
Rome; ' but paganism had a very ragged edge, and it
was this that Paul daily witnessed. . . . Perfect
ness of sculpture might have been impossible without
the nude athleticism that ministers to vice. For one
who placed the sublimity of manhood in perfect
obedience to the moral law, for one to whom purity
and self-control were elements of the only supreme
ideal, it was in that age impossible to love, impossi
ble to regard even with complacence, an art which
was avowedly the handmaid of idolatry, and covertly
the patroness of shame. Our regret for the extin
guished brilliancy of Athens will be less keen when
we bear in mind that more than any other city she
has been the corruptress of the world."
Thus Paul confronted art in Athens, while in the
persons of the Epicureans and the Stoics he encoun-

STUDIES IN ACTS 229
tered philosophy. The former were materialistic and
therefore practically atheistic; they sought pleasure
as the highest good, and descended into the pathways
of sensuality in their search. The substance of their
beastly teaching is put in a single phrase by Paul in
the fifteenth chapter of I. Corinthians, when, upon
the supposition that Christianity is false and the dead
rise not, he says, "Let us eat and drink, for to-mor
row we die."
Considering Stoicism as the noblest of the Greek
philosophies, it was nevertheless fatalistic and panthe
istic. The Stoics aimed at a laudable self-control,
but ended in heartless indifference to the conditions
around them, and in the justification of suicide. Of
the Christian's Godward trust and manward sympa
thy they knew nothing, and the trend of their teach
ing was the direct antithesis of Christian altruism.
For four hundred years these systems of thought had
been uppermost in Athens, and at last they had
degenerated, the one into "the apotheosis of sui
cide," the other into "the glorification of lust."
From every humane and beneficent standpoint the
failure of the philosophy and art of Athens is con
spicuous. They had filled the city with idols and
idlers; with a university of philosophic triflers, and a
population of news-mongers; with voluptuous priests
and unknown gods. The best name that such a peo
ple could find for so great and serious a soul as
Paul was a piece of their street slang; they called
him "Spermologus," by which they meant almost

230 STUDIES IN ACTS
any amount of contempt, a babbler, a seed-picker,
"an ignorant plagiarist," a worthless fellow with
scraps of learning. However, he had something new
to tell them, and so they took hold of him and
brought him to the Areopagus, not necessarily to
Mars' Hill, but to their highest court, and not for a
court trial, but for the sake of curiosity.
In the city of Socrates Paul had adopted the So
cratic method; he had gone about the streets engag
ing this one and that one in conversation. But Athens
was also the city of Demosthenes, and the Areopagus
demanded of him an oration. By his courtly and
undaunted bearing he plainly said in the presence of
these degenerate descendants of great thinkers, "I
am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ." We know
that the orations of Demosthenes have lived; we
know that this sermon of Paul's will live. The
grouping of his thoughts, the delicacy and daring of
his polemics, and the novelty of his theme must have
been alike startling to his Athenian auditors, as they
are the admiration of his latest readers. The tact
and dignity of his introduction are spoiled by the
King James translators, for Paul would not have in
sulted an Athenian audience to begin with by calling
them superstitious. Such bluntness and bungling
would not be in keeping with his genteel rule of
" becoming all things to all men that he might by all
means save some."
This, rather, is his introduction: "Men of Athens,
I perceive that you carry your religious reverence

STUDIES IN ACTS 231
very far, for as I passed by I beheld an altar with
this inscription. To an Unknown God. What there
fore ye worship in ignorance, this set I forth unto
you." Having seized this text from one of their own
altars, he seized also a quotation from one of their
own poets, and upon this double basis chosen in
common with them he declared that the God con
fessedly unknown to them is Creator and Father,
indirectly rebuking in this double proposition the
pantheism of the Stoics, the practical atheism of the
Epicureans, the polytheism of the people, and the
pride of caste and race that belonged to every Greek.
He made the search for God the object of existence,
thus rebuking their contention that pleasure is the
highest good. By making the worship of God a
matter not of the hands but of the heart of the
devotee he rebuked the meritoriousness of their sacri
ficial cult. By deducing the idea of the Godhead from
that of the Fatherhood of God he rebuked a whole city
full of idols, saying, we ought not to think that what
is divine is like unto gold or silver or stone graven by
art or man's device. In conclusion he made a direct
application, calling upon them to repent, and warn
ing them of the righteous judgment of God; and all
in all, both warning and pleading were based upon
the fact of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
At this the more frivolous mocked, and the more
seemingly sober said, Felix-like, "We will hear thee
again of this matter."

232 STUDIES IN ACTS
One Areopagite believed, Dionysius byname; and
one woman, Damaris by name. Was this then the
result of Paul's mission to Athens, " The eye of
Greece," " The pride of the world?" A city full of
babblers mistaking Paul for a babbler! One is re
minded of Carlyle's fable, adopted from the Koran,
of men turned to apes, and " gibbering very genuine
nonsense, there by the Dead Sea." But this was not
the whole result. Could Paul have foreseen the
church that afterwards grew up in Athens; the van
ishing of her gods as though smitten by magic ; the
giving of her sons and daughters in Christian mar
tyrdom; and the bishops that were trained in her
Christian schools, he would not have gone so sadly
away, and we can imagine him exclaiming in antici
pated triumph, " God hath chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise; and God hath
chosen the weak things of the world to confound the
things that are mighty; and base things of the world,
and things which are despised, hath God chosen,
and things which are not, to bring to naught things
that are; that no flesh should glory in his presence."
With fine rhetoric, but with pagan rather than
Christian taste, Renan has apostrophized the smit
ten idols of Athens; "Ah, beautiful and chaste
images; true gods and goddesses, tremble! See the
man who will raise the hammer against you. The
fatal word has been pronounced; you are idols. The
mistake of this ugly little Jew will be your death
warrant." With vastly finer rhetoric, and with iner-

STUDIES IN ACTS 233
rant Christian taste, Mrs. Browning has sung their
requiem : "Gods of Hellas! gods of Hellas!
Can ye listen in your silence?
Can your mystic voices tell us
"Where ye hide? In fioating islands,
"With a wind that evermore
Keeps you out of sight of shore?
Pan, Pan is dead.
" O twelve gods of Plato's vision,
Crowned to starry wanderings, —
"With your chariots in procession,
And your silver clash of wings !
Very pale ye seem to rise,
Ghosts of Grecian deities —
Now Pan is dead I
" Gods ! we vainly do adjure you, —
Ye return nor voice nor sign ;
Not a votary could secure you
Even a grave for your Divine !
Not a grave to show thereby.
Here these gray old gods do lie !
Pan, Pan is dead."
Corinth was a city of four hundred thousand peo
ple when Paul visited it. A hundred and forty-six
years before Christ the Romans had destroyed it;
but in forty-four before Christ, Julius Caesar, mark
ing the importance of its situation, had rebuilt it and
colonized it. Lying on the highway of travel and
commerce between the East and the West, it sprang
into prominence with surprising rapidity, and became
" The Vanity Fair of the Roman Emijire, at once the
London and the Paris of the first century after

234 STUDIES IN ACTS
Christ." Its wealth and its profligacy were proverb
ial, and to its nameless and more degrading vices
were given by the worship of Venus, the sanctions of
religion. It had all the traits of a city suddenly
grown. There were the ugly contrasts between the
poor, housed in their ancients huts of wood or straw,
and the rich adventurers of yesterday dwelling in
palaces adorned with relics from the ancient city,
and displaying the inevitable arrogance and shallow
culture of such upstarts. Side by side with the sober
business man of means, there came the huckster and
the trickster, and together with the commerce of the
nations there came the gods of the nations with their
devotees, their unsavory priests, and their prostitute
priestesses. Such a city is a great catch-all. Farrar
sa}'s, " It was in the midst of this mongrel and het
erogeneous population of Greek adventurers and
Roman bourgeois, with a tainting infusion of Phoeni
cians — ^this mass of Jews, ex-soldiers, philosophers,
merchants, sailors, freedmen, slaves, tradespeople,
hucksters, and agents of every form of vice — a col
ony without aristocracy, without traditions, without
well-established citizens — that the toil-worn Jewish
wanderer made his way."
In Corinth the Apostle Paul met Aquila and Pris
ciUa, Jews, lately driven from Rome by an edict of
the Emperor Claudius. One cannot but muse upon
these three wandering and persecuted people estab
lishing a home and working together at their com
mon trade of tent-making. Perhaps they first met

STUDIES IN ACTS 235
in the synagogue, for there it was not unusual
for craftsmen to sit together, " silversmiths by
themselves, and ironworkers by themselves, and
miners by themselves, and weavers by themselves,
and when a poor man came there he recognized the
members of his craft, and went there, and from
thence was his support, and that of the members of
his house." Whether in the synagogue, or the home,
or the prison, Paul was a persistent and tireless mis
sionary. These household companions could not live
with him long without hearing of the Savior. They
became thoroughly instructed Christians, and accom
panied him to Ephesus, and their friendship lasted
as long as Paul lived. At a later date, in Ephesus
Aquila and PrisciUa found Apollos, an eloquent
Alexandrian and disciple of John the Baptist, and
having instructed him perfectly in the way of the
Gospel, sent him as a preacher to the church in
Corinth. In Rome at a later date they had a church
in their house. And still later, once more in Ephe
sus, they received through Timothy Paul's last earthly
greetings. In Corinth Paul was persecuted as usual by the
Jews. The incarnate malice that nailed Jesus to the
cross never deserted this foremost herald of the
cross. In Jerusalem, in Pisidian Antioch, in Iconi
um, in Lystra, in Thessalonica, in Berea, in Corinth,
he was "in perils by his own countrymen." Such
persistent malice would have discouraged or soured
the spirit of all but the most robust and saintly of

236 STUDIES IN ACTS
saints. His strength came from an unseen source,
and receiving mercy he fainted not. Two things
happened in Corinth to comfort him and to prolong
his stay. In a time of deepest need, the Lord stood
by him in the night, and said to him, " Be not afraid,
but speak, and hold not thy peace. For I am with
thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee; for
I have much people in this city" (xviii. 9-11). "/
am with thee.'" Sustained by such companionship,
he continued a year and six months teaching the
word of God in Corinth.
Then befell to his advantage one of those unique
incidents which are capable of letting us so far into
the spirit of the times. The Jews attempted an ac
cusation of Paul at the judgment seat of Gallio.
Seneca the philosopher was brother to this noble
Roman, and said of him: " Those who love him best
don't love him enough;" and also, "No mortal is
so sweet to any single person as he is to all man
kind." He was the perfection of kindliness, court
liness and nobility. After his proconsulship in
Corinth he attained to the consulship, and there is a
tradition that he was murdered by Nero. So far as
concerns our present study, he stands as the repre
sentative of the Roman policy at that time in respect
to the Jews of the provinces, evidently considering
Christianity as a phase of Judaism. Looking with
the undisguised contempt of the typical Roman
ruler upon everything pertaining to the Jews, he
drove them from his judgment-seat when they came

STUDIES IN ACTS 237
dragging Paul before him, refusing to be a judge of
questions of their law. Perhaps Gallio would have
cared as little had they beaten Paul instead of
Sosthenes. He simply declined to be troubled by
them. Perhaps the Greeks joined the proconsul in
his contempt for the Jews, and may be Paul had won
some friends among them. But at any rate the non
chalance of Gallio and the prankishness of the
Greeks, put a sudden stop to the persecution of Paul
" by his own countrymen," and made it possible for
him to stay "yet a good while" in Corinth, so that
" many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed, and
were baptized."
So far as Luke's record goes, the pioneer mission
ary work of the Apostle Paul may be fairly said to
have ended at Corinth. Upon his third journey he
did a great and fruitful work, but it was mainly if
not wholly within the regions covered by the first
and second journeys. In Rome he was a prisoner
rather than a pioneer, and besides, others had pre
ceded him as preachers in that city. In the spring
of 53, he set sail from Corinth for Syria, that he
might attend the Passover of that year in Jerusalem.
"And when he had landed at Caesarea, and gone up
and saluted the church, he went down to Antioch."
Was he coldly received in Jerusalem? Why did
he hasten away to Antioch? Had Paul's position as
regards the law caused James and the elders to recoil
from him? Why was there no gathering of the
church to receive him as upon a former, and also

238 STUDIES IN ACTS
upon a later, occasion? The silence of Luke throws
a veil over much. But knowing the Jews we can
judge much.
Once again, and once only, at the close of his third
missionary journey, he visited Jerusalem, saying, " I
go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the
things that shall befall me there ; save that the Holy
Spirit witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and
afflictions abide me. But none of these things move
me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that
I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry
which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify
the Gospel of the grace of God."

XII.
PAUL'S FIRST IMPRISONMENT IN ROME

"Not only did Paul conquer the pagan world for Jesus Christ ; he
accomplished a task no less necessary, and perhaps more difficult, in
emancipating at the same time infant Christianity from Judaism,
under whose guardianship it was in danger of being stifled. Besides
removing the center of gravity of the new church, the advance of his
mission from Jerusalem to Antioch, from Antioch to Ephesus, and
from Ephesus to Rome, he also succeeded in disengaging from the
swaddling-bands of Judaism the spiritual and moral principles
which constitute Christianity a progressive and universal religion."
— Sabatier. 240

XII.
PAUL'S FIRST IMPRISONMENT IN ROME.
"I am standing at Caesar's judgment seat." — Acts xxv. 10.
Thus Paul appealed from his Jewish brethren to a
pagan court, and the greatest of Christian missiona
ries placed himself before the highest of political
tribunals. Two years before he had entered Jerusa
lem "bound in the spirit," saying, "I know not the
things that shall befall me there;" rescued by Lysias
from the murderous intent of his own people, he left
the city in the night escorted by a guard of Roman
soldiers. Felix found no fault in him, and Festus,
successor to Felix in A. D. 60, found no fault in him.
When the latter proposed to release him from all
claims of Roman law on condition that he would go
back to Jerusalem to be tried by the Jews, he, know
ing his rights as a Roman citizen, and dreading
Caesar, though that Caesar chanced to be Nero, les.s.
than the Sanhedrin, made the memorable appeal
under which at last he reached Rome. By the
appeal he gained the continued protection of the
Roman authorities against the Jews, who, "or ever
he came near," were ready to kill him. By it also he
was enabled to carry out his long cherished plan of
visiting Rome (xix. 21). It mattered little to himi
that he should be carried there in chains, for he
16 241

242 STUDIES IN ACTS
knew how to ennoble a chain, and turn its very
clanking into an eloquence that should speak for him
of the "hope of Israel." Others might be ashamed
of his chain, he was not. From it he took the title,
"Bond servant of Jesus Christ," a title nobler far
than any mere fragment of alphabetism that is made
to adorn or desecrate the names of men. Under this
title he proceeded to Rome, and this was the title he
wore while he was the imprisoned primate of the
church in Rome. It has fallen to the lot of his
degenerate non-apostolic successors of later ages to
deck themselves in various combinations of ecclesi
astical capital letters, always with corresponding
millinery, and strut about the "Holy City." He, as
lief as not, would enter the city of the Caesars, make
the acquaintance of Caesar's household, and appear
before the reigning Cifisar, bound like a culprit to a
soldier of the Caesars.
Perhaps he saw in this the only possible way of
appearing before the highest potentate on earth, for
how else than as a prisoner demanding his legal
rights as a Roman could a despised Jew get himself
before the Emperor of the world! How else could
he gain the opportunity of turning for one brief hour
the court of the Empire into a pulpit, and the throne
of the Caesars into a pew while he preached Christ
crucified! Did Paul ever appear before Nero in
person, and did he reason of righteousness, temper
ance, and the judgment to come, as in the presence
of Felix? And was there in that degenerate Cassar, ,

STUDIES IN ACTS 243
that malformed specimen of human kind, still left
enough of humanity to tremble, as Felix did?
Luke's history ends suddenly, and there is much that
we shall never know, but the possibility of such a
meeting between the noblest and the ignoblest of
men, the former in chains, the latter on a throne, is a
spur to the imagination.
By his appeal to Caesar, and his consequent trial in
Rome, Paul gained, or at least planned, a test case in
the supreme court of his day. He must have fore
seen that general persecutions would arise, instigated
by Jews and pagans alike, if the sanctions of the
Empire were not obtained for the growing faith.
He could reason thus: I appeal to Caesar; should I
be acquitted, Christianity will then stand as a religio
licita, and Christians throughout the Empire can
then claim the protection of Rome. This su23posi-
tion ennobles his appeal from a mere matter of per
sonal self-defense to a far-seeing and definitely
planned defense of all Christians.
It should be noted that the last eight chapters of
the book of Acts are devoted almost exclusively to
Paul's connection with Roman officials. A tribune
with his cohort of soldiers saved him from the mob,
and led him to the tower of Antonia, from the steps
of which he was permitted to make his defense to his
own people in Hebrew. When certain Jews swore
by their lives that they would kill him, Claudius
Lysias sent him under guard to Felix. Felix pro
tected him, heard him, and trembled, and turned

244 STUDIES IN ACTS
him over after two years to Festus. Festus also
protected him, declined to take him to Jerusalem for
trial, granted his appeal to Caesar, and permitted him
to speak before Agrippa. Julius the centurion, his
guardian on the well-nigh disastrous voyage to Rome,
"entreated him courteously," permitted him to visit
his friends in Sidon, and took him into his counsels
during the voyage. On the island of Melita, Publius
and others "honored him with many honors." At
Puteoli his Roman guard permitted him to tarry
seven days with Christian brethren. At Rome he
was suffered "to dwell by himself, with a soldier that
kept him."
It is an attractive theory of Prof. Ramsay's, that
Luke wrote his books, the Gospel and the Acts, the
former a little before, and the latter a little later
than, the year 80; that at that time there was a grow
ing tendency in the Empire to persecute Christians
because they were Christians; that, therefore, Luke
had a well defined purpose in dwelling so at length
upon the relations of Paul to the Empire, namely, to
show that in his day Christians could not be con
demned on the charge of being Christians, but only,
like other citizens, upon criminal charges; that it was
his intention to write a third book in which to set
forth Paul's trial and release, and later ministry;
that the completion of his plan would have been the
completion of his plea for Christianity as a religio
licita, and that the work in full was to be addressed,
as the Gospel and the Acts certainly are, to a Roman

STUDIES IN ACTS 245
officer, whose baptismal name was Theophilus. In
these sentences but the barest outline of the theory is
given, and the reader must be referred to Prof. Ram-
say'*s work for its complete statement and argu
mentation. Like most theories, it explains some
things, raises some questions that it does not settle,
and leaves some of the old problems without solu
tion. If the late date assigned be accepted, one im
mediately wonders why then there should be neither
in the Gospel nor in the Acts any reference to the
destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70; why nothing
is said about the Neronian persecutions, and why
there should be no hint of the heretical tendencies
that were troubling the church late in the century.
The supposition of an intended third book, which
Luke was not permitted to finish, weighs in a meas
ure against these objections, and also explains the
abrupt ending of the Acts. In the main, the theory
seems credible, and it is at least worthy of careful
consideration. Luke's description of the voyage from Caesarea to
Rome must be that of one who made the trip. It is
not fiction. The course of the voyage has been
retraced point by point; harbors, such as Fair
Havens and St. Paul's Bay, have been visited and
identified, and even the soundings recorded by Luke
have been verified, and no pains have been spared to
test the accuracy of the record. The vividness and
precision of the account are such, the exactness of
the soundings and of the specified days and nights

C46 STUDIES IN ACTS
and hours is such, that Luke is supposed to have
kept while on board a diary, with the help of which
at a later date he framed the history. Prof. Ramsay
says, "The account of the voyage. as a whole is com
monly accepted by critics as the most trustworthy
part of the Acts, and as one of the most instructive
documents for the knowledge of ancient seaman
ship." We should be aware that the hyper-higher-
critics have tried their hands upon this chapter.
They have discovered in the "sections" vv. 21-26
and vv. 33-35 a better role and a higher character at
tributed to Paul than in vv. 10 and 31, and they have
forthwith concluded that these "sections" are the
interpolations of a later writer, who sought to throw
around Paul the halo of a mythical heroism. It is
interesting therefore to know the opinion of the
latest great specialist in this field. Prof. Ramsay
says: " But let us cut out every verse that puts Paul on a
higher plane, and observe the narrative that would
result: Paul twice comes forward with advice that is
cautiously prudent, and shows a keen regard to the
chances of safety. If that is all the character he
displayed throughout the voyage, why do we study
the man and his fate? All experience shows that in
such a situation there is often found some one to
encourage the rest; and if Paul had not been the
man to comfort and cheer his despairing shipmates,
he would never have impressed himself on history or
made himself an interest to all succeeding times,

STUDIES IN ACTS 247
The world's history stamps the interpolation theory
here as false. ... It would cut out the center of
the picture. . . . The superhuman element is
inextricably involved in this book; you cannot cut it
out by any critical process that will bear scrutiny.
You must take all or leave all."
Rome when Paul visited it was a city of two mil
lions of people, the cullings, good, bad, and indiffer
ent, from every nation under heaven. Conqueror and
conquered, master and slave, soldier aud citizen,
Greeks, Jews, all sorts of barbarians, kinky-haired
Africans, blue-eyed Germans, matrons as noble and
chaste as the mother of the Gracchi, matrons who
counted their age by the number of husbands they
had had, multitudes of priests and prostitutes, armies
of gladiators and droves of wild beasts, the immensely
rich and the desperately poor, were mingled together
in that awful pell-mell of humanity, which had as its
hope against starvation the corn ships from Alexan
dria; as its chiefest amusements, the midnight brawl
and the blood-soaked sands of the amphitheater; and
as its chief citizen Nero, at once emperor, "priest,
atheist, and god." Paul's imprisonment in Rome
fell within that period characterized by Gibbon as
the iron age, the period that succeeded the peaceful
years of Augustus, and that preceded "the golden
age of Trajan and the Antinonies." There falls
within the purview of New Testament history a group
of the successors of Augustus which Gibbon has
bunched and branded in the following summary

248 STUDIES IN ACTS
way. "Their unparalleled vices, and the splendid
theater on which they were acted, have saved them
from oblivion. The dark, unrelenting Tiberias, the
furious Caligula, the feeble Claudius, the profligate
and cruel Nero, the beastly Vitellius, and the timid,
inhuman Domitian, are condemned to everlasting
infamy. During four-score years (excepting only the
short and doubtful respite of Vespasian's reign)
Rome groaned beneath an unremitting tyranny,
which exterminated the ancient families of the
republic, and was fatal to almost every virtue and
every talent that arose in that unhappy period."
It was Nero's Rome in which Paul was imprisoned.
The Rome of which Nero himself grew tired, and
which he burned in the fury of his passion to invent
a new sensation. Three of its fourteen precincts
were utterly destroyed; four only escaped the flames,
and in these were the Imperial palaces and gardens.
To these gardens the terrified populace thronged,
and the monstrous Emperor, to excuse himself,
charged the incendiarism on the Christians, and still
fertile in the diabolical invention of sensations and
spectacles, crucified some; sewed some in the skins
of wild animals and thrust them out to the dogs;
and others still he steeped in pitch, and thrust them
out in blazing tunics to light up the gardens while
he played the role of a buffoon and charioteer. This
was the beginning of the persecution of Christians as
Christians by the Empire, and it happened in the year
64, only four years after Paul entered the city as the

STUDIES IN ACTS 249
" bond servant of Jesus Christ. ' Gibbon has sketch
ed for us one of the transformation scenes of his
tory which in itself is suggestive of many reflections.
" The gardens and the circus of Nero on the Vatican,
which were polluted with the blood of the first Chris
tians, have been rendered still more famous by the
triumph and by the abuse of the persecuted religion.
On the same spot a temple which far surpasses the
ancient glories of the Capitol has since been erected
by the Christian Pontiffs, who, deriving their claim
of universal dominion from an humble fisherman of
Galilee, have succeeded to the throne of the Cassars,
given laws to the barbarian conquerors of Rome, and
extended their spiritual jurisdiction from the coasts
of the Baltic to the shores of the Pacific Ocean."
So similarly history has its revenges in persons as
well as places. While Nero was at the same moment
claiming divine honors and outraging all human
decency, Paul was preaching to the chance visitors at
his home the doctrines which were destined in a few
generations to do away forever with the impious hon
ors that paganism was accustomed to pay to its
potentates. And in his writings, produced in part
during that imprisonment, he has left enshrined the
same doctrines, more enduring than the ancient Capi
tol or the modern Temple, and destined to destroy
the superstitious reverence paid by devotees scarcely
less than pagan to a spiritual potentate more Roman
ized than Christianized. To that obscure prisoner
more than to any other except the Savior himself was

250 STUDIES IN ACTS
due the reformation of the Empire in conduct and
doctrines, and to him we owe in like manner the very
soul and body of the sixteenth century Reformation,
and of present century world-wide evangelization.
He who, glorying only in the cross of Christ, was so
potent to smite the idols of his own day, is still
potent, through the kindred souls of Martin Luther
and William Carey, to smite the more modern idols
of the papacy and of paganism.
Before Paul reached Rome, forty miles out at Appii
Forum, and again thirty miles out at Tabernae, he
was met by " brethren " from the city, " whom,
when Paul saw, he thanked God and took courage."
There was already a church in Rome, and at least
two years before Paul had addressed to these same
brethren his Roman letter. There must have been
some who knew him by face. Had PrisciUa and
Aquila gone back to Asia before Paul reached Rome?
Timothy was with him much, and is associated with
him in the addresses of the Colossian and Philippian
letters, and in that to Philemon. Mark, touchingly
mentioned as "sister's son to Barnabas" (Col. iv.
10), was with him, and Aristarchus stayed so con
stantly with him as to deserve the appellation, " fel
low-prisoner." And he had Luke, his "beloved
physician," and Epaphras, a " dear fellow-servant,"
and minister to the church at Colossae, perhaps a
young man, and like Timothy and Titus, a student of
Paul, — for did he not have a college in Rome, and a
training school for young preachers of the Word?

STUDIES IN ACTS 25 L
And another possible student, Demas, who afterward
forsook him, " having loved this present world,"
was with him. And lastly, Tychicus, " a beloved
brother and faithful minister of the Lord," by whom
the letters to the Colossians and Ephesians were
posted, was one of his companions. Ah, that hired
house in Rome! Was it not at once the home of
the apostle, his hostlery for friends, his pulpit, his
professor's chair, and his editorial sanctum, — and his
prison? Could we identify that house, could we
know that spot, it should rank with Sinai in the sanc
tity, and higher than Sinai in the potency of the
voice that has spoken from it!
It seems that the Jews in Rome had little to do
with Paul. We have no assurance that they took
part in the proceedings against him. Perhaps they
considered prudence the better part of valor. They
were a despised people in Rome, and they knew it;
Paul was a favored prisoner, and they knew that.
When he called them to him three days after his
arrival, and laid his case before them, they professed
to know nothing about it. They even professed a
desire to hear him, for they said with a touch of
malice, " As concerning this sect, we know that it is
everywhere spoken against." Upon a set day they
heard him from morning till evening expounding and
testifying, and persuading them, "both out of the
law of Moses and out of the prophets." As usual,
some believed and some did not, and as usual they
fell into a violent dispute among themselves. That

252 STUDIES IN ACTS
Paul was in no mood to curry favor with them, but
only to enlighten and persuade and warn them, is
shown by his use of Isaiah's terrible anathema, de
nouncing their hardness and their hopelessness, and
by his definitely expressed purpose of devoting him
self to the Gentiles (xxviii. 26-28).
It seems also that the Church in Rome was not en
thusiastic in its loyalty to Paul. In the last chapter of
the letter to the Colossians he names a very few disci-
Y>les, and says, "These only are my fellow-workers
unto the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort
to me." In his second letter to Timothy, he com
plains bitterly, and with prayers for his deserters,
that at his first defense no man stood with him.
Judaizers may have infiuenced some, but more than
likely the dread of Nero's fickleness and cruelty
rested like a blight upon the souls of all but Paul
and the very fewest of his friends.
There are some indications that at this period
Paul was not penniless. He did not work at his
trade, and he seems not to have depended on alms.
He had his own hired house, thus escaping the loath
some prisons of that day. This house could not
have been in the poorer quarters of the city, for it
must have been easy of access to the soldiers, to
one of whom he was chained daily while he
was in Caesarea. Felix communed with him
often, courting a bribe from him, which evident
ly he never received. But the fact indicates that
Paul had money at his disposal (ch. xxiv. 26).

STUDIES IN ACTS 253
In making his appeal to Caesar, according to Prof.
Ramsay, he was entering upon an expensive
line of life. We are reminded by the same author
that a long lawsuit is expensive; that Roman offi
cials, such as Felix, did not look for small bribes;
that " at Cfesarea he was confined to the palace of
Herod ; but he had to live, to maintain two attend
ants, and to keep up a respectable appearance;"
that he was attended, perhaps at his own expense,
by Luke and Aristarchus, who to the Romans would
appear as his slaves; and that at Rome, in addition
to the expense of " his own hired bouse," he would
be expected to maintain the soldier who guarded
him. Prof. Ramsay's solution of this financial phase
of the question is pleasing, and it casts a side light
on his theory as previously referred to. Concluding
that Paul must have been a man of some wealth dur
ing these years, he suggests that either he had come
into possession of his hereditary property, or if he
had previously been disowned by his relatives, a
reconciliation had been reached, and his property
was put at his disposal. If so, he was using it in
defense of the faith, making his own case a test case
in the highest of earthly courts. This would be in
perfect keeping with the character of the man who
could say, "But what things were gain to me, those
I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I

254 STUDIES IX ACTS
have suffered'all things, and do count them but dross
that I may win Christ."
One question remains, that of Paul's acquittal and
subsequent labors. Over this Luke has left the veil
of his silence. Paul's later epistles are not decisive.
It would be worse than idle to presume upon a cate
gorical decision here, when such names as those of
Neander and Schaff are not in agreement. No doubt
there will always be two sides to the question. How
ever, the higher probability seems to be in favor of
acquittal; of subsequent work in Greece, in Asia
Minor, and in Crete; of (possibly) a brief visit to
Spain; of a second imprisonment, and of martyr
dom in Rome in the last year of Nero's reign.
It has been assumed that Paul was chosen to take
the place of Judas, the selection of Matthias not
having been directed bythe Holy Spirit; or of James,
the brother of John, who was slain by Herod. But
there is a deeper significance than that in Paul's
presence among the apostles. Israel itself should
have been God's missionary people to other peoples.
But they " rejected the counsel of God against them
selves." They would not be convinced even by the
resurrection of Jesus. They persecuted the church.
They murdered Stephen, and they murdered James.
They were proud of their particularism, and they
determined to maintain it. They were formalists,
legalists, traditionalists, nationalists. They would
murder, but they would not accept and teach a loft
ier faith and larger hope than such as centered in

STUDIES IN ACTS 255
themselves. Even the Jerusalem church, though not
overruled by the Judaizing party, was crippled by it.
From that nation, therefore, and even from that
church, there was no hope of a world-wide work.
Paul was chosen to do a nation's work, and he did it
as completely as ever one mortal, divinely directed,
could take the place of myriads. And moreover, he
did it in spite of those myriads.
The number of the Apostle Paul's students and
admirers must increase with increasing ages. Among
great students, whether professors of his faith or
not, there is all but unanimity in eulogy. Farrar
ranks him as the greatest man of all times, Christ
being, of course, excepted from the comparison as
being more than man. Sabatier says of him: "The
lofty character of Paul has not always been properly
apprehended because it has too often been considered
from a narrow point of view. Its striking originality
seems to be due to the fruitful combination in it of
two spiritual forces, two orders of faculty which are
seldom found united in this day in one personality,
and which in the case of Jesus alone presented them
selves more perfectly blended and carried even to a
further height than in the apostle. I mean dialectic
power and religious inspiration, the rational and the
mystic element. Or to borrow Paul's own language,
the activity of the mind (toSs) and of the spirit
(irvev/Lia)." Godet says: "The calling of Paul was nothing
less than the counterpart of Abraham's. The life

256 STUDIES IN ACTS
of Paul is summed up in a word ; a unique man for
a unique task." " O Christianity, had thy one work
been to produce a St. Paul, that alone would have
rendered thee dear to the coldest reason."

XIII.
THE FIRST HISTORY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
IN THE CHURCH

"Christ is the second Adam, who, having recapitulated the long
development of humanity into himseU, taken it up into himself, that
is, and healed its wounds and fructified its barrenness, gives it a
fresh start by a new birth from him. The Spirit coming forth at
Pentecost out of his uplifted manhood, as from a glorious fountain
of new life, perpetuates all its richness, its power, its fuUness in the
organized society of humanity which he prepared and buUt for the
Spirit's habitation. The church, his Spirit-bearing body, comes
forth into the world, not as the exclusive sphere of the Spirit's
operations, for 'that breath bloweth where it listeth,' but as the
special and covenanted sphere of his regular and uniform operation,
the place where he is pledged to dwell and to work; the center
marked out and hedged in, whence ever and again proceeds forth
anew the work of human recovery ; the home where, in spite of sin
and imperfection, is ever kept the picture of what the Christian life
is, of what common human life is meant to be and can become." —
Ltix Mundi, 258

XIII.
THE FIRST HISTORY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE
CHURCH.
"And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak
with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." — Acts ii. 4.
Luke is a historian. He has his method. He
records facts. He does not syllogize, he does not
legislate, he does not speculate. Prayer-meetings
and prisons and earthquakes and miracles of release
stand recorded side by side. Men and angels and
sorcerers play their proper roles as belonging alike
to the drama. In the same paragraph appear an
ordinary journey and a miraculous conversion. In
marvelous ways fishermen and publicans confront
high priests and their councils; Jews mingle with
Gentiles; cursing murderers are contrasted with
praying martjTs; missionaries in chains cause Roman
rulers to tremble, and spiritual direction marks a
pathway transverse to that of carnal tradition.
Here miracles are mingled with commonplace mat
ters just as though they were at home there. They
are written down without exclamation points. M5's-
tery becomes history, and there is no interrogation.
In the first church the supernatural found such a
congenial home with the natural that the first his
torian of it never dreamed of questioning its rightful
259

260 STUDIES IN ACTS
residence there. He simply tells about it as Caesar
tells about Gaul. Among the lofty persons that
move upon the stage of this history the Holy Spirit
has his place, and there is such a relationship be
tween his presence and the course recorded that
without the former the latter is inexplicable. Luke
does not theorize, but when he sets before us a super
natural course of history, he sets before us at the
same time the supernatural person that reason de
mands as its coefficient. His method is as admirable
as his material is wonderful.
In the book of Acts three persons above all others
bear witness to a fourth. These three are the mis
sionaries Peter and Paul, and their guide, the Holy
Spirit. Reverently, these three are one in bearing
witness to Christ. If the language is startling, it is
intended. Here, absolutely, is where our study of
the Holy Spirit in the church of Christ must begin.
And no study is more needful, for the Holy Spirit
has been a great sufferer in the house of his friends.
There is no emulation, wrath, strife, or sedition
among Christians for which the Holy Spirit has not
been made to suffer responsibility. There is no
schismatic or heretic but claims his guidance. The
meanest ignoramus cloaks his most trifling and
despicable whims under the Holy Spirit, and calls
them revelations. Evangelistic follies and frenzies
parade their shoutings, their shame and their dis
order as the power of the Spirit. We have listened
to the profane man on the street, and we have called

STUDIES IN ACTS 261
him a blasphemer, but we have not gone into our
temples to condemn the blasphemy that is there,
where men put the Holy Spirit himself up as a
defense of their bigotry, cruelty, and hatred, and
make him the inspirer of their creeds, their thumb
screws, their mystic ravings, and even their immoral
ities. Whittier's terrible arraignment, in his "Brew
ing of the Soma," has a historic justification too
ample by far:" As in that child-world's early year,
Each after age has striven
By music, incense, vigils drear.
And trance to bring the skies more near,
Or lift men up to heaven ! —
" Some fever of the blood and brain.
Some self-exalting spell.
The scourger's keen deUght of pain.
The Dervish dance, the Orphic strain,
The wild-haired Bacchant's yell, —
" And yet the past comes round again,
And new doth old fulfill ;
In sensuous transports wild as vain
"We brew iu many a Christian fane
The heathen Soma still ! "
Beginning with the history of Luke, we are re
minded of the promises of Jesus. The fourteenth,
fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of the Gospel
according to John are cardinal to the study of the
Holy Spirit. In these chapters he is most frequently
called the Comforter, though the original may also be
translated Helper, or Advocate, understanding that
the friendship meaning of that word be kept in it,

262 STUDIES IN ACTS
and the forensic meaning be kept out of it. Once
the Savior calls him the Spirit of truth. In these
chapters the promised relationship of the Holy Spirit
to the apostles is expressed under four general heads.
1. "He shall teach you all things, and bring all
things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said
unto you" (John xiv. 26).
2. "He shall testify of me" (John xv. 26).
3. "He shall glorify me" (John xvi. 14).
4. "He will guide you into all truth" (John
xvi. 13).
The fourth of these is practically inclusive of the
first, and the second of the third, for teaching and
remembrance are the in.struments of guidance, and to
testify of Jesus, simply to present him as he is, is the
highest glorification of him. This reduces them to
two: "He shall testify of me."
"He shall guide you into all truth."
There is a negative promise which serves to empha
size both of these: "He shall not speak of him
self" (John xvi. 13). These explicit promises, two
positive and one negative, were made on the night
before the betrayal, and they have every possible
prominence that can be given to them by the solem
nities of time and place.
This study would by no means be complete did it
not include a reference to the promise contained in
John xvi. 8: "When he is come he will convince
the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment."

STUDIES IN ACTS 263
This promise has been left till the last because the
convincing power of the Holy Spirit depended upon
his guidance of the witnesses, and their consequent
testimony regarding Jesus. It is with clear intuition
of this that Godet says, "The discourse of St. Peter
at Pentecost and its results are the best commentary
on this text." These promises, therefore, divinely
prescribe the office and work of the Holy Spirit.
Luke's history shows their fulfillment.
On the day of Pentecost the apostles were guided
by the Holy Spirit in their speech, for it is said that
they spoke " as the Spirit gave them utterance "
(Acts ii. 4). The Apostle Peter's sermon was there
fore Spirit-guided, and forever as we read it we feel
that it is replete with testimony concerning Christ.
The apostle's answer to inquiring sinners is likewise
Spirit-guided, and his command to them to repent
and be baptized in the name of Jesus glorifies Christ
by making the very imagery of his death and resur
rection the very symbol of conversion and salvation.
The apostles showed their painful need of guid
ance by the last question they proposed to Jesus
before his ascension. "Wilt thou at this time
restore again the kingdom to Israel?" O carnal-
minded men! Your mission is not to restore the
kingdom to Israel, but to testify of Jesus! You
have nothing to do to fight Rome, but to preach
the Gospel ! With such questions foremost you are^
not fit for the work ! Wait ! ' ' You shall receive
power after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you.

264 STUDIES IN ACTS
and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusa
lem, and in Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the
uttermost parts of the earth" (Acts i. 6-8). Given
the Jewish, carnal-minded apostles on the one hand ;
on the other, the purely spiritual products of Pente
cost; then cancel from the record the agency of the
Holy Spirit, and such a gap remains as the intellect
refuses to sanction. Such fruit does not grow from
such trees. Cause and effect are not properly
matched. Such writing would seem mythical. But
the miracle that the intellect demands the record pre
sents, and the writing immediately assumes the form
of history. The Holy Spirit, personal, intelligent,
powerful, is present, and this miracle makes all else
natural. The apostles forget Israel; they remember
Christ and preach him; they had trembled on the
night of his betrayal, but they are heroes now; they
declare courageously and mightily the resurrection and
the Lordship of Jesus; their hearers are convicted
of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; and the
young church comes forth in the .strength and beauty
of a spiritual faith, a spiritual love, and a spiritual
hope. The Holy Spirit is logical. Myths and " cun
ningly devised fables" do not fabricate causes that
are adequate to effects like this, and interlock prom
ises with their fulfillment like this.
When Peter gave his answer to Annas the high
priest (iv. 5-12) he was filled with the Holy Spirit.
His testimony was wholly for Jesus, and he exalted
him to an exclusive place, saj'ing, "There is none

STUDIES IN ACTS 265
other name under heaven given among men whereby
we must be saved." In the praise meeting that fol
lowed the acquittal (iv. 31), " they were all filled with
the Holy Spirit, and they spake the word of God with
boldness." The presence and the presidency of the Holy Spirit
in the church is assumed by the Apostle Peter when
he accuses Ananias of lying to the Holy Spirit (v. 3).
Men chosen to prominence in the church were
expected to be "full of the Holy Spirit." Stephen
the martyr was pre-eminently such a man (vi. 3-5).
They were not able to resist " the wisdom and spirit
with which he spake." The climax of his accusation
against his people was that they " always resisted the
Holy Spirit; " that therefore they had persecuted
the prophets, and had slain Jesus, making themselves
his betrayers and murderers (vii. 51-53).
Undoubtedly there were visible and audible signs
of the presence of the Holy Spirit. This was the
rule and not the exception. The first Christians
knew when the Holy Spirit fell upon them
(viii. 14-20). There was something to be seen and
heard that Simon wanted to buy, and his groveling
mistake gave his name to the world as a synonym for
all filthy, lucrative traffic in holy things.
The mission of Ananias to Saul was not simply to
baptize him, but also "that he might receive his
sight, and be filled with the Holy Spirit." Pres
ently this Spirit-filled man " preached Christ in the
synagogues, that he is the Son of God," and thus

266 STUDIES IN ACTS
was performed the ' ' office work ' ' of the Holy Spirit, .
and the glorification of Jesus (ix. 17-20).
When the churches in Judaea and Galilee and
Samaria "walked in the fear of the Lord, and the
comfort of the Holy Spirit," they were multiplied
and edified (ix. 31).
The Holy Spirit fell upon Cornelius and his house
hold before their baptism. Thus he guided the
Apostle Peter and the church into the transforming
truth that the Gentiles were to be I'eceived just as the
Jews were, simply upon the basis of the presentation
of Christ and of faith in him. " What was I that I
could withstand God?" said Peter afterward in mak
ing his defense to his Jewish brethren in Jerusalem
(x. 44-48, and xi. 15-18. See also essay on "The
First Gentile Convert") . In the first council
(xv. 6-11) this fact was used by Peter as an unan
swerable argument.
Of Barnabas it is said, "He was a good man, and
full of the Holy Spirit and of faith," indicating that
the Holy Spirit finds hospitality where goodness and
faith also dwell. Under the ministry of this man in
the Gentile Church of Antioch " much people was
added unto the Lord." No doubt this good and
faithful man was Spirit-led also when he did so wise
a thing as to seek out Saul and make him an
associate in his ministry (xi. 22-27).
In the thirteenth chapter of Acts there is the
record of a new movement. The camp of the Lord
with its pillar of fire must now move forward into

STUDIES IN ACTS 267
the darkness of pagan lands. The church must
become a foreign missionary society. The historian
is very emphatic in the part he assigns to the Holy
Spirit in this movement. "The Holy Spirit said,
Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work where
unto I have called them." Here the Holy Spirit,
fulfilling his "office work" in guiding the church
and glorifying Jesus, calls the men and commands
the church to send them out. But, as though this
were not explicit enough, the matter is restated in the
fourth verse in language as plain as language can be.
"So they being sent forth by the Holy Spirit
departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed
to Cyprus."
From this time the Apostle Paul becomes the
leading character in the book, and the Holy Spirit is
his closest companion. Filled with the Spirit, he re
buked Elymas, the sorcerer (xiii. 9-11.) Forbidden
by the Spirit, he refrained from a missionary journey
through Northern Asia Minor, and soon discovered
that the Spirit was guiding him, by the help of the
"Man of Macedonia," into Europe (xvi. 6-10).
Thus he was led to preach in Philippi, Thessalonica,
Berea, Athens and Corinth. At Ephesus he found
disciples of John, to whom he imparted the Holy
Spirit, after they were baptized in the name of Jesus.
"And they spake with tongues and prophesied"
(xix. 1-7). He would not be dissuaded from going
to Jerusalem, though the Holy Spirit assured him
that in that city, as in every other, bonds and afflic-

268 STUDIES IN ACTS
tions awaited him (xx. 22, 23). He reminded the
elders of the church in Ephesus that the Holy Spirit
had made them overseers of the flock (xx. 28). In
his last recorded speech, and therefore, so far as this
record goes, his last meeting and parting with his
Jewish brethren, he charged them in the name of the
Holy Spirit, quoting Isaiah, of blindness and deaf
ness, and hardness of heart (xxviii. 16-28). Still one
other noteworthy reference claims its place among
the above. When the Church in council rendered
its decision as to the status of the Gentiles it claimed
to be Spirit-guided, saying, as an introduction to the
decision, " It seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to
us ... " (xv. 28).
Having collated the Scriptures and summarized the
history pertinent to the theme, it remains to offer
some reflections and leave the reader to judge wheth
er they are legitimate conclusions.
The Holy Spirit was the guiding genius of the
church. He made it cosmopolitan, and he made it
missionary. His was the presence, often but not always, of an
audible, visible, intelligible intelligence. This pres
ence, called metaphorically the baptism of the Spirit,
was not confined to the apostles, nor even to the
first Gentiles in the home of Cornelius. The promise
of "the gift of the Holy Spirit" (ii. 38), must
upon any fair construction refer to this presence.
To the re-baptized disciples of John in Ephesus
was granted this presence (xix. 1-6). The study

STUDIES IN ACTS 269'
upon this point may be carried forward into the
epistolary writings, especially the first letter to the
Corinthians. This presence was conditioned upon the preaching
of the Gospel, and might either precede or succeed,
but never supersede, baptism.
The book of Acts gives us no indication of an in
tention on the part of the Holy Spirit to resign his
office in favor of a written word. If there was such
an intention, or such a resignation, the record of it
must be found elsewhere.
The apostles had no written word by which they
could be guided in the building of a cosmopolitan,
missionary church. The New Testament had yet to
be created, and to be created by them under the
direction of the Holy Spirit. The Old Testament
would not do, for its cult is neither cosmopolitan nor
missionary. The narrow limits of its legalism were
a constant offset to the aspirations of its prophet-
ism. But the Holy Spirit supplied the place of a
book, and how much more one dares not attempt to
say. Nevertheless, Christians can never cease to
remember with gratitude that they have from the
Holy Spirit while he dwelt audibly and visibly in the
church, the gift of a collection of books, which we
call the New Testament, and which, as distinguished
from the Mosaic Bible, is the Christian Bible.
Revelation was the work of Jesus; inspiration was
that of the Holy Spirit. " He shall not speak of
himself. He shall take of mine, and shall show it

270 STUDIES IN ACTS
unto you." The quickening of the memory of the
apostles, the fitting of their words to the needs of
the hour, the adjustment of men and measures to
the accomplishment of ends that were desirable, as
in the appointment of the seven deacons and the
sending out of Paul and Barnabas, are indicative of
the whole tenor of his inspirational work. Jesus
himself revealed himself to Saul of Tarsus; after
the revelation the Holy Spirit became Saul's helper.
Th|is placed him upon the same basis of revelation
and inspiration that belonged to the other apostles.
It is evident that the relation of the Holy Spirit to
us cannot be identical with that to the apostles. He
cannot quicken our memories with the words of
Jesus as he did theirs, for Jesus has not spoken to us
as to them. He cannot use us in an evidential way
as he did them, for we have never seen and heard
Jesus. It may be for this reason that there are not
given to us the extraordinary powers of the Spirit,
such as healing and speaking with tongues.
The immediate conversion of sinners was not the
work of the Holy Spirit. That would be mysticism.
But through men to testify to the man Christ, and
through men to glorify the man Christ, and through
men to take of the things of Christ and show them
to the world, — this was his work. Christ is the reve
lation of truth. It is truth that convicts. It is evi
dence that substantiates truth. Along this rational
highway the Holy Spirit guided the apostles and the
first church in the work of evangelization.

STUDIES IN ACTS 271
Does the Holy Spirit abide in the church to-day,
and does he make his home with Christians individu
ally? We do not work miracles; we do nbt proph
esy; we do not speak with tongues. But, — "The
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."
Have we the fruit of the Spirit? This only is our
capital question.
" No more from rocky Horeb the smitten waters gush;
Fallen is Bethel's ladder, quenched is the burning bush.
The jewels of the Urim and Thummim all are dim;
The fire has left the altar, the sign the teraphim.
No more iu ark or hill or grove, the Holiest abides ;
Not in the scroll's dead letter, the eternal secret hides.
Have ye not still my witness within yourselves alway?
My hand that on the keys of lUe for bliss or bale I lay?
Still in perpetual judgment, I hold assize within,
"With sure reward of holiness, and dread rebuke of sin.
My Gerizim and Ebal are in each human soul ;
The still, smaU voice of blessing, and Sinai's thunder roll.
The world will have its idols, and flesh and sense their sign ;
But the blinded eyes shall open, and the grossest ear be fine.
"What if the vision tarry? God's time is always best ;
The true light shall be witnessed, the Christ within confessed."
Even so. " The Christ within!" And no less also
the Christ without; the historic Christ; the risen,
the ascended, the now regnant Christ shall be con
fessed. And that through the witness of the Holy
Spirit, also historic, and speaking evermore as Peter
spoke on Pentecost, as Paul spoke in Antioch, in
Athens, in Corinth, and in Rome.

XIV.
EXCURSUS. THE APOSTLE PAUL AS ORGAN
IZER AND UNIFIER

"Nothing is essential to the conversion of the world but the
union and co-operation of Christians. Nothing is essential to the
union of Christians but the apostles' teaching or testimony.
Neither truth alone nor union alone is sulBcient to subdue the unbe
lieving nations. But truth and union combined are omnipotent.
They are omnipotent, for God is in them and with them, and has
consecrated and blessed them for this very purpose. " — A. CampbeU,
Christian System, 274

xn^.
EXCURSUS. THE APOSTLE PAUL AS ORGANIZER
AND UNIFIER.
"Now after many years I came to bring alms to my nation, and
offerings." — Acts xxiv, 17.
The Apostle Paul's emergence in history is as an
organizer and leader of men. At the first mention
of his name there is a recognition of his primacy in
persecution. "The witnesses laid down their clothes
at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul." A
moment later the historian, speaking still further of
the martyrdom of Stephen, says, "And Saul was
consenting to his death." And still a moment later,
"As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering
into every house, and haling men and women, com
mitted them to prison." There for a time in solitary
prominence of blood-stained activity, with strangely
mournful, and even frightful and terrible introduc
tion, Luke leaves his hero standing.
No less than nine chapters, and at least twelve
passages of the New Testament, bear witness to the
thoroughness and the terror of his organized persecu
tions. Aside from him, no other persistent and sys
tematic persecutor is brought before us. It is well to
note a number of these passages, for they have not
received the attention they deserve in making up our
275

276 STUDIES IN ACTS
estimate of Paul's character and influence. The
word havoc, used in one of the passages quoted
above, occurs nowhere else in the New Testament,
and Farrar tells us that in the Septuagint and in
classic Greek it is applied to the wild boars that
uproot a vineyard. In close connection with this
word, so graphic of destruction, it is said that "he
entered into every house, and haling men and
women, committed them to prison," indicating an
organized and systematic, as well as a relentles.s, j)er-
secution. In the first verses of the ninth chapter of
Acts, there is the record of his "threatenings and
slaughter," which he is described as "breathing
out," and also of his plan for an authorized and
organized campaign of persecution among all the
synagogues of Damascus. In both these passages it
is especially noted by Luke that he did not spare
women even. His fame as a persecutor had pre
ceded him to Damascus, for Ananias says, "I have
heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath
done to thy saints at Jerusalem; and here he hath
authority from the chief priests to bind all that call
on thy name."
The apostle himself, both in his speeches and his
letters, has told us of his persecutions with such
brevity and emphasis as are indicative of painful
recollections, but also in such terms as to show sys
tem and thoroughness. In Acts xxii. 4 he says: "I
persecuted this way unto the death, binding and
delivering into prisons both men and women." In

STUDIES IN ACTS 277
chapter xxvi. 10, 11 he says: "Many of the saints
did I shut up in prison, having received authority
from the chief priests; and when they were put to
death, I gave my voice against them. And I pun
ished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled
them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad
against them, I persecuted them even unto strange
cities." In I. Cor. xv. 9 he calls himself the least of
the apostles, because he "persecuted the church of
God." In Gal. i. 13 he says that "beyond measure
he persecuted the church of God and wasted it."
And in I. Tim. i. 13 he refers to his former life in
language of almost unrestrained self-condemnation
as having been "a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and
an insulter in word and deed."
There is every indication that this man's work of
persecution was not spasmodic and haphazard, but
that it was a well concerted and definitely directed
plan for the extermination of Christianity, and there
appears in it all the genius of leadership, of action,
of organization, and of direction. It is interesting to
speculate upon the probable history of the young
church had this man not been converted. It seems
not too much to say that the weight of this one man's
influence, as thrown into the scale for or against
Christ, meant all but all of life or death to the cause
of Christ.
It is impossible to say how much Paul had to do
with the organization and inception of the first for
eign missionary enterprise of the Antioch church.

278 STUDIES IN ACTS
The Holy Spirit is represented as taking the initia
tive, and saying, "Separate me Barnabas and Saul
for the work whereunto I have appointed them."
Instruction and inspiration are closely correlated in
the Gospel, and it is not improbable that the teach
ing of Barnabas and Saul had prepared the church
for the movement authorized by the Holy Spirit.
However, it is a fact that Paul was a leader in the
work from the first, and that before the evangeliza
tion of the island of Cyprus was completed, he
became the leader in it. The moment in which his
name was changed from Saul to Paul fixes the date
of his recognized leadership in the evangelistic move
ments of the church (xiii. 9).
There is a definite statement to the effect that the
second missionary journey was proposed by Paul
(xv. 36). After his disagreement with Barnabas, he
chose Silas, "and departed, being recommended by
the brethren to the grace of God. And he went
through Syria and Cilicia confirming the churches."
The choice of Silas is significant, and has a bearing
on the Jewish-Gentile controversy, as we shall see
below. The third missionary journey had its beginning as
described in Acts xviii. 23. Paul departed from
Antioch, "and went through all the country of
Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the
disciples." During this journey he did his great
work at Ephesus, passed through Macedonia and

STUDIES IN ACTS 279
Greece, and returned through Macedonia to Troas on
his way to Jerusalem.
These journeys are so briefly narrated that upon
casual reading we by no means get the full impress of
their significance. We should picture to ourselves
an evangelistic movement extending from Jerusalem
and Antioch in Syria through Cilicia, Lycaonia,
Pisidia, Galatia, Caria, Lydia, Mysia, Macedonia,
Achaia, and Italy, and the islands of Cyprus and
Crete; as the chief figure in the personnel of this
movement, Paul, supporting himself a part of the
time at least by daily labor, yet preaching aud lec
turing constantly in schools or synagogues or his own
private house; selecting and training young men,
such as Timothy and Titus and Epaphras and Onesi-
mus and Aristarchus and Tychicus and Trophimus,
and sending them out as messengers and evangelists
and overseers, thus taking upon himself "the care of
all the churches;" through amanuenses and messen
gers posting to the churches of his creation imper
ishable letters; suffering constant and many times
perilous persecution; now stoned, now imprisoned,
now and again fronting furious mobs, and now and
again shipwrecked; organizing churches; ordaining
elders; restraining lawlessness; pi'oclaiming liberty;
meanwhile not forgetting "the j^oor saints that were
in Jerusalem," but intent upon carrying out in their
behalf a general and thoroughly systematized series
of collections among the churches of Galatia, Mace
donia, and Achaia; all the while also defending the

280 STUDIES IN ACTS
Gospel from the attacks of Judaizers on the one
hand, and on the other from the most imminent dan
ger of internal discord — all this and more must go to
make up an adequate summary of that majestic
movement, which had Christ for its inspiration, and
the Apostle Paul for the first of its human agencies.
To many a church other than that in Corinth he
might have written, saying, "Though you have ten
thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many
fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you
through the Gospel. Wherefore I beseech you, be
ye followers of me."
In the organization of churches the Apostle Paul
seems to have been guided by three principles.
There was' first, the historic or conservative prin
ciple, viz., his regard for the constitution of the
Jewish synagogues which were to be found in every
considerable city. Upon the synagogue plan the
Mother Church in Jerusalem was modeled, and the
Gentile churches held continuity with it by being
similarly organized. This was a point not to be
despised as regarded the question of unity. The
official functions of the elders (otherwise presbyters
or bishops), and of the deacons or ministers, were
derived from the synagogue, the elders of the one
corresponding to the elders of the other, and the
deacons of the one to the almoners of the other. In
the synagogue there was also a "legate of the con
gregation," or "leader of divine worship," whose
reproduction we seem to have in "the angel of

STUDIES IN ACTS 281
the church," the officer addressed in the letters to
the churches in the book of Revelation. Upon their
first missionary journey the apostles Paul and Barna
bas took care that elders were appointed in every
church (Acts xiv. 23). Paul, having left Titus in
Crete, instructed him to appoint elders in every city
(Titus i. 5). In these passages nothing is said about
deacons, a significant silence, surely. Perhaps that
office was not considered immediately essential to the
young churches. However, Paul, in writing to the
Philippian church, addresses the "bishops (elders)
and deacons;" he also instructs Timothy as to the
character of the men who should be appointed to
thi.s office (I. Tim. iii. 12).
It i^ a matter of great moment that the synagogue,
rather than the temple, became the model of the first
churches. The latter, with its sacrificial service and
sacerdotal orders, drops entirely out of the problem,
and as a factor in the organized work of Christianity
seems to have been as entirely discarded as though it
had never existed. There is never in the record of
any Christian church of apostolic origin the slightest
intimation of anything like the old altar forms of
worship, and the priestly class of the Mosaic cult is
left absolutely behind in the transition from the one
dispensation to the other. No apostolic Christian
ever posed as a priest except in the sense that they
all, from the least to the greatest of them, were both
"kings and priests unto God." All priestly func
tions, aside from these most general ones that per-

282 STUDIES IN ACTS
tain to the whole body of believers, were forever
gathered up into his person who died for us, and
who by reason of his resurrection is "Priest forever
after the order of Melchisedec," that is, after an
order wholly independent and unique. The claim of
any professed Christian that he is more priest than
another, is an ignorant or an impudent usurpation
of Christ's office, and likewise an ignorant or an im
pudent bla.sphemy against his blood-bought mediator-
ship. There were no altar forms of worship, there
fore, nor was there any priestly class in the churches
organized by Paul. In the Pauline dispensation the
brother who "is apt to teach," or to dispense alms,
has forever taken the place of the skillful slayer of
beasts, the Sprinkler of water and blood and ashes.
In the second place, Paul was governed by the prin
ciple of liberty under the direction of the Holy
Spirit. The Pauline churches were far from being
limited in their organization to the synagogue model.
The new wine of the Spirit could not be imprisoned
in the old bottles. Two lists of functions within the
church, whether official or charismatic, are given by
Paul, one in I. Cor. xii. 28, and the other in Eph.
iv. 11. These lists are not in entire correspondence,
and therefore the apostle must not be considered as
treating the subject from a technical, much less a
legalistic standpoint. Indeed such treatment would
seem to be foreign to the genius of Christianity, for
where the Spirit is there is liberty rather than
legality. In the first of these lists it is hard to say

STUDIES IN ACTS 283
where the official functions end and the charismatic
ones begin, and perhaps we do not need to attempt a
rigid distinction. Perhaps we get a better view of
the official freedom and spiritual genius of Chri.s-
tianity by leaving them as the apostle has left them.
"God hath set some in the church, first apostles,
secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that mir
acles, then gifts of healings, helps («'. e., functions of
the diaconate ; Variorum Bible), governments (i. e.,
functions of the presbyterate ; Variorum Bible),
diversities of tongues" (I. Cor. xii. 28).
"And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets;
and some, evangelists ; and some, pastors and teach
ers " (Eph. iv. 11).
As intimated above, our present interest in these
lists lies in the fact of their differences. Neither
includes all the offices or gifts of the other, and we
are led to this conclusion, viz., that there were some
offices and gifts in the Corinthian church that were
unknown to the Ephesian church, and vice versa;
or this, viz., that the Apostle Paul did not care to be
technically exact in his enumeration. In either case
there is an indication of liberty rather than of legal
ism, and in the former of diversity in unity.
Sabatier, in his work entitled, "The Apostle
Paul," has the following suggestive paragraph bear
ing upon this point. "All development implies
variety; and hence the apostle perceives and
acknowledges in the church diverse offices, gifts,
and ministries (I. Cor. xii. 4). To each of these

284 STUDIES IN ACT3
separate gifts he allows free and full development;
and through them the wealth of life in the church is
manifested. But on the other hand these different
charisms proceed from one and the same spirit
(I. Cor. xii. 11). And with love as their common
insj^iration, all tend to the same goal, the perfecting
of the whole body of the church. So the unity of
the church is, in the first instance, broken up and
expanded into a rich variety; but this in turn is
absorbed into the supreme unity. Such is the or
ganic and harmonious development of the lifs of
the church."
In the third place, Paul was governed by the prin
ciple of expediency in many matters pertaining to
organization. No doubt it was expedient that Titus
should be left in Crete to set in order the things that
were wanting (Titus i. 5) ; to ordain elders in every
city; and to exhort and rebuke with all authority
(ii. 15). This seems to indicate an office distinct
from any yet named, and so far as Paul's writings go
it is left without a name. Was Titus the overseer of
all Crete, and was he then a bishop over the congre
gational bishops, and is there here a precedent for
the episcopal form of church polity? The position
of Timothy in Ephesus is similar to that of Titus in
Crete. When Paul went into Macedonia he found it
expedient that Timothy should abide in Ephesus
(I. Tim. i. 3); that he should have general super
vision of doctrine; of the appointing of elders and
deacons (I. Tim. iii.), and of the salaries of eld-

STUDIES IN ACTS 285
ers (I. Tim. v. 17), granting double pay or support
(honor is the euphemism used by Paul) to those who
should rule well; and with authority also to rebuke
and exhort under certain limitations. Intense in
terest attaches to the position and functions of these
two men. But whatever conclusions we may come to
regarding them there is no record of similar officials
having been sent into other regions or cities, such as
Macedonia or Achaia, or Philippi or Corinth. It is
argued, therefore, that in the Apostle Paul's judg
ment it must have been simply a matter of expedi
ency that these men should be stationed permanently,
the one in Crete, the other in Ephesus, with func
tions superior to those of the elders of the congrega
tions; and that, on the contrary, in his judgment the
exigencies in other churches or districts did not call
for such an expedient in the way of organization and
government. Another example of the rule of expediency in
church organization is found in the office of the
Patronus or Patrona, not many notices of which are
given us in the New Testament. There is one clear
case, however, if the interpretation of Kurtz may be
relied on. In Rom. xvi. 1 and 2 we have the follow
ing language: "I commend unto you Phebe our
sister, who is a servant of the church which is at
Cenchrea; that ye receive her in the Lord as becom
eth saints, aud that ye assist her in whatsoever busi
ness she hath need of you; for she hath been a
succourer (Protectress; Variorum Bible) of many.

286 STUDIES IN ACTS
and of myself also." Kurtz in his Church History
characterizes this as "a peculiar kind of ministry
which must soon have developed as something indis
pensable to the Christian churches throughout the
Hellenic and Roman regions, so deeply grounded in
the social life of classical antiquity was the part
played by the patron. Freedmen, foreigners, pro-
letarii could not in themselves hold property, and
had no claim on the protection of the laws,
but had to be associated as Clientes with a
Patronus or Patrona, who in difficult circumstances
would afford them counsel, protection, support and
defense. As in the Greek and Roman associations
for worship this relationship had long before taken
root, and was one of the things that contributed most
materially to their prosperity, so also in the Christian
churches the need for recognizing and giving effect
to it became all the more urgent in proportion as the
number of members increased for whom such sup
port was necessary. Phebe is warmly commended as
such a Christian Patrona (Protectress) at Cenchrea,
the port of Corinth, among whose numerous clients
the apostle himself is mentioned. Many inscrip
tions in the Roman catacombs testify to the deep
impress which this social scheme made upon the
organization, especially of the Roman church, down
to the end of the first century, and to the help it
gave in rendering that church permanent."
It would be impossible to find a better example of
an office created entirely upon the principle of ex-

STUDIES IN ACTS 287
pediency, or one more completely discarded as the
conditions passed away from which it sprang.
The Apostle Paul, though thus engaged in his great
enterprises of evangelization and organization, was at
the same time equally intent upon preserving the
unity of the body of Christ. Aside from Christ's
high-priestly prayer as recorded in the seventeenth
chapter of John, the New Testament literature upon
the subject of unity is almost wholly from the pen of
Paul. His pictured logic of unity is embraced in the
figure of the church as a body with many members
and many functions, but moved by the same spirit
(Rom. xii. 4 and 5; I. Cor. xii. 12); in his figure of
the church as the body of which Christ is the head
(Eph. i. 22 and 23; iv. 15 and 16); and in his figure
of the one body with the one spirit, answering to the
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and
Father of all, who is over all and through all and in
all (Eph. iv. 4-6). He was quick to chide the church
in Corinth for its incipient divisions; he exhorted
the Christians in Rome to be of the same mind one
toward another; he prays the Philippians to fulfill
his joy by maintaining like-mindedness, having the
same love, being of one accord; he instructs both
Timothy and Titus to avoid foolish and unlearned
questions because they gender strifes-; he commands
that those who cause divisions shall be marked and
avoided, and that the heretic shall be rejected after a
first and second admonition. These references are
sufficient to show how constantly the Apostle Paul

288 STUDIES IN ACTS
kept the unity of the church before his mind, how
close it was to his heart, and how jealously he
guarded it.
There is still one other principle that enters into
the Apostle Paul's dealings with churches of such a
general and comprehensive nature as to deserve sep
arate classification and treatment. It is a principle
inherent in the very substance of the Gospel, and to
eliminate it would be well-nigh to eliminate the Gos
pel as a social force from the affairs of societies and
nations. It is the democratic or brotherly principle
of government, and although it is a matter of prime
importance it must be dismissed here in a single
paragraph. The Apostle Paul never lorded over the
congregations ; he did not dogmatize ; he did not dic
tate; he was not a pope. He instructs, he advises,
he entreats, he pleads and prays, but never permits
himself to go beyond the affection of a father and
the persuasion of an elder brother. It was not his to
claim dominion over faith, but to be a helper in joy
(II. Cor. i. 24). He ranks himself with Apollos as
being only a minister (deacon) through whom the
Corinthian Christians came to their faith (I. Cor.
iii. 5). As a father he warns the Corinthians, appeal
ing to them as his beloved sons, and reminding them
that though they may have ten thousand instructors
they cannot have many fathers (I. Cor. iv. 14-17).
Withdrawal from a brother was enjoined as an action
on the part of the whole church, the apostle assum-

STUDIES IN ACTS 289
ing only a spiritual presence in the affair (I. Cor.
V. 1-5).
Kurtz presents us with an excellent summary of this
matter in the following sentences : "Confining our
selves to the oldest and indisputably authentic epis
tles of Paul, we find that the autonomy of the church
in respect of organization, government, discipline
and internal administration is made prominent as the
very basis of its constitution. He never interferes
in those matters, enjoining and prescribing by his
own authority, but always, whether personallj^ or in
spirit, only as associated with their assemblies, de
liberating and deciding in common with them."
The means that the Apostle Paul adopted as look
ing to the permanent unity of the church are of
transcendent interest in a time like this, when many
of the choicest spirits in many of our denominations
are longing for the reunion of Christ's mournfully
dissevered body.
The Jewish-Gentile question was the all but insur
mountable one of the Apostle Paul's day, and no
question was ever fraught with greater dangers to
an incipient movement. To the Jews, the Gentiles
were despicable and hateful, and to the Gentiles the
Jews were already a hiss and by-word. In manners
and morals they were in antipathy; in faith and wor
ship they were in antagonism. The prejudices and
traditions of many generations had intensified the
natural dislike between monotheists on the one hand,
and polytheists on the other; between social and cer-
19

290 STUDIES IX ACTS
emonial cleanness here, and lustful and idolatrous
pollutions there; and finally, between peoples each
alike proudly conscious of the divine choice in their
own behalf, and as proudly convinced of the divine
abandonment of all others.
Christianity set herself to the problem of recon
ciling these irreconcilables, and aside from the influ
ence of the Gospel and of the Holy Spirit in regen
eration, the Apostle Paul's is by far the largest factor
in the work. He seems from the first to have deter
mined upon two things, namely, that the liberty of
the Gentiles should not be infringed, and that the
unity of the church should not be disturbed. Not
legislation, or creed formulation, but education,
prudence, and brotherly love were the factors upon
which he relied in the solution of the problem.
It is impossible to say how much the AjDostle Paul
had to do in bringing about the first council (treated
in a previous Essay), but it is very like a work of his
:from first to last. We know that he was at Antioch
when the proposition was made to go up to Jerusa
lem to the apostles and elders about the matter, and
such a proposition would come naturally from one so
fertile iu methods and so desirous of conciliating as
Paul. We know also that Paul was one of the dele
gates sent up to Jerusalem (Acts xv. 2), and we know
that he conferred privately with the leading apostles
or members of the Jerusalem church, "lest by any
means he should run in vain '' (Gal. ii. 2). His pri
vate conference (a mark of his prudence, by the

STUDIES IN ACTS 291
way,) with such as " were of reputation," must have
had much to do with the favorable decision of the
council, and is not to be forgotten in our estimate
of Paul's leadership upon the questions of liberty
and union. Then, how graciously he accepted the
compromise, and how prom^Jtly he went out among
the Gentile churches, " delivering them the decrees
for to keep." The council and the decrees were
educational and prudential as related both to the
Jews and the Gentiles.
In several other respects, Paul's prudence is ad
mirably shown. First, when he could no longer be
accompanied by Barnabas he chose Silas. Now Silas
was a representative man of the Jerusalem church, a
prophet, and an exhorter, and one of the brethren
chosen to accompany Paul and Barnabas to Antioch
when they delivered the decrees. By making this
man his traveling-companion and yoke-fellow among
the Gentiles, he shielded himself from the suspicions
of the Jewish Christians, and he gained among the
Gentile Christians a double confirmation of the
decrees. The circumcision of Timothy was another pruden
tial measure. Here no principle was at stake, inas
much as Timothy's mother was a Jewess, a point
that Luke makes especially prominent (Acts xvi.
1-3). Upon his last visit to Jerusalem, at the suggestion
of James, Paul undertook to purify himself with the
four men who had a vow, and to be at charges with

292 STUDIES IN ACTS
them. This also was a prudential measure (Acts xxi,
21-24). Paul could conscientiously do this, being a
Jew, but we cannot imagine him enjoining it upon
any Gentile. No doubt it had the desired effect upon
Jerusalem Jews, for we are told that the disturbance
was created by " Jews which were of Asia."
It is a meaningful fact that succeeding every one
of his great missionary journeys, Paul made a visit
to Jerusalem. After his first missionary journey
came the council in Jerusalem. At the close of his
second journey, having landed at Caesarea, he went
up and saluted the church in Jerusalem before he
went down to Antioch (Acts xviii. 22). At the close
of his third journey, he determined to go up to Jeru
salem, even at the risk of his life, and that though
he was longing even then to visit Rome. He refused
to be dissuaded from this visit, and said: " Behold,
I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing
the things that shall befall me there, save that the
Holy Spirit witnesseth in every city, saying that
bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these
things move me, neither count I my life dear unto
myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and
the ministry, which I have received of the Lord
Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God "
(Acts XX. 22-24).
Why was he so intent upon reaching Jerusalem?
Others could have carried and distributed the alms
entrusted to him. Though he planned to reach the
city by Pentecost, he must long since have come to

STUDIES IN ACTS 293
look upon the Mosaic feasts as of no vital import
ance. But that he, the apostle to the Gentiles,
should keep in touch with the mother church, that
he should in person refute the falsehoods of the
Judaizers, that he should report, as Peter did upon
his return from Caesarea, the work of the Holy
Spirit among the Gentiles, and that he should hold
close the bonds of mutual knowledge and regard
between these two peoples, — this was a matter of the
first importance. These visits, therefore, were most
highly prudential.
Supreme above all else in the Apostle Paul's con
structive policy was the principle of love. One
never sees it treated nowadays as a fundamental
principle of unity, and yet that is what Paul made of
it both theoretically and practically. Over all elo
quence and offices and gifts rises love; over faith
and hope even rises love. Paul agrees with John in
making love the highest orthodoxy, and the deepest
heresy, hate. The thirteenth chapter of First Corin
thians is not a panegyric only; it is a union platform.
Where love to Christ is supreme, faith cannot get
far away from him, and where love toward men is,
there follows a community of learning and faith.
Therefore faith needs scarcely any other defense
than love, and union scarcely any other bond. Our
sins against the law of love have been the heaviest
cross of heresy that the body of Christ has had to
bear, and of all destructive isms, Cainism has been
the most destructive.

294 STUDIES IN ACTS
But Paul did not rest in panegyrics; he was a
man of action as well as diction. How did he apply
his union platform of love to the Jewish-Gentile
controversy? By reason of persecution, or famine, or from some
cause unknown, there were many poor saints in Je
rusalem. Twice the Apostle Paul came bringing
help from Gentile Christians, once from Antioch at
the time of the famine, when he and Barnabas re
mained probably many months ministering to the
needy; and once from the Gentile Christians of
Galatia and Macedonia and Achaia. The poor Jew
ish believer, receiving his daily food for months at a
time from the hands of Paul, and recognizing that
it came from uncircumcised believers, or at least
from a mixed church, must have had his heart grad
ually but also greatly softened on the subject of Gen
tile circumcision. Unless his own heart were of
stone, it must have been borne in upon him that after
all, though his Gentile benefactors bore not in the
fiesh the mark of Abraham, yet their brotherly
hearts were sufficiently circumcised.
" AU liearts confess the saints elect
"Who, twain in faith, in love agree ;
And melt not in an acid sect
The Christian pearl of charity."
The contributions from the churches of Galatia
and Macedonia and Achaia must have been on a
large scale. For a long time these churches had been
gathering systematically, ' ' laying by them in store

STUDIES IN ACTS 295
as the Lord prospered them," and bringing it to
gether weekly at their Lord's day worship. In his
first letter to the Corinthians Paul lays this work
upon them, and in his second letter, written several
months later, he praises them for their forwardness
in it, and assures them that he has been boasting of
them to the Macedonian Christians (I. Cor. xvi. 1;
II. Cor. ix). The philosophy of Christian union
that the Apostle Paul sees in this is expressed with
delicacy but not with uncertainty in the following
verses: "For the administration of this service not
only supplieth the want of the saints, but abound
eth also through many thanksgivings unto God;
seeing that through the proving of you by this min
istration they glorify God for the obedience of your
confession unto the Gospel of Christ, and for the
liberality of your contribution unto them and to all;
while they themselves also, with supplication on
your behalf, long after you by reason of the exceed
ing grace of God in you." Ah! There, instead of
hair-splittings, and suspicions, and coldness, and
alienations; instead of the bandying back and forth
of ugly words, and prolonged discussions upon
mooted points — there was "sweet charity," and the
fruits of it, and the thanksgivings to God by reason
of it, and Jews and Gentiles (wonderful! wonder
ful!) longing after one another because of the ex
ceeding grace of God thus discovered. Thus prac
tical love was made by the magic of the Gospel and.
management of Paul the solvent of the most uncon-

296 STUDIES IN ACTS
querable disagreements, and that hard old world in
which hatred and warfare were the rule, with sel
dom an exception in favor of friendship and peace;
in which there was not an asylum for the blind, or
a hospital for the leper, or a home or a heart for an
abandoned babe; in which clannishness was esteemed
a virtue, and inter-ethnic charity was unknown, saw
Jew and Gentile rise up together in the spirit of
Christ's love to call each other blessed! O Logic,
thou hast never wrought miracles like this ! O Unity
of Love, we still search for thee as for the Holy
Grail ! Biting and devouring one another, we search
by logic in the spirit of legalism for unity. We in
variably come back frorn our search torn and empty-
handed, and the world does not say, "Behold how
these brethren love one another."

NOTES AND COMMENTS

PREFACE TO THE NOTES AND COMIVIENTS.

The general purpose of this part of the work is
briefly expressed in the Preliminary Essay, page 25.
It may be said further that the plan and scope of
the Essays precluded the treatment of many impor
tant passages. It is hoped that the Notes and Com
ments will be found to supply the deficiency thus
necessitated, and that the work as a whole may there
fore fairly claim for itself a goodly degree of com
pleteness as a treatise upon Acts.
In the treatment of chapters xxvii. and xxviii.
it will be noticed that the dates assumed by Prof.
Ramsay for the Apostle Paul's voyage to Rome, and
consequently his first imprisonment there, are earlier
by a year and a half or two years than those com
monly agreed upon. Whether Prof. Ramsay's chro
nological scheme can command general acceptance
remains to be seen. The dates are important as
fixing those also of the letters written from Rome;
moreover the earlier dates give the ampler time for
the labors attributed by some to the apostle after this
imprisonment, namely, his visit to Greece and Asia
Minor, his evangelization of Crete, and possibly a
journey into Spain, and quite certainly the writing of
the pastoral epistles.

299

'300 PREFACE TO THE NOTES AND COMMENTS
It will be observed that the Notes and Comments
have, as a rule, no other order or connection than the
very natural and simple one of the chapters and
verses. In the few instances where there is a
departure from this order the references embraced
in the body of the text w-ill, it is hoped, sufficiently
guide the reader, thus avoiding foot-notes and mar
ginal references. Wherever in the Essays reference
is made to the Notes or Comments it is invariably to
this part of the work, and to the passage in hand.

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

CHAPTER I.
1. "The former treatise." Referring to the Gos
pel according to Luke. "First" rather than
"former" in the original, the superlative indicating,
as some suppose, Luke's intention to write a third
treatise. "Theophilus." An unknown person. Called in
the introduction to Luke's Gospel, "most excel
lent," an epithet in the original " technical and dis
tinctive," and used by Luke as implying equestrian
rank. Accordingly, Theophilus was a Roman officer,
whose Roman name is not known, Theophilus being
his baptismal name. "It has an important bearing
on Luke's attitude to the Roman State that his work
is addressed to a Roman officer who had become a
Christian." — Prof. W. M. Ramsay.
2. "Was taken up." The resurrection necessi
tates the ascension. It was not expedient that Jesus
should abide upon earth. He could not again pass
away from earth by the gates of death. The miracle
of his ascension, therefore, naturally rounds out the
miracle of his earthly presence. "The reality of
such a fact as that related by Luke in his account of
301

302 STUDIES IN ACTS
the ascension is indubitable, both from the stand
point of faith in the resurrection and from the
standpoint of faith in general. The ascension is a
postulate of faith." — Godet.
3. "Infallible proofs." " The adjective here has
no representative in the original. The Greek word
signifies some sign or token manifest to the senses, as
opposed to evidence given by witnesses." (Luke
xxiv. 36-44; John xx. 24-30; I. John i. l-^.)— Cam
bridge Bible for Schools and Colleges.
"Being seen of them forty days." In the last
chapter of his Gospel Luke omits chronological
statements; here he gives a definite statement of
time. There is no discrepancy.
" Speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom
of God." These talks of Jesus in his risen state!
With the emphasis of his five wounds ! Could the
disciples ever forget them? Could they be deceived?
Was it not in his old-time style, inimitable, that he
spoke, and did he not speak continually about the
object of his life and death, namely, the kingdom of
his Father?
5. "Baptized with the Holy Spirit." A striking
metaphor. It is to be understood in analogy with
John's baptism. "Their spirits were as literally and
completely immersed in the Holy Spirit (e. g., on
Pentecost, ch. ii. 1-4) as their bodies had been in the
waters of Jordan." — Prof. J. W. McGarvey.
6. "Wilt thou at this time restore again the king
dom to Israel?" Pathetic question! One of the

NOTES AND COMMENTS 303
most pregnant passages in the book. Contrast the
worldly, temporal, carnal longings here expressed
with the spiritual preaching of Pentecost, and see
therein the miracle promised above in the baptism of
the Holy Spirit, and the need of it. (Essays I. and
XIII.) 8. "And ye shall be witnesses unto me both in
Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and
unto the uttermost part of the earth." The last
recorded words of Jesus. Absolutely, this is a for
eign missionary commission. The Lord gives in his
last sentence the boundary of his love, and makes the
mission of his followers identical with it. It was his
design that the earthly limits of our faith should
become co-extensive with the earthly limits of limit
less love.
11. "Easter Morning, 1883. — Our task is ended,
and we also worship and look up. And we go back
from this sight into a hostile world, to love, and to
live, and to work for a Risen Christ. But as earth's day
is growing dim, and, with earth's gathering darkness,
breaks over it heaven's storm, we ring, out — as of old
they were wont, from church tower to the mariners
that hugged the rock-bound coast — our Easter bells
to guide them who are belated over the storm-tossed
sea, beyond the breakers, into the desired haven.
Ring out, earth, all thy Easter chimes; bring your
offerings, all ye people; worship in faith, for — 'This
Jesus, which was received up from you into heaven,
shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him going

304 STUDIES IN ACTS
into heaven. Even so, Lord Jesus, come quicklj.' "
— Edersheim: Ziast paragraph of "Life and Times of
Jesus the Messiah."
12. "Then returned they unto Jerusalem." See
Luke xxiv. 47, 49, 52. It was a bold stroke to begin
at Jerusalem. "These things were not done in a
corner." Thus the city that crucified Christ stands
in witness of the birth of his church through all ages.
14. "And Mary the mother of Jesus." Thus in
prayer the Scriptures leave our Savior's mother. In
the Scripture she worships, but never is worshiped.
Her child Jesus is her Savior, even as he is ours, and
to worship her is to worship a fellow-worshiper.
"And with his brethren." "These are called
(Matt. xiii. 55; Mark vi. 3) James, Joseph (or Joses),
Simon and Judas, and are here clearly distinguished
from the apostles, which shows that James the son
of Alphseus, and James the Lord's brother, were
different persons." — Cambridge Bible for /Schools
and Colleges.
18. "And falling headlong, he burst asunder
. . ." "There is a difference but no contradiction
in the accounts given by Matthew (xxvii. 1-5) and
Luke. Matthew does not say what happened to the
body of Judas after he hanged himself; nor does
Luke say what he did to himself ere he fell headlong
and burst asunder in the midst. We have not the
link to connect his act of suicide with what befell his
body; but the two facts are in no sense at variance."
— Ormiston.

NOTES AND COMMENTS 305
"There is scarcely an American or English jury
that would scruple to receive these two accounts as
perfectly consistent. " — Alexander.
19. "In their proper tongue." This, in connec
tion with Col. iv. 9 and 14, is used by Paley in his
" Horae Paulinae." Though not so convincing as
many of the "undesigned coincidences," which he
uses with great power, it has weight, and is a good
exarpple of his method. Had the writer of Acts
been a Jew he would scarcely have said " their
tongue." The indication, therefore, is that the
writer was a Gentile. Now in Colossians the Apos
tle Paul refers to Aristarchus, Marcus, and Jesus
who is called Justus, as being "of the circumcision."
Then he refers to Epaphras, Luke, and Demas, as
though they were not "of the circumcision." If this
inference is correct, the two passages harmonize in
indicating the Gentile extraction of Luke. The
author says, "Though this may bear the appearance
of great nicety and refinement, it ought not, perhaps,.
to be deemed imaginary."
22. " To be a witness with us of his resurrec
tion." The resurrection is the cardinal fact. It is.
the one miracle necessitated by all others in the his
tory of Jesus, and explanatory of them. Back from
this, link by link, we trace the line of his life till wc;
reach his miraculous conception; and forward from
this we trace link by link, the miraculous deeds of
his apostles, the miraculous birth of his church, and
itos majestic spiritual march through that ancient
20

306 STUDIES IN ACTS
world. Edersheim, reviewing the "vision hypothe
sis," and other rationalistic theories antagonistic to
the account of the resurrection, concludes, " The
historical student is shut up to the simple acceptance
of the narrative. The great fact itself," he says,
" may unhesitatingly be pronounced that best estab
lished in history." Godet, as quoted by the same
author, tells us that Strauss admits that the church
would never have arisen if the -apostles had not had
unshaken faith in the resurrection of Jesus. "This
faith of the apostles would never have arisen unless
the resurrection had been a true historical fact."
To the student of the Gospels and Acts, and of
Jewish history and human nature, the resurrection of
Jesus is an intellectual necessity.
25. " That he might go to his own place." Pre
cisely. That is where we all shall go. The expres
sion is pregnant. It is the conclusion of all argu
ments upon the question of the future. Justice and
mercy unite to fit the immortal spirits of men into
their eternal niches. As to restoration of the
vwicked? " A tenderer light than moon or sun,
Than song of earth a sweeter hymn.
May shine and sound forever on.
And thou be deaf and dim.
^' Forever round the Mercy -seat
The guiding lights of love shaU burn ;
But what if, habit-bound, thy feet
Should lack the will to turn?"
— ir/ii'tti'<-!-.- " The Answer."

NOTES AND COMMENTS 307
26. "And the lot fell upon Matthias." Never
during the presence of Jesus did the apostles cast
lots; and never after the Holy Spirit came upon
them. For a little while left to themselves, they fall
into this weakness. Was Matthias not an apostle
then? In chapter vi. 2, the twelve are spoken of,
though Paul was not yet chosen, thus evidently in
cluding Matthias. Then with Paul there were thir
teen, and with Barnabas (xiv. 14) there were four-
teen. And if Andronicus and Junias (Variorum
reading) may be counted (Rom. xvi. 7), there were
sixteen. We should not draw the lines too rigidly
around official names and numbers.
CHAPTER II.
1. " When the day of Pentecost was fully come."
In A. D. 30, on the 27th of May, on a Sunday, ac
cording to Meyer and Schaff. For the discussion
of this intricate and interesting subject, reference is
made to the authors named, the first in his commen
tary on Acts, and the second in his History of the
Apostolic Church. Here, therefore, at the birth of
the Church of Christ begins the Sunday, or First
Day, or Lord's Day worship on the part of the
Church. It is doubtful if the Gentile Christians
ever kept the Mosaic Sabbath. There is evidence
that the Jewish Christians, while still keeping the
Jewish Sabbath, kept also the remembrance of the
Lord's resurrection on the first day of the week.

308 STUDIES IN ACTS
" The church always celebrated Pentecost on Sunday,
the fiftieth day after Easter — which likewise always
falls on Sunday." — Schaff. The disciples in Troas
met together on the first day of the week to break
bread (xx. 7). The Corinthian Christians were ex
horted to make their offerings to charity upon the
first day of the week (1. Cor. xvi. 2).
Little weight one way or the other belongs to the
argument in favor of the creational Sabbath. The
resurrection of Jesus and the inception of his church
are to the world events quite as significant as that of
creation itself. However, there is an argument well
worthy of notice in favor of our Sunday being the
creational Sabbath. " The ancient nations all about
the Jews devoted the first day of the week to what
was at first the chief symbol of God, and then the
chief god, the sun, calling it Sunday. This holy day
was strangely enough one day after that of the Jews.
This remarkable fact may be explained by the theory
of many scholars, with which the Scriptures harmon
ize, that the first day Sabbath, which Adam be
queathed to all nations — not under that name, how
ever — was at the Exodus changed for the Jews only
as a sign of their separation, and a protection against
idolatry, to the preceding day, this change continu
ing until the ceremonial mission of the Jewish peo
ple had been completed. Then the Savior buried iu
his own grave, by sleeping there on Saturday, the
Jewish part of the Sabbath — its sacrifices and its
order in the week — partly because Christians now

NOTES AND COMMENTS 309
needed to be separated from Jewish ceremonies as
much as the Jews of the Exodus needed to be sepa
rated from the heathen days of worship ; partly be
cause the narrow Jewish dispensation was now to
give place to one as broad as mankind, which called
for a return on the part of the Jewish Christians to
the original Sabbath of Adam." — Crafts: The
Sabbath for JMan. See also his references to the
arguments of Rev. James Johnston and others. Of
Exodus xvi. he saj's: "Many learned men find in
this chapter evidence that the Sabbath was set back
one day at the Exodus."
" It is remarkable that the day of the giving of
the law was celebrated throughout the Jewish ages
without one word in the Old Testament to indicate
that it was designed to commemorate that event. In
like manner the day of the week on which the Holy
Spirit descended has been celebrated from that time
to this, though no formal reason is given in the New
Testament for its observance. The resurrection of
Jesus and the descent of the Holy Spirit are of such
transcendent importance, that all minds agree at
once in attributing to them, and especially to th(i
former, the celebration of the day." — Prof. J. W
McGarvey. " Very soon, alongside of the Sabbath, and among
Gentile Christians instead of it, the first day of the
week as -the day of Christ's resurrection began to be
observed as a festival." — Kurtz: Church History.
How far this observance was from the solemnity

310 STUDIES IN ACTS
and the legalism of the Jewish Sabbath is indicated
by this phrase, " a festival." Professor Zahn of
Erlangen is more positive than Prof. Kurtz in his de
scription of the free and joyful, rather than the legal
istic, character of the day. He says: "The Chris
tians of the first three centuries never thought of
regarding the Sunday as the continuation of the Jew
ish Sabbath, or even to call this day 'Sabbath ' — the
day of the Lord, referring to Christ, being the name
uniformly used. If we ask the Christians of the
earliest centuries, the oldest witnesses to the idea of
Sunday, for the reason which they had in marking
this one day above all the rest, they will with one
voice declare, ' We celebrate this day because Christ
on this day arose from the dead.' The Sunday was
for them a weekly recurrence of the Easter festival.
Throughout Sunday was regarded as a day of joy."
4. "And they were filled with the Holy Spirit,
and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit
gave them utterance."
"At this moment was performed the proper act of
inspiration, which forms, in some degree, the con
tinuation in the apostles of the incarnation of the
Word. Inspiration is as much a practical as a theo
retical process. It is communication as well of life
as of the knowledge of Christ, and affects not only
the subsequent writings of the apostles and evan
gelists, but also all their oral instructions. Hence
forth they always spoke, and wrote, and acted, out of
the fullness of the Spirit. He was the pervading and

NOTES AND COMMENTS 311
controlling principle of their entire moral and relig
ious being. This supernatural equipment was their
solemn ordination and inauguration to the apostolic
office. " The effects of this miracle were in perfect keep
ing with such a creative beginning, and with its vast
significancy for the future. Among them we must
distinguish (1) the speaking with tongues, or the
uttering of the new life in the form of praise and
prayer; (2) the testimony of the apostles concerning
Christ, given in intelligible language to the assembled
multitude; . . . (3) the result of this preaching,
the conversion and baptism of three thousand Israel
ites." — Schaff: History of the Apostolic Church.
6-12. These verses are the best possible commen
tary upon verse four. The efforts of many critics to
rid the account of its amazingly miraculous element
cannot be said to have succeeded. Such efforts can
be entertained only on the supposition of a mixture
of the mythical with the historical, that is, by doing
violence to the history. Hackett emphasizes the fact
that, "Critics who would explain away the reality of
the miracle admit that it was the writer's intention
to record a miracle." Exemplifying this, he quotes
Meyer: "The other tongues are to be considered,
according to the text, as absolutely nothing else than
languages which were different from the native lan
guage of the speakers."
17. "The last days." The transition period from
the old dispensation to the new, beginning prac-

312 STUDIES IN ACTS
tically with the preaching of John the Baptist and
ending with the destruction of Jerusalem in the year
70 A. D. Within this period the prophecy of Joel
finds its fulfillment.
23. Here God's plans and man's wickedness are
brought into striking contrast. " What God does he
from the first intends," and the spirit of his intent as
regards the delivering up of Christ is expressed in
John iii. 16 — " God so loved the world that he gave
his only-begotten Son." Against this goodness there
were raised the "wicked hands" of men.
24. "Whom God hath raised up." This one
word "God," as it is used in the Bible, is the explan
ation of all that is miraculous. God's agencj' was
the Apostle Paul's final argument in favor of the
resurrection. " Why should it be thought a thing
incredible with you that God should raise the
dead?" (xxvi. 8).
So far from the resurrection being impossible, it
was on the contrary not possible that Jesus should
"be holden of the travail-pains of death." Jesus,
speaking in strangest, tenderest strains of his Fath
er's love, says of his life, " I have power to lay it
down, and I have power to take it again" (John
X. 16-18).
27. "Hades." Thus in the Revised. It is the
Greek word brought over, as there is no English
word precisely suited to its translation. It means
quite literally unseen, and is used to represent the
place of the dead. In Luke xxiii. 43 Jesus calls it

NOTES AND COMMENTS 313
paradise. "The word occurs in the New Testament
eleven times, and is rendered by the word hell in
every instance except one (I. Cor. xv. 55), where it is
rendered grave. In no instance does it mean hell
as that word is now commonly undertood, . .
nor in any case does it necessarily mean grave.
When it is said that the soul of Christ was not left in
Hades — unhappily rendered in our version, hell — the
real meaning is that his soul was not left in the
abode of separate spirits, whither it went at death,
even as his body did not remain in the grave where
it was laid after his crucifixion." — Ormiston.
36. This is the climax of the sermon. Its rhetor
ical effect must have been terrible. The antithesis
between God's deed and man's is absolute. On the
basis of the resurrection the apostle declares the
Lordship and Messiahship of Jesus, and boldly
charges his hearers with the murder of their " Lord
and Christ."
38. " What a definite and complete answer and
promise of salvation ! The repentance demands a
change of ethical disposition as the moral condition
of being baptized." — Meyer.
Not only is the answer "definite and complete,"
but it is definitely and completely in keeping with
Christ's commission. (Matt, xxviii. 19, 20; Mark
xvi. 15, 16; Luke xxiv. 47).
"Be baptized." "Baptism, which our Lord in
stituted at his departure from earth, meets us in the
Christian form on the first Pentecost in intimate

314 STUDIES IN ACTS
connection with the preaching of the Gospel. As
to its nature and import, it appears as the church-
founding sacrament and the outward medium of the
forgiveness of sins and the communication of the
Holy Spirit. It is the solemn ceremony of reception
and incorporation into the communion of the visible
church and of Jesus Christ its head. Hence Paul
calls it a putting on of Christ (Gal. iii. 27), a union
into one body by one Spirit (I. Cor. xii. 13), a wash
ing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit
(Tit. iii. 5), and a being buried with Christ and rising
again with him to a new and holy life (Rom. vi. 4),
. . . Finally, as to the outward mode of adminis
tering this ordinance, immersion and not sprinkling
was unquestionably the original, normal form. This
is shown by the very meaning of the Greek words
used to designate the rite. Then again, by the
analogy of the baptism of John, which was performed
in the Jordan (Matt. iii. 6, 16; Mark i. 9). Further
more, by the New Testament comparisons of baptism
with the passage through the Red Sea (I. Cor. x. 2),
with the flood (I. Pet. iii. 21), with a bath (Eph.
V. 26; Tit. iii. 5), with a burial aud resurrection
(Rom. vi. 4; Col. ii. 12). Finally by the general usage
of ecclesiastical antiquity which was always immer
sion (as it is to this day in the Oriental and also in
the Graeco-Russian churches); pouring and sprink
ling being substituted only in cases of urgent neces
sity, such as sickness and approaching death." —
Schaff: History of the Apostolic Church, j>p. 565
and 568.

NOTES AND COMMENTS 315
Kurtz, in speaking of the constitution, worship and
discipline of the first church, dismisses baptism in a
single sentence: " Baptism was administered by com
plete immersion (Acts viii. 38) in the name of Christ
or the Trinity."
Prof. Stifler, in his recent ' ' Introduction to the
Book of Acts," calls attention to the emphasis placed
upon baptism at the beginning of each new cycle in
the missionary record. First, at Pentecost ; secondly,
at the home of Cornelius upon the admission of Gen
tiles to the church; thirdly, at the conversions of
Lydia and the Philippian jailer, the beginning of the
church in Europe.
One of the very latest of recent great authorities,
Prof. Sanday, in his commentary on Romans, treats
the sixth chapter of Romans, vv. 1-5, as follows:
"Baptism has a double function. (1) It brings
the Christian into personal contact with Christ, so
close that it may be fibly described as a union with
him. (2) It expresses symbolically a series of acts
corresponding to the redeeming acts of Christ.
"Immersion. Death.
" Submersion. Burial (the ratification of death.)
' ' Emergence . Resurrection .
"All these the Christian has to undergo in a moral
and spiritual sense, and by means of his union with
Christ. As Christ by his death on the cross ceased
from all contact with sin, so the Christian, united
with Christ in his baptism, has done once for all with
sin, and lives henceforth a reformed life dedicated to

GIG STUDIES IN ACTS
God. (This at least is the ideal, whatever may be the
reality). Act then as men who have thrown off the
dominion of sin. Dedicate all your powers to God.
Be not afraid; Law, Sin's ally, is superseded in its
hold over you by grace."
It would be hard to find in the English language a
more graphic and explicit description of immersion
and its meaning than Prof. Sanday has given in this
paraphrase of the third and fourth verses of this
sixth chapter of Romans.
46. "And they continued daily with one accord in
the temple, and breaking bread from house to house,
did eat their meat with gladness."
"In the apostolic period the Lord's Supper was
celebrated daily, at least where the circumstances
allowed of daily worship. After the manner of its
institution and the analogy of the Jewish feast of the
Passover, it was connected with a simple meal of
brotherly love, which afterward (first in Jude 12)
came to be called 'agape,' or love feast. Origin
ally this arrangement was connected in the church at
Jerusalem with the community of goods, the Chris
tians considering themselves as one household. The
celebration of the communion, it is commonly sup
posed, was the closing of the daily social feast, and
the earthly food was thus sanctified by the heavenly
bread of life. Yet it is possible that even in the
apostolic church, as in the second century, the com
munion took place in the morning and the love-feast
in the evening. Then the profanation of the latter

NOTES AND COMMENTS 317
in the Corinthian congregation can be better ex
plained; whereas on the supposition of the imme
diate union of the two, it would be doubly strange."
— Schaff: History of the Apostolic Church. With
this Neander and Kurtz and Fisher are in almost
precise agreement. CHAPTER III.
1. " Now Peter and John went up together into
the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth
hour." Here Luke begins the history of the first persecu
tion, which comprehends this and the following
chapter down to the thirtj'-second verse. There he
resumes the history of the Jerusalem church. (See
Essay III.)
The continuance of the Temple-worship on the
part of the apostles is to be noted. Their separation
from the Jewish cult was necessarily gradual. Per
haps the Apostle Paul alone saw clearly not only the
liberty but the need of an entire separation from it.
However, the Apostles Peter and John make their
Temple-worship the occasion of the exaltation of
Christ, using Moses as a witness for him (iii. 22),
putting his name above every name, and declaring
his exclusiveness as Savior (iv. 10-12).
7. "His feet and ancle bones." "The words in
the original are found no where else in the New Tes
tament. They are of a technical character, and their

318 STUDIES IN ACTS
use, together with other features of the exact
description of the cripple's case, indicate that we
have before us the language of the physician (Luke,
the beloved physician. Col. iv. 14). It is hardly pos
sible to dwell too strongly on indications of this kind,
which indirectly mark in the history something which
is likewise noted in the Epistles. Those who would
assign the second century as the date of the composi
tion of the Acts, must assume for their supposed
writer the keenest appreciation of every slight allu
sion in the letters of Paul, and at the same time an
ability to let his knowledge peep out only in hints
like that which we have in this verse. Such persons,
while rejecting all that is miraculous in the story as
we have it, ask us to believe in such a writer as
would be himself almost a miracle for his powers of
observation and the skill with which he has employed
them." — Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges.
See also ch. xxviii. 8. The argument in this para
graph is of the nature of that used with such com
plete effect by William Paley in his "Horae Paulinae,"
though this application of it seems not to have been
noted by him.
19. "Repent ye therefore, and turn again"
(Revised Version). "The word convert has received
much ongrowth of meaning since the A. V. was
made. The same word is well rendered (xi. 21), 'A
great number believed and turned unto the Lord.' "
— Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges.
"That your sins may be blotted out." "The idea

NOTES AND COMMENTS 319
•of the forgiveness of sins is here represented under
the figure of the erasure of a handwriting (Col.
ii. 14; Ps. li. 9; Isa. xliii. 25). Baptism is not here
expressly named as in ii. 38, but was now understood
of itself, seeing that not long before thousands were
baptized; and the thought of it has suggested the
figurative expression of blotting out, namely, by
the water of baptism. The causa meritoria of the
forgiveness of sins is contained in verse 18 (the
suffering of Jesus); the causa apprehendens (faith)
is contained in the required repentance and conver
sion." — Meyer: Commentary on Acts.
"When the times of refreshing shall come."
"Peter conceives that the times of refreshing and the
Parousia will set in as soon as the Jewish nation is
converted to the acknowledgment of Jesus as Mes
siah. It required a further revelation to teach him
that the Gentiles were to be converted — and that
directly, and by way of proselytism — to Christ
(ch. x)."— Meyer.
Light is thrown upon vv. 19-21 by reference to ch.
i. 6. Evidently the Apostle Peter is advancing, but
there is still a lingering hope that the Messiah may
yet be the King of Israel. Spite of this, however,
the Holy Spirit leads him to the declaration of a
purely spiritual Gospel (v. 26).
20. "And he shall send Jesus Christ." "The
reference is certainly to an objective and not subjec
tive advent. It is a matter of dispute in what man-
uer the apostles regarded the second coming of

320 STUDIES IN ACTS
Christ. In all they were so engrossed with it that
they lost sight of intermediate events; it was the
object of their earnest desire; the period was indeed
concealed from them, but they continually looked
forward to it; they expected it as that which might
occur at any moment. Afterwards, as revelation
disclosed itself, and the course of Providence was
developed, they did not expect it to occur in their
days. Paul especially seems to have regarded it as
an event in the remote future, and cautions his con
verts not to be shaken in mind or to be troubled, as
that the day of Christ was at hand (II. Thess. ii. 2).
The precise period of the advent, we are informed by
our Lord, formed no part of the divine revelation;
it was designedly left in uncertainty by God." —
Gloag: Quoted by American Editor of Meyer's Com
mentary on Acts. CHAPTER IV.
2. "Being grieved that they taught the people."
This is always a great source of grief to such conser
vatism as takes the form of dogmatism and dema-
gogism. Too much popular intelligence is not con
genial to kingcraft and priestcraft. The New Testa
ment is the hand-book of Protestantism, and Christ
ianity is fertile of democracy.
"Other religions say. Keep the people in the dark.
Christianity says. Go ye into all the world and
preach the Gospel to every creature. Other religions

NOTES AND COMMENTS .')21
draw a screen, as Pythagoras lectured from behind a
curtain to his disciples; and from behind a screen
they mutter their unintelligible incantations. Chris
tianity lifts its banner, throws it out upon the willing
wind, and on it is written, ' This thing was not done
in a corner.' By the compass of its mission, by the
universality of its speech, by its chivalry of philan
thropy, I ask you to adjudge to Christianity the palm
of all the religions of the world. Other religions are
philosophies, philosophies only; Christianity is a
Gospel." — Joseph Parker.
7. "By what power, or by what name have ye
done this?" "Beware of that point of thought in
which you turn your religion into a piece of meta
physical inquiry. It is at that point that Christianity
is often defeated in her most beneficent purposes.
What did the learned men say? They wanted to go
into the ways and means, and to analyze what wo
now call the modus operandi. They wanted to turn
this question into a metaphysical inquiry. Instead of
accepting the man, the healed man, the concrete,
positive, indisputable fact, they wanted to lure the
apostles and those who followed them into meta
physical quagmires and difficulties. . . . Chris
tianity rests on facts, not opinions." — Joseph Parker.
13. "Perceived that they were unlearned and
ignorant men." The scribes perceived this of Peter
and John. But what was their learning? The
knowledge of the Mishna and the Gemara, the tradi
tions of the older scribes, the Sopherim, and the
21

322 STUDIES IN ACTS
commentaries upon these traditions. They had
exalted these traditions and traditions upon tradi
tions above the law of Moses, "making the law of
none effect by them" (Matt. xv. 6). The tendency
of their traditional trifling was to make men punc
tilious but not magnanimous. The most insignificant
affairs of life were regulated by absolute laws, and
when these became too burdensome, as in the case of
the Sabbath laws, they resorted to casuistry to get rid
of their own legalism, thus breeding hypocrisy side
by side with punctiliousness. Hence the awful
denunciation of the Savior in the twenty-third chap
ter of Matthew. That chapter is full of the very
thunders and lightnings, the withering flashings and
threatenings of the judgment throne of the Eternal,
and it must stand forever in the literature of the
world as the most tremendous and appalling rebuke
upon that bigotry and hypocrisy which is begotten of
tradition and pride and legalism and casuistry.
The following is Farrar's characterization of the
teaching of these men who found Peter and John
"unlearned and ignorant." "The teaching of the
scribes was narrow, dogmatical, material; it was cold
in manner, frivolous in matter, second-hand and iter
ative in its very essense ; with no freshness in it, no
force, no fire ; servile to all authority, opposed to all
independence; at once erudite and foolish, at once
contemptuous and mean, full of balanced inference
and orthodox hesitancy and impossible literalism;
intricate with legal pettiness and labyrinthine system;

NOTES AND COMMENTS 323
elevating mere memory above genius, and repetition
above originality, concerned only about priests and
Pharisees, in temple and synagogue, or school, or
Sanhedrin, and mostly occupied with things infinite
ly little."
"The Rabbinical schools," according to the same
author, " in their meddling, carnal, superficial spirit
of word-weaving and letter-worship, had spun large
accumulations of worthless subtlety all over the
Mosaic law. Among other things they had wasted
their idleness in fantastic attempts to count and
classify and weigh and measure all the separate com
mandments of the ceremonial and moral law. They
had come to the sapient conclusion that there were
248 affirmative precepts, being as many as the mem
bers of the human body, and 365 negative precepts,
beinjg as msmy as the arteries and veins, or the days
of the year; the total being 613, which was also the
number of the letters in the decalogue. They arrived
at the same result, from the fact that the Jews
were commanded (Num. xv. 38) to wear fringes
(tsitsith) on the corners of their tallith bound with
a thread of blue; and as each fringe had eight
threads and five knots, and the betters of the word
tsitsith makes 600, the total number of command
ments was, as before/613."
Mr. J. Paterson Smyth, who is a generous critic of
the Talmud, calls it, nevertheless, " A vast and tan
gled mass of ancient lore," and says that, " At times
the reader, wandering through the pages of nonsense

324 STUDIES IN ACTS
that these wise sages wrote, will feel almost a sym
pathy with the belief of Carlyle, that nine out of
ten men are fools, and he would not like to say too
much about the tenth."
"The Mishna," says Edersheim, " in an extreme
ly curious section, tells us how on Sabbaths the
Jewesses of Arabia night wear their long veils, and
those of India the kerchief round the head, custom
ary in those countries, without incurring guilt of
desecrating the holy day by needlessly carrying what,
in the eyes of the law, would be a burden; while in
the rubric for the Day of Atonement we have it
noted that the dress that the High Priest wore
between the evenings of the great fas(^ — that is, as
the afternoon darkened into evening — was of the
most costly Indian stuff."
The Mishna classifies thirty-nine different kinds of
work by which the guilt of Sabbath-breaking should
be incurred. The schools of Shammai and Hillel
differed as to whether or not an egg laid on a feast
day should be eaten the same day, Hillel taking the
ground that it should not. The first of the seven
treatises of the third part of the Mishna discusses
the law found in Deut. xxv. 5-9. "Its first section
may give a good idea of the manner of the Mishna.
Fifteen women free their rival wives and their rival's
rivals, from shoe-pulling and brother's marriage to
the world's end. His daughter (the dead brother's
wife being the daughter of a surviving brother),
son's daughter or daughter's daughter; his wife's

NOTES AND COMMENTS 325
¦daughter, wife's son's daughter, or wife's daughter's
daughter; his mother-in-law, or mother-in-law's
mother, father-in-law's mother; his sister on the
mother's side, mother's sister, or wife's sister, and
the wife of his brother by the mother's side, and the
wife of his brother who was not alive at the same
time with him, and his daughter-in-law; all these
free their rival's wives." — W Clintock and Strong.
Triflers versed in such lore as this discovered that
Peter and John were " unlearned and ignorant men!"
"They took knowledge of them that they had been
with Jesus." They found in them a freedom, bold
ness, and originality that could have been acquired
only in the school of Christ. They heard from these
disciples a tone of authority that awoke within their
guilty souls the echoes and the terrors of Christ's
mighty pleadings and warnings. These Spirit-moved
men appealed directly to the heart of nature, to the
conscience of man, and the throne of God. Never in
Rabbinical schools could they have learned to say,
" Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken
unto you more than unto God, judge ye."
32. " One heart and one soul ; . . . all things
common." "Each felt that he held his possessions
only as a trust, and if occasion called for it they were
to be given up. Such love toward one another Christ
had foretold (John xiii. 35). All those who have
sketched a perfect society, as Plato in his Republic,
and Sir Thomas More in his Utopia, have placed
a,mong their regulations this kind of community of

326 STUDIES IN ACTS
goods which was established by the first Christian.',.
In theory it is the perfection of a commonwealth, but
there is need of perfection in the citizens before it
can be realized." — Cambridge Bible for Schools and
Colleges. "There is in many of the aspirations and aims of
communism a certain marked sympathy or harmony
with the ideals of Christianity. What is best in it
has come from the teachings of Galilee. The sense
of human brotherhood between rich and poor, the
sympathy with the unhappy laboring masses of the
world, the duty of allowing every human being
the highest possible use of his faculties, the aversion
to the deceit and fraud so often characteristic of
commerce, the opposition to the selfishness of com
petition, the horror of war of the Socialists, the
aspect of property as a fund for the good of all — all
these are plainly reflections from that light which
shone eighteen centuries ago from the hills of
Judaea." — Charlies Loring Brace.
" There was a time when labor leaders were chiefly
prophets of future Utopias. High ideals are of great
value. Without them there is sure to be low achieve
ment. But impossible or extravagant ideals, or ideals
whose achievement is too remote, are of doubtful
utility. The early communistic ideals usually repre
sent their industrial heaven on earth as achieved with
impossible suddenness and impossible sinlessness.
Labor leaders have abandoned such ideals, but their-

NOTES AND COMMENTS 327
critics are still bombarding the empty forts." —
Crafts: Practical Christian Sociology.
Communism has been proposed as a panacea for
social ills. In the case of Ananias (v. 1-5) it did not
cure covetousness and lying. If ever there is to be
a successful communistic state it must be an effect
rather than a cause. Nevertheless, is there not much
in this voluntary communism of the first church to
cause present-day Christians, looking back upon it
and also upon the world around them, to pause and
think, and possibly pray? "There are sad children
sitting in the market-place, who indeed cannot say
to you. We have piped unto you and you have not
danced; but eternally shall say to you. We have
mourned unto you and ye have not lamented." — Bus
kin: Crown of Wild Olive. Here in this young
church was a state so intensely spiritual as to bring
into subjection the whole material side of life, the
directly reverse of that described by Tennyson —
" "When the poor are hoveled and hustled together ; each sex like,
swine ;
When only the ledger lives, and when only not all men lie."

328 STUDIES IN ACTS

CHAPTER V.

1-11. The account of Ananias and Sapphira has
an evidential value which is thus presented in the
Cambridge Bible for Schools: "The narrative with
which this chapter commences is one which none but
a veracious narrator would have inserted where it
stands. The last chapter concludes with a descrip
tion of the unity of heart and soul which prevailed
among the brethren, and expressly notices that all
were filled with the Holy Spirit. But as among the
Twelve there was a Judas, so into the infant church
there had intruded two at least whose professions
were not sincere, and who were unworthy of the gifts
of grace which, with the rest, they had received.
The offense of Ananias and Sapphira showed con
tempt for God, vanity and ambition in the offenders,
and utter disregard of the corruption they were
bringing into the society. Such sin, committed in
spite of the light whicli they possessed, called for a
special mark of the Divine indignation, and to those
who, likewise filled with the Spirit, knew all that had
been done, and why it was done, there is no shock
produced by the terrible doom of the sinners, nor
any language employed in the narration but the
plainest and simplest. A late compiled story would
have enlarged and spoken apologetically on the rea
sons for such judgment, and would not have pre-

NOTES AND COMMENTS 329
sented us with a bare recital of facts without
comment." "I was told of persons who were supposed to be
worth five and twenty thousand pounds that at the
communion of the Lord's Table never contribute a
coin, but put in the communion card alone. Is it
possible? Thy money perish with thee. Keep it;
keep it. Take it in the coffin with thee. Do insist
upon having it there. Make a pillow of it ; make a
footstool of it; make a lining of it. Keep it, thou
whited sepulcher! Ananias lied without speaking,
and that is the worst form of falsehood. The blun
dering speaker of a lie may be converted; but the
actor of a lie can only be killed. ... To bring
my piece, and lay it down as if it were all, can any
atheist stab the Christ of God so far as that? O
Church of the living God! conversion must begin
within thee; and then the fire will burn, and throw
out its happy influence upon the wide circumference,
and there shall be joy in the presence of the angels
of God over a prodigal Church, repentant and
returned." — Joseph Parker.
13. "And of the rest durst no man join himself to
them." Already the church was a strange, great
body. It was unique in the midst of a nation that
was unique. It had appropriated Solomon's Porch
as its place of worship, and there daily, in the cap
ital city of the nation, in the central sanctuary of the
nation, surrounded by the priests and the populace
that had murdered Jesus, in the midst of multitudes

330 STUDIES IN ACTS
of native and foreign worshipers, its members;
preached and prophesied and wrought miracles, and
rebuked lying and covetousness with the death pen
alty, and overawed the rulers, and were magnified of
the people. They were a city set on a hill. Christ,
by the price of his blood, had not lit this candle to be
put under a bushel. Within one year the Jews of
the whole world must have known of this church and
its majestic, miraculous presence in their temple
courts. 34. "Gamaliel, a doctor of the law." Grandson
and disciple of the great Hillel. At his feet Paul sat
(xxii. 3). He was a member of the Sanhedrin dur
ing the reigns of Tiberias, Caligula, and Claudius,
and was probably for some time president of the
council. The school of Hillel was more liberal than
that of Shammai, and the advice of Gamaliel on this
occasion is that of a judicial mind. It is possible
that the Christian church owes much more to this
man than appears in this chapter. Was it from this
man that the Apostle Paul received the germs of that
free and judicial style of thought that gave him such
a transcendent place among the apostles, and made
him the father of Gentile Christianity? Such a mind
when enlightened by the Gospel must also have
among its forces revulsion from the endless and
worse than trivial disputes that engaged these two
great schools. About the egg laid on the Sabbath
the schools of Hillel and Shammai disputed till there
grew from their discussions a whole treatise of the

NOTES AND COMMENTS .331
Talmud, occupying seventy-nine pages, and entitled
Beza, i. e., The Egg. But why should we smile at
these ancient conscientious triflers? What a treatise
could be gathered up from current religious (?) lit
erature, and entitled, not The Egg, but The Organ !
or The Vestments ! or The Posture ! or The Validity
of Orders ! or Hooks and Eyes ! or Standing Collars !
or The Sisters' Caps! or The Mustache! These are
burning questions in respective schools of present-
day triflers and traditionalists, the children by direct
descent of spiritual punctiliousness of the pot wash
ers and gnat strainers and neglecters of love and
judgment and mercy that Jesus condemned.
"As to the speech of Gamaliel, I accept it every
word. Gamaliel gives me the only conditions the
church ever ought to ask for: To be left alone to
carry out her own policy, and to realize the results of
her own conception of faith. As a Christian teacher
I have no right to ask to be heard at the expense of
any other man. Let Theudas speak, let Judas of
Galilee speak, and when they are done, let the Chris
tian speaker make his appeal, and 'the God that
answereth by fire let him be God.' Let Socrates
conduct his dialogue, let Seneca read his moral
proverbs ; let every man have all the hearing which
he demands, and when they are done let us hear
what Christ of Nazareth has to say, and 'the God
that answereth by fire let him be God.' Christianity
is nothing if it is not heroically fearless." — Joseph
Parker.

332 STUDIES IX ACTS
36, 37. Theudas and Judas. Josephus, as quoted
in the Cambridge Bible for Schools, says: "At this
time (^¦. e., in the days when Varus was president of
Syria) there were ten thousand other disorders in
Judaea, which were like tumults. . . Judaea was
full of robberies, and whenever the several compa
nies of the rebels could light upon any one to lead
them, he was created a king immediately." Here is
a glimpse at the desperadoes of the time, who, but
for the strong hand of Rome, would have ruined
everything. Contrast with them the leadership of
Jesus, and the ministries of his disciples.
CHAPTER VI.
1. "And in those days, when the number of disci
ples was increased." With the growing church there
came perplexing problems, and there was no law for
their solution. In this case the apostles, led by the
Holy Spirit, resorted to the principle of expediency,
and appointed a committee of seven. This is the
beginning of the office and work of the deacons,
though these seven men are not called deacons. The
name of the office arises from the Greek word used
by the apostles in proposing their appointment. It
is used by Paul as the designation of an office in
I. Tim. iii. 10 and 13. The first churches, how
ever, allowed great liberty in official matters. One of
these men, Philip, is better known as an evangelist
than as a deacon. According to Acts xi. 30, the

NOTES AND COMMENTS 333
elders of the Jerusalem church had charge of the
charities. Indeed, the New Testament references to
men and their offices and their work are so varied as
to indicate that the spirit of love and the rule of
expediency were the controlling principles. John
Ruskin has spoken with great spiritual insight upon
this question, and his words may be taken with very
slight grains of salt.
"The churcji is built upon the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
corner-stone. Well, we cannot have two founda
tions, so we can have no more apostles or prophets.
Then, as for the other needs of the church in its
edifying on this foundation, there are all manner of
things to be done daily, — rebukes to be given; com
fort to be brought; threatenings to be executed;
charitie^to be ministered; and the men who do these
things are called, and call themselves, with absolute
indifference, deacons, bishops, elders, evangelists,
according to what they are doing at the time of
speaking. St. Paul almost always calls himself a
deacon; Peter calls himself an elder (I. Pet. v. 1),
and Timothy, generally understood to be addressed
as a bishop, is called a deacon (I. Tim. iv. 6) — for
bidden to rebuke an elder (v. 1), and exhorted to do
the work of an evangelist (II. Tim. iv. 5). But
there is one thing which, as officers, or as separate
from the rest of the flock, they never call them
selves, — which it would have been impossible, as so
separate, they ever should have called themselves;

334 studies in acts
that is — priests. It would have been just as possi
ble for the clergy of the early Church to call them
selves Levites, as to call themselves ( ex officio )
priests. The whole function of priesthood was, on
Christmas morning, at once and forever gathered
into His Person who was born in Bethlehem; and
thenceforward all who are united with Him, and who
with Him make sacrifice of themselves, that is to say,
all members of the invisible church become at the
instant of their conversion, priests, and are so called
in I. Pet. ii. 5 and Rev. i. 6 and xx. 6, where, ob
serve, there is no possibility of limiting the expres
sion to the clergy; the conditions of priesthood being
simply having been loved by Christ, and washed in
his blood. The blasphemous claim on the part of
the clergy of being more priests than the godly laity
— that is to say, of having a higher holiness than the
holiness of being one with Christ, — is altogether a
Romanist heresy, dragging after it, or having its
origin in, the other heresies respecting the sacrificial
power of the church officer, and his repeating the
oblation of Christ, and so having power to absolve
from sin ; — with all the other endless and miserable
falsehoods of the papal hierarchy; falsehoods for
which, that there might be no shadow of excuse, it
has been ordained by the Holy Spirit that no Chris
tian minister shall once call himself a priest from one
end of the New Testament to the other, except
together with his flock." — John Ruskin: Construc
tion of Sheepfolds.

NOTES AND COMMENTS 335
2. "It is not reason (pleasing) that we should
leave the word of God to serve tables." The move
ment for the appointment of the deacons is not
placed on the basis of law, or precedent, or revela
tion even, but of what is pleasing (the Greek word
means that); proper, we may say; expedient, is
Paul's word. A division of labor was proper. It
was not proper that the apostles should become dea
cons of tables, but that they should, praying contin
ually, be deacons of the Word. The mechanism of
this church was ruled by prayer and love; it was
therefore flexible, and therefore adaptable to emer
gencies, and therefore capable of continued enlarge
ment in continued unity. Dogmatism and legalism
and unloveliness at this point would have divided
the church.
Side by side with the care of the apostles for the
preaching of the Word was their care for neglected
widows. Could the Apostle James have had this
early experience in mind when he defined " pure
religion and undefiled?"
7. "A great company of the priests became obedi
ent to the faith." " No fact recorded by Luke shows
so strikingly the effect of the Gospel upon the popu
lar mind in Jerusalem." — Prof. J. W. McGarvey.
With the increase of influence came intensity of
opposition. Here begins the record of the persecu
tion and martyrdom of Stephen. (See Essay IV.)

336 STUDIES IN ACTS

CHAPTER VII.
1. " Then said the high priest, Are these things
so? " For a moment the Sanhedrin seemed over
awed by that transfigured face of which Augustine
has written as though himself enraptured by it: " O
lamb, foremost of the flock of Christ, fighting in the
midst of wolves, following after the Lord, but still at
a distance from him, and already the angel's friend!
Yes, how clearly was he the angel's friend, who,
while in the very midst of wolves, still seemed like an
angel; for so transfigured was he by the rays of the
sun of Righteousness, that even to his enemies he
seemed a being not of this world."
The evidential value of the speech called forth by
this question has been noticed and emphasized by
Meyer. "This speech bears in its contents and tone
the impress of its being original. For the long and
somewhat prolix historical narrative (vv. 2-47), in
which the rhetorical character remains so much in the
background, and even the apologetic element is dis
cernible throughout only indirectly, cannot — so pecu
liar and apparently irrelevant to the situation is much
of its contents — be merely put into the mouth of
Stephen, but must in its characteristic nature and
course have come from his own mouth. If it were
sketched after mere tradition or acquired informa
tion, or from a quite independent ideal point of view,
then either the historical part would be placed in

NOTES AND COMMENTS 337
more direct relation to the points of the charge and
brought into rhetorical relief, or the whole plan
would shape itself otherwise in keeping with the ques
tion put in verse 1 ; the striking power and boldness
of the speech, which only break forth in the smallest
portion (vv. 48-53), would be more diffused over the
whole, and the historical mistakes — which have noth
ing surprising in them in the case of a discourse
delivered on the spur of the moment — would hardly
occur." The same commentator censures Bruno Bauer for
having gone " to the extreme of frivolous criticism "
in rejecting the speech as fabricated, and the circum
stances of it, and even the death of Stephen. He
supposes it to have been committed to writing imme
diately after its delivery by an earnest ear-witness,
and copies of it to have been circulated, from one of
which Luke made his report.
2. Stephen locates the call of Abraham in Meso
potamia. Gen. xii. 1 locates it in Haran. (See also
Gen. xi. 31). Most commentators suppose that Ste
phen refers to an earlier call barely hinted at in Gen.
XV. 7. Meyer contents himself with saying that in the
haste of his extemporized speech Stephen made a
mistake. 6. "Four hundred years." The speaker puts a
round number for the exact one, which is four hun
dred and thirty (Ex. xii. 40; Gal. iii. 17).
"This period of four hundred years is taken hy
Stephen from Gen. xv. 13, and is the time during
23

338 STUDIES IN ACTS
which the seed of Abraham sojourned, not including
the period of his own sojourning before the birth of
Isaac." — Prof. J. W. McGarvey. "The period of
four hundred and thirty years embraces the time from
Abraham's immigration into Canaan until the de
parture out of Egypt." — Hackett.
16. Meyer's bold solution of the difficulties in this
verse, as in verse 2, is that Stephen made mistakes
respecting Abraham's purchase and the burial place
of Jacob. Jacob, not Abraham, bought the ground
of Sychem, and Joseph, not Jacob, was buried there,
whereas Jacob was buried in the cave of Machpelah,
which Abraham bought of Ephron the Hittite. The
American editor of Meyer's commentary says, in
attempted explanation of the difficulties of verse 16,
"The following reading has been suggested, which
requires only that an ellipsis be supplied : 'And were
carried into Sychem, and were laid, some of them,
Jacob at least, in the sepulcher that Abraham bought
for a sum of money; and others of them in that
bought of the sons of Emmor, the father of Sychem.'
The sketch is drawn with great brevity, and the facts
greatly compressed, doubtless clearly apprehended
by those to whom they were stated, though not easy
to disentangle and arrange now."
Other commentators seek to amend the text, and
write Jacob instead of Abraham in verse 16. It is a
troublesome verse.
31. "The voice of the Lord." "It will be seen
that the angel of Jehovah (verse 30; Ex. iii. 2) is

NOTES AND COMMENTS 33J
here represented as Jehovah himself. Examples of a
similar transition from one name to the other often
occur in the Old Testament. It has been argued
from this usage, as well as on other ground, that the
Revealer under the ancient dispensation was identical
with the Revealer or Logos under the New Dispensa
tion." — Hackett.
Too much, however, should not be built upon such
literary expedients. An angel from God, speaking
for God, might very naturally personate God.
37-40. In these verses the direct aim of Stephen's
speech becomes apparent. (Cf. 51).
42. "Then God turned and gave them up to wor
ship the host of heaven." God gave them up to
star-worship. " By way of punishment for that bull-
worship, according to the idea of sin being punished
by sin. The assertion, often repeated since the time
of Chrysostom and Theophylact, that only the divine
permission or withdrawal of grace is here denoted, is
at variance with the positive expression and true
Biblical conception of the divine retribution." —
Meyer. 43. "Moloch." According to Jewish tradition,
from what source we know not, the image of Moloch
was of brass, hollow within, and was situated without
Jerusalem. Kimchi (on II. Kings xxiii. 10) describes
it as set within seven chapels, and whoso offered to
him fine flour, they open to him one of them; whoso,
turtle doves or young pigeons, they open to him two;
a lamb, they open to him three; a ram, four; a calf.

340 STUDIES IN ACTS
five; an ox, six; and to whosoever offered his son,
they opened to him seven. And his face was that of
a calf, and his hands stretched forth like a man who
opens his hands to receive something of his neighbor.
And they kindled it with fire, and the priests took
the babe and put it into the hands of Moloch, and
the babe gave up the ghost. And why was it called
Tophet or Hinnom? Because they used to make a
noise with drums (tophim) that the father might not
hear the cry of the child and have pity upon him and
return to him. Hinnom, because the babe wailed,
and the noise of his wailing went up." — M'Clintock
and Strong.
Kurtz, in speaking of the anticipations of religious
truth, "many of which are little better than carica
ture," in pagan systems, says, " To this class belongs
the offering of human victims which has been prac
ticed in all religions of nature without exception, —
a terrible, and to some extent prophetic cry of agony
from God-forsaken man, which is first toned down
on Golgotha to hymns of joy and thanksgiving."
The Israelites seemed prone to these "religions of
nature," and they did not hesitate at the awful ex
treme of human sacrifice (II. Kings xxiii. 10; Jer.
vii. 31; xix. 5). This throws a side-light upon the
rigid prohibition of idolatry, and of intermarriage
with idolaters in the Mosaic Law (Ex. xxxiv. 15, 16).
55. "He beheld Jesus as he raised himself up
from God's throne of light, and stands ready for the
saving reception of the martyr. The prophetic basis

NOTES AND COMMENTS 341
of this vision in the soul of Stephen is Dan. vii. 13."
— Meyer.This author also censures certain critics who think
that Stephen only gave expression to " his firm con
viction of the glory of Christ and of his own impend
ing admission into heaven," or that " he had seen a
dazzling cloud as the symbol of the presence of
God," saying, "They convert his utterance at this
lofty moment into a flourish of rhetoric."
CHAPTER VIII.
1. "At that time there was a great persecution
against the church that was at Jerusalem. And they
were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of
Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles."
Here begins a new movement in the church. This
persecution was attended with historic consequences.
Chapters viii. and ix., or, as Prof. J. M. Stifler
prefers to state it, chapters vi. to ix. inclusive,
form a section of the book, of which he writes as
follows: "Pentecost is five or six years in the past,
and the Risen Christ has not yet been preached out
of the sight of Herod's temple. The disciples had
been left here long enough to test whether Israel
would repent and secure the promise spoken by
Peter, ' That he may send the Christ who has been
appointed for you, even Jesus.' . . . Long as the
church had now existed, and multiplied in numbers
as it was, not a single Gentile had been invited to

342 STUDIES IN ACTS
cross its threshold. The door is about to be opened
to them. The next few months will witness a revolu
tion more significant than any seen before or since.
History was never made so fast. The barriers of the
ages are to be broken down, and the God of the Jews
is to be accepted by the nations. Our section gives
an account of the first long stride in this direction.
It tells of the opposition aroused by Stephen, gives
his speech before the council, his death, and the
dreadful persecution that followed the same day and
scattered the church; the conversion of the half
heathen Samaritans and the Ethiopian prince, and
finally the miraculous calling and cleansing of an
other man for the apostolate. If the church's work
was to be broadened, there must be more laborers,
and laborers of broader views. We get them in
Stephen, Philip and Saul. The settlement of the
trouble about the daily ministration of the poor fund
was the entering wedge to the new movement. That
settlement certainly brought the Hellenistic Jews to
the front. The names of the seven are all Greek.
The last one in the list is a Jew by religion, but not
by blood — 'a proselyte of Antioch.' This little note
is rich in meaning. We find Stephen, as soon as he
entered upon his office, preaching in the Hellenistic
synagogues. Plainly these foreign Jews with their
more liberal thoughts had been suppressed. There
must have been strong feeling, or why were their
widows neglected while the home-born, Jewish wid
ows were regularly fed? How could these foreign

NOTES AND COMJIENTS 343
Jews, with their hearts full of God's love, forget
their brethren in distant countries through the
Roman Empire? If they had not acted as yet they
must have thought much. And seven of them hav
ing been put into the front now, God soon gave them
an opportunity for more extended work. They set
out with a few loaves to feed their widows. It was
not long till they had to feed the world with the
bread of life."
2. "Devout men." "Not Christians, but Jews
who, in their pious conscientiousness, and with a
secret inclination to Christianity, had the courage to
honor the innocence of him who had been stoned." —
Meyer. 4. "They that were scattered abroad went every
where preaching the word." "In the case of those
dispersed, and even in that of Philip, preaching was
not tied to an existing special office. With their
preaching probably there was at once practically
given the new ministry, that of the evangelists
(xxi. 8; Eph. iv. 11), as circumstances required,
under the guidance of the Spirit." — Meyer.
5-25. "The history of the evangelization of
Samaria." It is attended with three noteworthy circum
stances: The ready belief of the Samaritans, and
their baptism, "both men and women" (12), the
false conversion of Simon the sorcerer, and the com
ing of Peter and John from Jerusalem, in answer to

344 STUDIES IN ACTS
whose prayers the Holy Spirit was given to the be
lieving Samaritans.
This Simon "has been stigmatized by the tradi
tions of the church fathers as the patriarch of all
heretics, especially of the heathen Gnostics. . . .
The opinion of the Samaritans regarding him, which
was no doubt the mere echo of his own boastful
declaration, that he was 'the great power of God,'
itself suggests the Gnostic aeons and emanations,
those singular caricatures of the mystery of the incar
nation. According to the statement of Irenaeus,
Simon gave himself out as the supreme power, and
blasphemously boasted that he appeared among the
Samaritans as Father, among the Jews as Son, and
among other nations as Holy Spirit." — Schaff.
18. "The motive of his proposal was selfishness
in the interests of his magical trade ; very naturally
he valued the communication of the Spirit, to the
inward experiences of which he was a stranger, only
according to the surprising outward phenomena, and
hence saw in the apostles the possessors of a higher
magical power still unknown to himself, the posses
sion of which he as a sorcerer coveted." — Meyer.
"The sorcery which Simon and men like him used
was probably no more than a greater knowledge of
some of the facts of chemistry by which they at first
attracted attention, and then traded on the credulity
of those who came to consult them. From the time
of their sojourn in Egypt the Jews had known of
such impostors, and in their traditional literature

NOTES AND COMMENTS 345
some of the 'wisdom' of Moses partakes of this
character." — Cambridge Bible for Schools and Col
leges. This man could not get above the mammonistic
basis of life. Sorcery was with him a lucrative busi
ness. He was baptized from a business standpoint.
With an eye to business he wondered at the miracles
and signs wrought by Philip (13). He tried to drive
a shrewd bargain with Peter, offering him money for
the gift of- the Holy Spirit, and the gift of imparting
the Spirit, as another trick in his trade. His shal
lowness, his blasphemy, and his mammonism have
their merited rebuke from the Apostle Peter (20), to
whom in his genuineness they were utterly repug
nant. 26^0. The conversion of the Ethiopian officer
is a typical one in every respect. It is carefully
detailed. There is the preaching of the Gospel by
Philip. There is reception of it, and confession of it
by the eunuch; there is the baptism, and the subse
quent rejoicing.
37. " This verse is wanting in the best authorities.
The most reliable manuscripts and versions testify
against it. The few copies that contain the words
read them variously. Meyer suggests that they may
have been taken from some baptismal liturgy, and
added here that it might not appear that the eunuch
was baptized without the evidence of his faith." —
Hackett.

346 STUDIES IN ACTS
"It is nothing else than an old addition for the
sake of completeness." — Meyer.
" This verse has been used chiefly for the purpose
of determining the confession which was made origin
ally by candidates for immersion. The fact that it is
an interpolation must modify the argument on this
subject, but cannot invalidate it. The fact that such
a confession as is here put into the mouth of the
eunuch was uniformly required by the apostles is
evident from other passages of Scripture. It is quite
certain that it was confessed by Timothy. Paul says
to him (I. Tim. vi. 13), 'Fight the good fight of
faith; lay hold on eternal life, unto which j'ou were
called, and did confess the good confession before
many witnesses.' This confession was made at the
beginning of his religious career; for it is connected
with his call to eternal life. It is the same confes
sion which is attributed to the eunuch, for Paul
immediately adds: 'I charge thee before God, who
gives life to all things, and Jesus Christ, who bore
witness under Pontius Pilate, to the good confession,'
etc. Now, what is here called the good confession,
is certainly the confession that he was the Christ,
made before the Sanhedrin under Pontius Pilate.
But this is identified, by the terms employed, with
the confession that Timothy made, which is also tho
good confession."— Pro/. J. W. McGarvey.
"Certainly in the 'preached unto him Jesus ' (36)
there was comprehended also instruction concerning
baptism . ' ' — Meyer.

NOTES AND COMMENTS 347
Hackett enumerates three places on the ancient
roads from Jerusalem to Gaza where there was suffi
cient water for an immersion.

CHAPTER IX.
1-22. " It is impossible to exaggerate the impor
tance of St. Paul's conversion as one of the evidences
of Christianity. That he should have passed by one
flight of conviction not only from darkness to light,
but from one direction of life to the very opposite,
is not only characteristic of the man, but evidential
of the power and significance of Christianity. That
the same man who just before was persecuting Chris
tianity with the most violent hatred, should come all
at once to believe in him whose followers he had
been seeking to destroy, and that in this faith he
should become ' a new creature ' — what is this but a
victory which Christianity owed to nothing but the
spell of its own inherent power?" — Farrar.
Various theories have been resorted to by the
hyper-higher critics to rid themselves of the miracle
of conversion recorded in these verses, and affirmed
and reaffirmed by the apostle himself in chapters
xxii. and xxvi. In attempted explanation of the
vision on the way to Damascus they hesitate between
a sunstroke and a thunderstorm! Sunstrokes and
thunderbolts do not usually produce such characters
as that of Paul the apostle.

348 STUDIES IN ACTS
"Saul of Tarsus has refused to melt away in the
crucible of these critical fires. This man, whatever
may be said of the other apostles and of the great
body of primitive Christians, had all the training and
tastes of a scholar. He was endowed with the high
est intellectual gifts, and his conversion proved the
turning point in the history of Christianity." —
Behrends. Bauer, at one time the leading pantheistic, ration
alistic critic of Germany, confessed just before his
death in 1860, that " No psychological or dialectical
analysis can explore the inner mystery of the act in
which God revealed his Son in Paul," and that, " in
the sudden transformation of Paul from the most
violent adversary of Christianity into its most deter
mined herald," he could see "nothing short of a
miracle." Mr. Behrends adds, "The confession is
fatal to the theory of the great critic. The conver
sion of Paul is an inexplicable event on any theory
that denies the supernatural in Christianity, and that
discredits the historical credibility of the Gospels."
"Next to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the
descent of the Holy Spirit, the Gospel history has no
testimony which equals that of Saul of Tarsus. It
has been felt in all ages; and many a reflective mind,
hitherto unmoved, has yielded to the power of this
page of the Gospel." — Monod.
10-12. "The course of the conversion, guided by
Christ directly revealing himself, is entirely in
accordance with its commencement (3-9). 'But we

NOTES AND COMMENTS 349
know not the law according to which communications
of a higher spiritual world to men living in the world
of sense take place, so as to be able to determine
anything concerning them.'" — Meyer.
31. "Then had the churches rest throughout all
Judaea, and Galilee, and Samaria." The first storm
of persecution had passed by, and out of it there
came missions to these regions, and churches in all
of them. Not the least of its fruits was the conver
sion of Saul. In the calmness that followed the
wrath of man was revealed in the light of the praise
of God.
32^3. The previous parts of this chapter are
devoted to an account of the conversion of Saul;
these last verses of it, to a missionary journey of
Peter through the towns and cities of Sharon. In
this portion of Acts Peter and Saul are the leading
characters. It would seem that after the conversion
of Cornelius (Ch. x.) the author hastens to be
done with Peter that he may bestow all his attention
on Paul. Even this missionary journey is dispatched
with great haste. We would gladly know more
about it.
In this chapter Saul and Peter are first brought
face to face, as may be seen by bringing Gal. i. 18
into proper reference to verses 26 and 27. "Kindred
in spirit, though differing much in social culture and
mental training, the high-born, philosophic pupil of
Gamaliel, and the humble, illiterate boatman of Gal
ilee, formed, even during the brief intercourse of two

350 STUDIES IN ACTS
weeks, an ardent, life-long friendship. Little did
either of them at the time imagine the grandeur of
the work in which they were engaged, or the great
things they both were to do and to suffer for the sake
of Him they sought to serve and honor. Still less
did they suppose that their humble names would be
inscribed in the heraldry of deathless fame, while the
great men of their day, princes, philosophers, and
priests, would be remembered chiefly because of
them and their works. Scarcely had the names of
Caligula, and Gamaliel, and Annas been known
to-day but for their connection with these two hum
ble great men and their mission."
CHAPTER X.
See Essay V.
10-16. Schaff has spoken very suggestively, though
perhaps too minutely, upon this vision as follows:
"The symbolical import of this vision we can
easily conjecture. The vessel denotes the creation,
especially mankind; the letting down of it from
heaven, the descent of all creatures from the same
divine origin; the four corners are the four quarters
of the globe; the clean and unclean beasts represent
Jews and Gentiles, and the command to eat contains
the divine declaration that the new creation in Christ
has henceforth annulled the Mosaic laws respecting
food (Lev. X. 10), as well as the distinction between
clean and unclean nations; and that even the hea-

NOTES AND COMMENTS 351
then, therefore, were to be received into the Chris
tian church without the intervention of Judaism, as
the cloth with all the animals was taken up again
into heaven."
"The object aimed at in the whole vision was the
symbolical divine announcement that the hitherto
subsisting distinction between clean and unclean
men, that hedge between Jews and Gentiles, was to
cease in Christianity as being destined for all men
without distinction of nation." — Meyer.
30-32. "The communication on the part of the
angel (4-7) is understood as a divine answer to the
constant prayer of Cornelius (2)." — Meyer.
34, 35. "It is well known that the introductory
words in the discourse of Peter have often been so
interpreted as to teach that all religions are of equal
value; that faith, as contradistinguished from mo
rality, is not indispensable; and that, with reference
to the salvation of the soul, all that is specifically
Christian is of no importance. But the attempt to
find a palliation of indifference in the subject of
religion in this passage betrays, as even De Wette
judges, very great exegetical frivolity. Both the
words themselves, and also the whole connection of
the discourse, as well as of the narrative of which
they form a part, decidedly pronounce against any
such interpretation." — Lechler, as quoted by the
American Editor of Meyer's Commentary on Acts.
47, 48. " Can any one then withhold the water, in
order that these be not baptized? The water in this

352 STUDIES IN ACTS
animated language is conceived as the element offer
ing itself for the baptism. So urgent now appeared
the necessity for completing on the human side the
divine work that had miraculously emerged." —
Meyer. "Though the gift of the Spirit has been made so
apparent, yet Peter does not omit the outward sign
which Christ had ordained (Matt, xxviii. 19) for the
admission of members into his church." — Cambridge
Bible for Schools and Colleges.
"Who have received the Holy Spirit as well as
we." Chrysostom calls this event the great apology
that God had arranged beforehand for Peter.
"The communication of the Spirit, and conse
quently regeneration, in this case before baptism,
is striking and without parallel in the New Testa
ment. In all other cases the gift of the Spirit
accompanied or followed baptism and the laying on
of hands. Man is bound by the ordinances of God,
but not God himself; he can anticipate them with his
spiritual gifts. This exception to the general rule
was undoubtedly ordered, though not for the benefit
of Peter himself, yet for that of his Jewish com
panions ; and was intended to give them — and through
them the whole Jewish Christian party in Jerusa
lem, who could conceive of no baptism with the
Spirit without the baptism with water, — incontesta
ble proof of the participation of the Gentiles in
the kingdom of Christ, and to free them from their
narrow, legalistic views. The apostle, however, even

NOTES AND COMMENTS 353
in this case, bore the strongest testimony to the
importance of baptism with water, by causing this
sacrament still to be administered as an objective
divine seal and pledge of the gifts of grace." —
Schaff. CHAPTER XI.
See Essays V. and VI.
1-18. These verses are a continuation of the mat
ter treated in chapter x. The chaptering is unfor
tunate. Peter is called to account by those in Jeru-
lem " who were of the circumcision " for eating with
Gentiles (verse 3). These Judaizers were zealous
not alone for the law of Moses, but for traditions
that had been magnified into laws. In the Penta
teuch there is no express prohibition of such fellow
ship as Peter had indulged in with the Gentile
Cornelius. But Maimonides recalls a traditional law
that runs as follows: "It is forbidden to a Jew to
be alone with heathens, because they are suspected
of lightly shedding blood, nor must he associate with
them on the road."
The following is an interesting example of the
sort of ceremonial uncleanness that might spring
from association with Gentiles.
"It happened that Shimeon the son of Kimkhith
(who was high priest) went out to speak with the
king of the Arabians, and there came a fleck of
spittle from the king's mouth upon the priest's gar-
23

354 STUDIES IN ACTS
ment, and so he was unclean; and his brother Judah
went in and served instead of him in the high
priest's office. That day their mother saw two of
her sons high priests."
20. "Spake unto the Grecians." So in the
Authorized Version. In the Revised, "Greeks."
"The New Testament uses Hellenistce — Grecians, to
mean those Jews who had been born abroad and
spoke the Greek language, or else for proselytes, but
Hellenes — Greeks, when the heathen population was
spoken of. Now it is clear that it would have been
no matter of remark had these men preached to
Greek Jews, for of them there was a large number in
the church in Jerusalem, as we see from the events
narrated in chapter vi. 1, and most probably these
Grecian and Cyprian teachers were Greek Jews; but
what calls for special mention by St. Luke is that
they, moved perhaps by some spiritual impulse, ad
dressed their preaching in Antioch to the Gentiles as
well as the Jews." — Cambridge Bible for Schools
and Colleges. With this Meyer and Hackett agree.
"Christianity touched the mind and heart of the
¦centurion. Let him represent Roman strength,
sternness, law, force, dignity. Christianity touched
the Greek mind. Let that stand for refinement, ele
gance, delicacy, philosophy, for the completing line
of human thought and service. There you have the
whole circle. Christianity becomes Roman to the
Roman, Grecian to the Grecian — a great rock to a
rocky man, a rainbow to the dreaming genius, a sum-

NOTES AND COMMENTS 355
mer light to the poet's fancy. Christianity speaks to
every man in the tongue wherein he was born. Chris
tianity says. You cannot learn my language, but I can
speak yours. Therefore, with the infinite stoop of
divine and tender grace it comes down to the lowli
est and obscurest of men and utters its gracious
Gospel. No other religion does this. Every other
religion says. You must come to me ; I will not take
one step toward you. This religion, symbolized by
the blessed cross, comes out toward every man to seek
and to save. In such circumstances such beneficence
is argument." — Joseph Parker.
26. "By Christians I understand Christ's follow
ers, Christ lovers, Christ worshipers, Christ ones. It
is a thousand pities, in one aggravation of distress,
that such a name should have been debased, com
mercialized, and made the password to unworthy
confidence and honor. Were we what we ought to
be in integrity, in simjDlicity, in equity of soul, there
should be no nobler designation known amongst men,
and no other should be needed. Roman Catholics,
Protestants, Episcopalians, Congregationalists, Pres
byterians — what are they, and how have they come to
have any existence at all, and especially any honor as
names? Did Christ ever see them? The one name
that we ought to have is Christian, meaning by that
the man who takes Jesus Christ as his Lord, Savior,
Priest, Pattern, Inspiration. Could we restore that
definition of the now perverted term, no name known
under heaven amongst men could be such a warranty

356 STUDIES IN ACTS
of conduct and such a seal of dignity." — Joseph
Parker. Farrar says of the name Christian: "It was be
stowed as a stigma, and accepted as a distinction.
They who afterwards gloried in the contemptuous
reproaches that branded them sarmenticii and sem-
axii, from the fagots to which they were tied and the
stakes to which they were bound, would not be likely
to blush at a name which was indeed their robe of
victory, their triumphal chariot. They gloried in it
all the more because even the ignorant mispronuncia
tions of it were a happy nomen and omen. If the
Greeks and Romans spoke correctly of Christus, they
gave unwilling testimony to the universal king; if
they ignorantiy said Chrestus, they bore witness to the
sinless One. If they said Christiani, they showed
that the new faith centered not in a dogma, but in a
person; if they said Chrestiani, they used a word
which spoke of sweetness and kindness. Aud beyond
all this, to the Christians themselves the name was all
the dearer because it constantly reminded them that
they, too, were God's anointed ones — a holy genera
tion, a royal priesthood; that they had an unction
from the Holy One which brought all truth to their
remembrance." 27. " In these days there came prophets from
Jerusalem unto Antioch."
" Inspired teachers, who delivered their discourses,
not indeed in the ecstatic state, yet in exalted lan
guage, on the basis of a revelation received. Their

NOTES AND COMMENTS 357
working was entirely analogous to that of the Old
Testament prophets. Revelation, incitement, and
inspiration on the part of God gave them their quali
fication ; the unveiling of what was hidden in respect
of the divine counsel for the exercise of a psycho
logical and moral influence on given circumstances,
but always in reference to Christ and his work, was
the tenor of what these interpreters of God spoke.
The prediction of what was future was, as with the
old, so also with the new prophets, no permanent
characteristic feature. But naturally and necessarily
the divinely-illuminated glance ranged very often into
the future development of the divine counsel and
kingdom, and saw what was to come." — Meyer.
28. " Throughout all the world."
"History pointed out the limits within which what
was seen and predicted without limitation found its
fulfillment, inasmuch, namely, as this famine which
set in in the fourth year of the reign of Claudius
(A. D. 44) extended only to Judasa and the neighbor
ing countries, and particularly fell on Jerusalem
itself, which was supported by the Syrian queen
Helena of Adiabene with corn and figs." — Meyer.
This passage is one of the important notes of time
in the book. Claudius reigned from A. D. 41 to 54.
Prof. Ramsay bases much on the time of the famine,
and sums up his arguments as follows :
"As thus interpreted, Luke's chronology harmon
izes admirably with Josephus. Agabus came to Anti
och in the winter of 43-44; and in the early part of

358 STUDIES IN ACTS
44 Herod's persecution occurred, followed by biff
death, probably in the autumn. In 45 the harvest
was probably not good, and provisions grew scarce in
the country; then when the harvest of 46 failed,
famine set in, and relief was urgently required, and
was administered by Barnabas and Saul. It is an
interesting coincidence that relief was given liberally
in Jerusalem by Queen Helena (mother of Izates,
king of Adiabene), who bought corn in Egypt and
figs in Cyprus, and brought them to Jerusalem for
distribution. She came to Jerusalem in 45, and her
visit lasted through the season of famine; she had a
palace in Jerusalem. The way in which she imparted
relief to the starving people illustrates the work that
Barnabas and Saul had to perform."
30. It is noteworthy here that the elders are rep
resented as having charge of the charities of the
church. CHAPTER XII.
See Essay VII.
1. "The accuracy of the sacred writer, says
Paley, in the expressions which he uses here, is
remarkable. There was no portion of time for thirty
years before, or ever afterwards, in which there was a
king at Jerusalem, a person exercising that authority
in Judaea, or to whom that title could be applied,
except the last three years of Herod's life, within
which period the transaction herein recorded toot
place. ' ' — Ormiston.

NOTES AND COMMENTS 359
4. "Easter." This word is an anachronism. No
such feast was known to the Christians. It should
read, "Passover."
5. "In the fifth verse there is a pitched battle.
Read it: — Peter therefore was kept in prison; there
is one side of the fight ; after the colon — but prayer
was made without ceasing of the church unto God
for him. Now for the shock of arms! Who wins?
It is the battle of history. It is a field on which the
universe gazes with conflicting feeling. Prayer
always wins." — Joseph Parker.
"If they had been taught the modern doctrine that
Christians may rightly resist with violence the
assaults of tyrannical rulers, and, whatever the weak
ness on their own part, may confidently appeal to the
God of battles in vindication of their rights, their
feelings and their conduct under these circumstances
must have been far different from what they were.
If ever there was an occasion on which the boasted
first law of nature, the right of self-defense, would
justify violent resistance to oppression, it existed
here. But instead of the passion and turmoil of
armed preparation, we hear from the midnight
assemblies of the disciples the voice of fervent
prayer. Where prayer is, acceptable prayer, there is
no passion, no thirst for revenge, or purpose of
violence. These men were disciples of the Prince of
Peace." — Prof. J. W. McGarvey.
17. "And he departed, and went into another

360 STUDIES IN ACTS
place." "How often did Paul and Jesus himself
withdraw .... into concealment! " — Meyer.
"Catholic writers and some others hold that Peter
proceeded to Rome at this time, and labored for the
Jews there as the apostle of the circumcision (Gal.
ii. 7; I. Pet. i. 1). If this be true, he must have
then been the founder of the church in that city, or,
at all events, have established a relation to it, per
sonal and official, stronger than that of any other
teacher. It is entirely adverse to this view that Paul
makes no allusion to Peter in his Epistle to the
Romans, but writes with the tone of authority which
his avowed policy, his spirit of independence
(II. Cor. X. 16), would not have suffered him to
employ had it belonged more properly to some other
apostle to intrust and guide the Roman church. The
best opinion from traditionary sources is that Peter
arrived at Rome just before the outbreak of Nero's
persecution, where he soon perished as a martyr." —
Hackett. 24. "But the word of God grew and multiplied."
"A contrast — full of significance in its simplicity —
to the tragical end of the persecutor." — Meyer.
One of the many indications in the book of the
rapid growth of the church (ch. vi. 7; viii. 25;
ix. 31; xix. 20).
25. " When they had fulfilled their ministry." A
ministry of charity; ministration rather, for the
word " ministry" has been narrowed. (Seexi. 29-30.)
The original word for "ministry" here, and for

NOTES AND COMMENTS 361
" relief" in xi. 29, and for "ministration" in vi. 1, is
the same. It is a form of the Greek word which we
have anglicized as "deacon." Its best translation is
"ministration." It is noteworthy that the Apostle
Paul here performed distinctively the office of a
deacon. (See quotation from Ruskin, ch. vi. 1.) It
must have been an arduous work to purchase and
transport goods for a famine stricken people, and it
was no light task to distribute them properly among
the thousands of Jewish Christians in Jerusalem.
CHAPTER XIII.
See Essay VIII.
On the work of the Holy Spirit see Essay XIII.
"The record of the first offer of the Gospel to the
(Gentile) world begins after the return of Saul and
Barnabas from their visit of benevolence to Jerusa
lem. They bring back with them John Mark. These
three set out to bear the light to the heathen.
" The church is at length prepared, after more than
sixteen years, to begin formally and deliberately its
work among the heathen. The Sanhedrin seems to
have lost its power to hinder. The Jewish state will
never again oppose. But more than all the Jewish
caste has been broken, and its prejudice driven to the
rear so that it will not soon stand in the way again.
The new center of the Gospel influence has been
founded in Antioch. The religious thought of the
Jews under the power of the Spirit has found a new.

362 STUDIES IN ACTS
a deeper, a broader channel. God is no longer the
God of the Jews only. The world has put on a new
face, because it has become the field of divine grace.
This first regular work among the heathen was not
very wide in its scope. It did not reach Rome. It
did not reach Corinth, or even Ephesus. It extended
but a few hundred miles beyond Paul's birthplace in
Tarsus. In giving its history Luke shows how God
promoted it from first to last, how it was carried on
and how it was justified by the obstinacy of the Jews
who were encountered in this first missionary jour
ney."— Pro/. J. M. Stifler.
1-3. "Thus the mother church of Gentile Chris
tianity has become the seminary of the mission to
the Gentiles." — Meyer.
2. "As they ministered unto the Lord."
The original for this word "ministered" is used
both in reference to religious service and the minis
tering of charities, or to service both Godward and
manward, indicating that the two are very closely
related (Heb. x. 11; Rom. xv. 27). The same is true
of the noun (Luke i. 23; Phil. ii. 30).
7. "Deputy." Strictly proconsul.
"Under Augustus the Roman provinces were
divided into two classes, one class of which (needing
the presence of troops for their government, the pos
session of which gave the emperor the control of
the army) was called imperatorial, while the others
were called senatorial provinces. The former were
governed by an officer called propraetor, the latter by

NOTES AND COMMENTS 363
a proconsul. We know from Dio Cassius that Cyprus
was originally an imperatorial province, and there
fore under a propraetor. This also Strabo confirms,
but says that Augustus made it over to the people
along with part of Galatia, and took instead of these
Dalmatia for one of his provinces. So that the gov
ernment was at Paul's visit held by a proconsul for
the Roman Senate, as is here recorded. This is
another instance of the historic faithfulness of
Luke's record." — Cambridge Bible for Schools and
Colleges. 9. "Who is also called Paul."
Prof. Ramsay's interesting paragraph on the Apos
tle Paul's change of name cannot be omitted here.
"Nothing has hitherto transpired to show that
Paul was anything but a Hebrew sprung from the
Hebrews. In Cyprus he went through the country
city by oity, synagogue by synagogue ; and he was the
Jew in all. But here he is in different surroundings ;
he stands in the hall of the proconsul, and he answers
the questions of the Roman official. The interview
doubtless began, as all interviews in the country be
tween strangers still begin, with the round of ques
tions: 'What is your name? (or who are you?)
Whence come you? What is your business? ' . . .
To these questions how would Saul answer? After
his years of recent life as a Jew, filled with the
thought of a religion that originated among the Jews,
and was in his conception the perfected form of Jew
ish religion, did he reply: 'My name is Saul, and I

364 STUDIES IX ACTS
am a Jew from Tarsus?' First let us see what he
himself says as to his method of addressing an audi
ence (I. Cor. ix. 20f.), 'To the Jews I made myself a
Jew that I might gain the Jews; to them that are
under the law as under the law (though not myself
under the law) ; to them that are without the law as
without law; I am become all things to all men; and
I do all for the Gospel's sake.' We cannot doubt
that the man who wrote so to the Corinthians replied
to the questions of Sergius Paulus, by designating
himself as a Roman, born at Tarsus, and named Paul.
By a marvelous stroke of historic brevity, the author
sets before us the past and the present in the simple
words: Then Saul, otherwise Paul, fixed his eyes on
him, and said.
"The double character, the mixed personality, the
Oriental teacher who turns out to be a free-bom
Roman, would have struck and arrested the attention
of any governor, any person possessed of insight into
character, any one who had even an average share of
curiosity. But to a man with the tastes of Sergius
Paulus, the Roman Jew must have been doubly inter
esting; and the orator or the preacher knows how
much is gained by arousing such an interest at the
outset." 12. "Then the deputy (proconsul) when he saw
what was done believed."
"He was convinced by the miracle and by the
words with which it was accompanied, that the apos
tles were teachers of the way of the Lord, after

NOTES AND COMMENTS 365
which he had been seeking in vain from Elymas. We
are not told that Sergius was baptized, but we have
other instances of like omission of notice (verse 48),
yet as baptism was the appointed door into Christ's
church, such omission of the mention thereof should
not be thought to warrant us in believing that the
sacrament was neglected on any occasion." — Cam
bridge Bible for Schools and Colleges.
With this Meyer agrees, saying that "believed"
" obviously supposes the reception of baptism."
14. "But when they departed from Perga they
came to Antioch in Pisidia."
Prof. Ramsay connects this sudden departure from
Perga and visit to Antioch with Paul's " infirmity in
the flesh," referred to in Gal. iv. 13, 14. He thinks
the "infirmity" was malarial fever in a distressing
form, and that therefore Paul sought the moun
tainous regions of Pisidian Antioch. He also seeks
to show that this disease was Paul's "thorn in the
flesh" (II. Cor. xii. 7). His arguments are interest
ing, and well nigh convincing.
20. "Gave unto them judges about the space
of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the
prophet." Paul here seems to follow the chronology of Jose
phus rather than that in I. Kings vi. 1, where the
period from the Exodus to the building of the temple
is given as 480 years. This, subtracting the 40 years
in the wilderness, the 25 of Joshua, the 40 of
Saul's reign, the 40 of David's, and the 4 of Solo-

366 STUDIES IN ACTS
mon's up to the time of the beginning of the work,
leaves only 331 as the period of the Judges. Jose
phus, however, gives the time from the exodus to the
building of the temple as 592 years. Making the
subtractions above from this we have left in round
numbers the 450 vears of the text. (See Meyer and
Hackett.) 17-41. In Paul's sermon there appears, 1. Epit
ome of Israel's history from the sojourn in Egypt to
David. 2. The genealogy of Jesus as starting from
David. 3. The rejection of Jesus. 4. The resur
rection of Jesus. 5. Forgiveness through Jesus,
and therefore justification by him. 6. A warning to
despisers. The first part of this sermon follows the plan of
Stephen (VIL); the latter part, that of Peter on
Pentecost (II.). The place assigned to forgiveness
by Paul is the same as that assigned to remission of
sins by Peter. In Paul's mind forgiveness takes the
form of justification. Here is the first intimation of
his teaching on that subject. Here also he first
intimates the insufficiency of the law of Moses, and it
seems to have given no offense to his Jewish audi
tors, perhaps because these Jews were already lax
legalists by reason of Gentile associations.
48. "As many as were ordained (were disposed;
Variorum Bible) to eternal life believed."
"In the controversies on predestination and elec
tion this sentence has constantly been brought for
ward. But it is manifestly unfair to take a sentence

NOTES AND COMMENTS 367
out of its context, and interpret it as if it stood
alone. In verse 46 we are told that the Jews had
judged themselves unworthy of eternal life, and all
that is meant by the words in this verse is the oppo
site of that expression. The Jews were acting so as
to proclaim themselves unworthy; the Gentiles were
making manifest their desire to be deemed worthy.
The two sections were like opposing troops, ranged
by themselves, and to some degree, though not unal
terably, looked upon as so ranged by God on differ
ent sides. Thus the Gentiles were ordering them
selves, and were ordered, unto eternal life. The text
says no word to warrant us in thinking that none
could henceforth change sides." — Cambridge Bible
for Schools and Colleges.
49. "And the word of the Lord was published
through all the region."
"Here we have a fact of (Roman) administration
and government assumed in quiet and undesigned
fashion. Antioch was the center of a Region. This
is the kind of allusion which affords to the students
of ancient literature a test of accuracy, and often a
presumption of date. I think that, if we put this
presumption to the test, we shall find, (1) That it is
right; (2) that it adds a new fact; (3) that it
explains and throws new light on several passages in
ancient authors and inscriptions." This note is from
Prof. Ramsay, who goes more deeply into the sub
ject, and concludes as follows, referring to an in
scription found and published by Prof. Sterrett, of

368 STUDIES IN ACTS
Amherst, Mass., which speaks of a " regionary cen
turion: "
"Thus we have epigraphic authority to prove that
Antioch under the Roman administration was the
center of a Region. Further, we can determine the
extent and name of that Region, remembering always
that in a province like Galatia, where evidence is
lamentably scanty, we must often be content with
reasonable probability, and rarely find such an in
scription as Prof. Sterrett's, to put us on a plane of
demonstrated certainty. . . . Thus without any
formal statement, and without any technical term,
but in the course of a bare, simple and brief account
of the effects of Paul's preaching, we find ourselves
unexpectedly (just as Paul and Barnabas found them
selves unintentionally) amid a Roman provincial dis
trict, which is moved from the center to the circum
ference by the new preaching. It is remarkable how
the expression of Luke embodies the very soul of
history." 50. "The honorable women."
"The influence attributed to women at Antioch is
in perfect accord with the manners of the country.
In Athens or in an Ionian city it would have been im
possible." — Ramsay.
51. "Shook off the dust of their feet." In ac
cordance with the instruction of Jesus (Matt. x. 14).
It is not always necessary or possible that the victo
ries of truth should be immediate. Time is required

NOTES AND COMMENTS 369
for the effects of preaching. Paul and Barnabas
withdrew only that they might revisit and confirm
(xiv. 21, 22).
CHAPTER XIV.
5, 6. Observe that the apostles were not stoned in
Iconium, though they were perilously near to it.
Observe also that in Lystra (19, 20) Paul was stoned,
this being the only occasion of stoning recorded
in his case. In II. Cor. xi. 25, he says, " Once was I
stoned." Paley, in his "Horae Paulinae," makes fine
use of this agreement between Paul and Luke, espe
cially as they are so dangerously near to a disagree
ment. They are saved from contradiction by their
mutual accuracy and truthfulness.
8-10. "Observe the earnest circumstantiality of
this narrative. ' ' — Meyer.
11. "Lifted up their voices in the speech of
Lycaonia." "The more surprised and astonished the people
were, the more natural it was for them to express
themselves in their native dialect." — Meyer.
"The name Lycaonia, or Wolfland, indicates only
too faithfully the character of the inhabitants. Few
if any Jews were settled there, and we read of no
synagogue in either of the towns named. The region.
is described as wild, rugged, mountainous; an almost,
Alpine country." "Lystra was the home of Timo
thy, and has a post-apostolic history, the names of
24

370 STUDIES IN ACTS
its bishops appearing in the records of early coun
cils." "The gods are come down to us in the likeness of
men." "It was a general belief, long after the Homeric
age, that the gods visited the earth in the form of
men. Such a belief with regard to Jupiter would be
natural in such an inland, rural district as Lystra,
which seems to have been under his special protec
tion, as his image or temple stood in front of the city
gates. And as Mercury was the messenger and her
ald of the gods, especially of Jupiter, it was natural
that he should be associated with him. He was also
the god of eloquence; and as Paul was the chief
speaker, they took him for Mercury; and the more
quiet, perhaps the more aged, venerable and majestic
looking Barnabas, they regarded as Jupiter." —
Or^niston. 23. "And when they had ordained (chosen;
elected; appointed; Variorum Bible) them elders in
every church . . ."
"There is indeed no point on which the most
learned have been so much agreed as this, that the
Greek word here simply denotes having selected,
•constituted, appointed. Alford says, The word will
not bear the sense of laying on of hands, and adds,
The apostles ordained the elders whom the churches
elected. Gloag says the word has two meanings, to
choose by election, or simply to choose. Meyer
adopts the first of these meanings; Gloag decidedly

NOTES AND COMMENTS 371
prefers the second, so does also Hackett." — Ormis
ton. Elders are previously mentioned in xi. 30. (See
Comment.) Gloag says the ministers of the church were called
presbyters or elders with reference to the Jewish
element in the church; and bishops or overseers
with reference to the Greek element.
CHAPTER XV.
See Essay X. This is one of the most important
chapters of the book.
1. "Except ye be circumcised after the manner of
Moses ye cannot be saved." From the standpoint of
the old law circumcision was not a trifle; but from
the standpoint of the "grace and truth" that came
by Jesus Christ it was a trifle, and worse if men
trusted in it as meritorious to the detriment of spir
itual life. It is amazing what trifles Christians con
tend about! Early in the eighteenth century a
congregation in the west of Scotland " differed on
the paltry question whether it was necessary for the
minister to lift in his hand the plate of bread before
its distribution in the Lord's Supper, the Lifters
holding this to be essential, the others regarding it as
a matter of no moment." They became known as
the Lifters and the Anti-Lifters! — M'Clintock and
Strong: Biblical and Theological Cyclopmdia.
23. "A singular feature in James' resolution is

372 STUDIES IN ACTS
that it includes one positive sin with matters that are
in themselves indifferent. He forbids a moral breach
along with others that are only ceremonial. But the
solution is easy. The Greeks did not look upon
fornication with the Jews' abhorrence. The sin was
so common among the heathen that they had lost all
conscience about it, and in the prohibition now laid
upon them they would not feel any theological diffi
culty. "—/S'^(^er.
36-39. For the dissension between Paul and Bar
nabas, see Essay VIIL, pp. 161 and 162.
40. "Paul chose Silas." Silas was one of the
chosen men of the Jerusalem church (w. 25-27). In
Paul's Epistles and in I. Pet, v. 12 he is called Silva
nus. In choosing such a member and representative
of the Jerusalem church to accompany him in his
labors among Gentile churches, Paul shows his anx
iety and foresight, for this was among his plans
to further the confidence, and thereby preserve the
unity between the Jewish and Gentile Christians.
41. " And he went through Syria and Cilicia con
firming the churches."
According to Prof. Ramsay, Syria and Cilicia was
a Roman Region lying in Syria and not extending
into Asia Minor. That there were churches in this
Region is proof of missionary work of which we
have no record, probably Paul's. (See page 367.)

NOTES AND COMMENTS 373

CHAPTER XVI.

See Essay XI. In this essay a reasonably full
treatment of the principal matters presented in this
and the two immediately succeeding chapters is
attempted. 3. The circumcision of Timothy was not de
manded by Judaizers, as in the case of Titus (Gal. ii.
3, 4), but was a concession on the part of Paul. In
this concession no principle was at stake. Besides,
Timothy, according to the Rabbinical law, would be
considered a Jew because his mother was a Jewess.
The decision of the council in Jerusalem (xv. 29)
gave no permission to Jewish Christians to neglect
the rite of circumcision. This was a point not
touched upon, and the apostle Paul's concession in
the case of Timothy would serve to emphasize his
demand for liberty in the case of the Gentiles.
12. " A colony." " It should be borne in mind
that a Roman colony was not like what we now call a
colony. The inhabitants did not settle as they
pleased, but were sent out by authority from Rome,
marching to their destination like an army with
banners, and they reproduced, where they settled, a
close resemblance to Roman rule and life. They
were planted on the frontiers of the empire for pro
tection, and as a check upon the provincial magis
trates. The names of those who went were still
enrolled in the lists of the tribes of Rome. Latin
was their language, and they used the Roman coinage

374 STUDIES IN ACTS
and had their chief magistrate sent out or appointed
by the mother city. Thus they were very closely
united with Rome, and were entirely free from any
intrusion on the part of the governors of the prov
inces." — Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges.
13. " Spake unto the women which resorted
thither." " Considering the little regard which the Jews had
for the women to be conversed with and taught, it
is noteworthy how large a part women play both in
the Gospel history and in the Acts. It was one
effect of Christianity to place woman in her true
position." ^Cambridge Bible for Schools and Col
leges. 15. " And her household."
" Of a like baptizing of a household see below (v.
33), and also x. 48. We are not justified in conclud
ing from these passages that infants were baptized.
' Household ' might mean slaves and freedwomen."—
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges.
"If in the Jewish and Gentile families that were
converted to Christ there were children, their bap
tism is to be assumed in those cases when they were
so far advanced that they could and did confess their
faith in Jesus as the Messiah; for this was the uni
versal, absolutely necessary qualification for the re
ception of baptism." — Meyer.
" Here," says De Wette, "as well as in verse 33;
xviii. 8; I. Cor. i. 16, some would find a proof of the
apostolic baptism of children; but there is nothing

NOTES AND COMMENTS 375
here which shows that any except adults were bap
tized." — Quoted by Hackett.
With the above, Neander is in full agreement, as
suring us that not till so late as the time of Irenaus
(last half of the second century), does there appear
in the church a trace of infant baptism.
The household of Stephanus, baptized by Paul in
Corinth (I. Cor. i. 15), were all adults, as is shown
by reference to I. Cor. xvi. 15. They "addicted
themselves to the ministry of the saints."
40. " Into the house of Lydia."
"Waiting there probably till they were able to
travel further. But in the midst of their suffering
they still exhort and comfort the Christians whom in
their stay they had gathered into a church.
"How deep was the mutual affection which existed
between St. Paul and these Philippians, his first
European converts, is manifest in every line of the
epistle he wrote to them from Rome in his first im
prisonment. They are his greatest joy; they have
given him no cause for sorrow; and from first to last
have ministered to his afflictions, and made manifest
how they prized their ' father in Christ.' The
jubilant language of the letter is marked by the oft-
repeated ' Rejoice in the Lord."'

376 STUDIES IN ACTS

CHAPTER XVII.

See Essay XI.
6. "The rulers of the city" (7roA,tTapx»5, — poli
tarchs). "The title 'politarchs' is found nowhere
in literature but in this chapter. But an inscription
connected with this very city of Thessalonica has
been preserved on an arch which spans a street of
the modern city. It contains some names which
occur as the names of St. Paul's converts, Sosipater,
Gaius, Secundus, but the inscription is probably not
earlier than the time of Vespasian. There the title
of the magistrates is given in this precise form; a
striking confirmation of the truthfulness of the
account before us." — Cambridge Bible for Schools
and Colleges.
" The curious and rare title ' politarchs ' was given
to the supreme board of magistrates at Thessalonica,
as is proved by an inscription." — Ramsay.
12. " Honorable women which were Greeks."
" In Macedonia, as in Asia Minor, women occupied
a much freer and more influential position than in
Athens; and it is in conformity with the known facts
that such prominence is assigned to them in the three
Macedonian cities." — Ramsay.
16. " Paul waited for them at Athens."
Speaking in general of Paul's presence in Athens
Prof. Ramsay says, "This extraordinary versatility in
Paul's character, the unequaled freedom and ease
with which he moved in every society, and addressed

NOTES AND COMMENTS 377
SO many races in the Roman world, were evidently
appreciated by the man who wrote this narrative, for
the rest of Chapter xvii. is as different in tone from
kiii. as Athens is different from Phrygia. Only a
writer who was in perfect sympathy with his subject
could adapt his tone to it so perfectiy as Luke does.
In Ephesus Paul taught ' in the school of Tyran
nus; ' in the city of Socrates he discussed moral
questions in the market-place. How incongruous it
would seem if the methods were transposed! But
the narrative never makes a false step amid all the
many details, as the scene changes from city to
city; and that is the conclusive proof that it is the
picture of real life." — Ramsay.
23. "To the unknown god."
Upon the authority of an ancient writer Meyer
says, " Epimenides put an end to a plague in Athens
by causing black and white sheep, which he had let
loose on the Areopagus, to be sacrificed on spots
where they lay down to the god concerned, yet not
known by name, namely, who was the author of the
plague; and that therefore one may find at Athens
altars without the designation of the god by name."
From this instance he derives an argument in favor
of the presence in Athens of altars with the inscrip
tion "Unknown God."
" Reverence for the Unknown and Nameless was
the expression of the unsatisfied groping of poly
theism after the truth ; its consciousness of its own
insufficiency; its presentiment both of a higher

378 STUDIES IN ACTS
power beyond the sphere of its gods, and of the
necessity of having that power propitiated. Thus
polytheism itself left room for a new religion, for the
knowledge and worship of the unknown god, who is
also the only true God. On this longing after truth
Paul lays hold; and, referring that remarkable phe
nomenon to its ultimate principle; interpreting the
religious want, which revealed itself therein; and in
the presence of an unknown god, recognizing with
perfect propriety the faint notion of the unknown
God, he proceeds: Whom therefore ye ignorantiy
worship, him declare I unto you." — Schaff.
28. "In him we live, and move, and have our
being." This is not pantheism. It is the assertion of the
immanence of God as vv. 24 and 25 are the assertion
of the transcendence of God. Moreover this " divine
descent" is predicated only of man, and in man there
is the recognition of evil, both of which conceptions
are averse to pantheism. So far from pantheism this
is a common Hebrew conception (Psalm xc. 1), and
the apostle brings Greek poetry to its confirmation
with his Greek audience, namely, "We also are his
offspring; " " the first half of a hexameter, verbatim
from Aratus."
34. "And a woman named Damaris."
"One woman was converted at Athens; and it is
not said that she was one of good birth, as was stated
at Berea and Thessalonica and Pisidian Antioch.
The difference is true to life. It was impossible in

NOTES AND COMMENTS 379
Athenian society for a woman of respectable position
and family to have any opportunity of hearing Paul ;
and the name Damaris (probably a vulgarism for
damalis, heifer) suggests a foreign woman, perhaps
one of the class of educated Hetairai, who might very
well be in his audience." — Ramsay.
Prof. Ramsay thinks that Paul was disappointed
and disillusioned in Athens; that when he went to
Corinth he determined to abandon the philosophic
style, and "know nothing but Christ and him cruci
fied " (I. Cor. ii. 2); and that nowhere was he so
hard on the philosophers and dialecticians as when
he defended the style of his preaching in Corinth.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Portions of Essay XI. will be found to bear on this
chapter down to verse 22.
2. An interesting point of contact with Roman
history, and especially valuable from a chronological
standpoint. See Preliminary Essay, page 18.
8. See Comments on Ch. xvi. 15.
18. "Having shorn his head in Cenchrea; for he
had a vow."
The construction of the sentence is such that it can
never be known absolutely whether this refers to
Paul or Aquila; it is commonly referred to Paul.
24-28. The use of these verses by Paley in his
"Horse Paulinas" affords us another interesting
example of his method. In I. Cor. iii. 6, Paul says.

380 STUDIES IN ACTS
"I have planted, Apollos watered." "Therefore
Paul was in Corinth before Apollos, and Apollos was
there before the writing of I. Corinthians." With
these requirements the history found in these verses
agrees precisely, and it is evidently undesigned.
Many passages in the last chapters of Acts are thus
used in the "Horae Paulinae" with great force.
CHAPTER XIX.
1-7. The rebaptism of these disciples of John is
unique and interesting. If they were disciples of
Apollos why did he leave them thus after he himself
was better instructed? Surely Aquila and PrisciUa
could not have known them long. They must have
been strangers who attached themselves to the Chris
tians upon a very slight knowledge of Christ. At all
events, Paul completed an incomplete work, and in
this respect the incident may be taken for a prece
dent. Some critics feel that it is an interruption to
the narrative of Luke, and not perfectly in keeping
with his style. Prof. Ramsay suggests that if we
knew more of the history of the church in Ephesus,
we might see more of the significance and import
ance of the episode in its development.
8, 9. Here is the usual synagogue preaching; the
usual persecution; the usual turning to the Gentiles.
10. "So that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word
of the Lord Jesus."
" Asia." That is, Asia Minor, according to Meyer.

NOTES AND COMMENTS 381
This "great and effectual door," explains the long
stay of Paul in Ephesus. "It was but forty years
after this that Pliny, in his celebrated letter to
Trajan, says, even in reference to the more distant
Bithynia. " ' Many of every age, of every rank, and
also either sex, are brought, and will be brought into
peril. For the contagion of this superstition has
not only spread through the cities, but also through
the villages and country places.' " — Hackett.
13-20. " In this narrative the powers of Paul are
brought into competition with those of Jewish exor
cists and pagan dabblers in the black art, and his
superiority to them is demonstrated. Ephesus was a
center of such magical arts and practices, and it was
therefore inevitable that the new teaching should be
brought in contact with them and triumph over
them. ' ' — Ramsay.
These sons of Sceva are representatives of a class.
Many Asiatic Jews had become lax and degenerate,
and even the office of the priesthood did not deter
them from such a vagabond life as is here indicated.
Of their pretended art of healing we have a de
scription in Josephus, as quoted in the Cambridge
Bible for Schools and Colleges. " God gave Solomon
skill against demons for the helj) and cure of men.
And he arranged certain incantations whereby dis
eases are assuaged, and left behind him certain forms
of exorcism whereby they so put to flight the over
powered evil spirits that they never return. And

382 STUDIES IN ACTS
this method of curing is very prevalent among us to
the present time."
The price of the magical books that were burned
is estimated by Schaff at $8,000.
To this wonderful triumph may have been due in
part Paul's influence throughout Asia Minor.
" The most sensitive part of civilized man is his
pocket; and it was there that opposition to Christian
changes, or 'reforms,' began. Those 'reforms'
threatened to extinguish some ancient and respect
able trades, and promised no compensation; and
thus all the large class that lived off the pilgrims and
the temple service was marshaled against the new
party, which threatened the livelihood of all." —
Ramsay.
It was thus that the phenomenal success of Paul's
work was the source of a bitter persecution against
him, as is shown in the last half of this chapter.
21. Here Paul expresses the intention of visiting
the churches he had organized in his previous prog
ress from Philippi to Corinth. It was his custom to
revisit and confirm the churches that sprang up
wherever he first passed.
Here also is his first expressed intention of visiting
Rome. In the greatness of his soul he seems to have
taken the Roman empire for his parish, and it was
fitting that he should visit its capital. He planned
also to see Spain (Rom. xv. 24), the farthest western
limit of the empire.
23. Here follows what Prof. Ramsey calls " the

NOTES AND COMMENTS 383
most instructive picture of society in an Asian city at
this period that has come down to us."
2t. "A certain man named Demetrius, a silver
smith." This enterprising business man roused the non
chalant eunuch priests of Diana to their danger, and
when once roused they were excellent leaders of fa
naticism and mob violence.
26. A high tribute to the extended influence of
Paul's preaching, and an indication of his remorse
less antagonism to idolatry.
27. " That the temple of the great goddess Diana
should be despised, and her magnificence destroyed."
The temple of Diana in Ephesus was one of the
seven wonders of the world. It was 425 feet in
length, 220 in breadth, with 127 columns 60 feet high,
each said to have been the gift of a king, and many
of them adorned with rich ornamentation in bas-re
lief. It was built of white marble, and was the glory
of the city. Of this "proud temple, not one stone
remains upon another. It is said that some of the
pillars may be seen in the Mosque of St. Sophia at
Constantinople." In the 35th verse, thp townclerk says that the city
of Ephesus is a worshiper of the great goddess
Diana. This is an index to the general character of
the people. Renan says of the city: " It might have
been called the rendezvous of courtesans and viveurs.
It was full to repletion of magicians, diviners, mimics,
flute-players, eunuchs, jewelers, amulet and metal mer-

384 STUDIES IN ACTS
chants, and romance writers. . . . The mildness
of the climate disinclined one to serious things.
Dancing and singing remained the sole occupation;
public life degenerated into bacchanalian revels."
28, 29. "An enthusiastic outcry for the preserva
tion of the endangered, and yet so lucrative! majesty
of the goddess." — Meyer.
We are told that the vast ruins of this theater are
still to be seen, and that it was planned to seat thirty
thousand people.
31. "Certain' of the chief of Asia."
"The reference to Asiarchs is very important, both
in respect to the nature of that office, on which it
throws great light, . . . and as a fact of Pauline
history. The Asiarchs, or high priests of Asia, were
the heads of the imperial, political-religious organiza
tion of the province in the worship of 'Rome and
the emperors,' and their friendly attitude is a proof
both that the spirit of the imperial policy was not yet
hostile to the new teaching, and that the educated
classes did not share the hostility of the superstitious
vulgar to Paul. Doubtless some of the Asiarchs had,
in the ordinary course of dignity, previously held
priesthoods of Artemis or other city deities; and it is
quite probable that up to the present time even the
Ephesian priests were not hostile to Paul. The
eclectic religion, which was fashionable at the time,
regarded new forms of cult with equanimity, almost
with friendliness; and the growth of each new super-

NOTES AND COMMENTS 385
stition only added to the influence of Artemis and
her priests." — Ramsay.
33, 34. "Alexander was a Jewish Christian; but
his Christian position was either unknown to the
mob, or they would listen to nothing at all from one
belonging to the Jewish nation as the hereditary
enemy of the worship of the gods." — Meyer.
"For about two hours the vast assembly, like a
crowd of devotees, or howling dervishes, shouted
their invocation of 'Great Artemis!' In this scene
we cannot mistake the tone of sarcasm and contempt,
as Luke tells of this howling mob; they themselves
thought they were performing their devotions, as
they repeated the sacred name, but to Luke they
were merely howling, not praying." — Ramsay.
35. "And when the townclerk had appeased the
people." This townclerk is "a most important personage,
and his title is found at times on the coinage, and he
gave name in some places to the year, like the
Archon at Athens. Through him all public commu
nications were made to the city, and in his name
replies were given." — Cambridge Bible for Schools
and Colleges.
Prof. Ramsay considers the speech of this "town
clerk" "a very skillful and important document in
its bearing on the whole situation, and on Luke's
plan." In brief, the speech shows that at this time the
rulers did not consider Christianity as disloyal to the
25

386 STUDIES IN ACTS
government, and it points out the proper legal course
to be taken in case accusations were to be brought
against the Christians. " It is so entirely an apologia
for the Christians that we might almost take it as
an example of the Thucydidean type of speech,
put into the mouth of one of the actors, not as
being precisely his words, but as embodying a states
manlike conception of the real situation."
CHAPTER XX.
1-5. Strangely enough in these five verses Luke
dismisses Paul's very interesting journey into Mace
donia and Greece, together with his return to Asia,
including a list of his traveling companions. He
hastens on to the relation of a new chapter in the
life of Paul. This chapter begins with the birth
of Paul's purpose to see Rome (xix. 21) ; the journey
into Macedonia and Greece ends with the celebration
of the Passover in Philippi; from that moment Paul
entered seriously upon the new enterprise, and the
record becomes minutely descriptive.
6, 7. For Prof. Ramsay's very interesting chrono
logical estimates based upon these verses, see Prelim
inary Essay, page 18.
"The moment Paul turns south from Philippi
Luke writes with the utmost detail. The days and
nights are given all the way from the chief city
of Macedonia to the chief city of the Jews. It is not
difficult to see how Paul and his company were

NOTES AND COMMENTS 387
engaged at almost every step. From the close of the
Passover week in Philippi to the day of Pentecost in
Jerusalem we know where Paul is and what he is
doing. What is the meaning of this abundance of
particulars? . . . Luke's presence on this jour
ney was the means by which he gathered all these
items, but why did he write them? Shall we say that
he whose object in every word set down hitherto was
as clear as a sunbeam, becomes now suddenly pur
poseless in his narrative, and is nothing more than a
news reporter? It will aid us in discovering what the
history means here if we note the threads on which
the multitudinous facts are hung. First of all, Paul
is taking leave of the churches. He does not e^xpect
to see them again. The address to the Ephesian
elders is given as a sample of these farewell visits.
Again, this is the place to show the completeness and
especially the unity of the churches. They all pos
sess the same spirit. That spirit is one of solicitude
for the Gospel. Paul is everywhere warned against
the danger that awaits him in Jerusalem. Again, in
the section now before us we find for the first time
warm exhibitions of love for Paul. Luke hitherto
had only shown how the great missionary was hated.
He had not told of the devotion of the Galatians,
who would have plucked out their eyes for the apos
tle (Gal. iv. 14, 15), nor of the Thessalonians
(I. Thess. iii. 6), and of the Philippians (Phil. i. 26).
Now it is plain that the history, by lingering along
day by day and depicting what is pleasant, means to

388 STUDIES IN ACTS
prepare us for the painful events soon to occur in
Jerusalem. The churches are everywhere with Paul,
but to carry out his grand design he leaves them for
that caldron of rage where the Lord was rejected,
and where he, too, must be." — Stifler.
"The first day of the week."
See Comments on Chapter ii., page 307.
9. "The author vouches that Eutychus was dead,
implying that, as a physician, he had satisfied himself
on that point." — Ramsay.
13. This twenty-mile walk after an all-night serv
ice indicates great physical endurance on the part of
Paul. Did the apostle long for solitary communion
with nature and with GodJ* Luke gives no hint of
Paul's reason for this course.
16. " For Paul determined to sail by Ephesus."
"Paul, having been disappointed in his first inten
tion of spending Passover in Jerusalem, was eager at
any rate to celebrate Pentecost there. For the pur
pose which he had at heart, the formation of a
perfect unity between the Jewish and non-Jewish
sections of the church, it was important for him to
be in Jerusalem to show his respect for one of the
great feasts." — Ramsay.
17. "And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and
called for the elders of the church."
"Paul intimates clearly that this is his farewell
before entering on his enterprise in the West: 'Ye
shall see my face no more.' With a characteristic
gesture he shows his hands : ' These hands have min-

NOTES AND COMMENTS 389
istered unto my necessities.' . . . The clinging
affection which is expressed in the farewell scene,
and the 'tearing ourselves away,' of xxi. 1 (Variorum
rendering), make a very pathetic picture."— i2am-
say. 28. "The church of God."
"Many ancient authorities read the Lord" (Mar
gin of the Revised Version). Meyer decides in favor
of this reading.
36, 37. Of this farewell meeting Renan says:
"They all knelt and prayed. There was nought
heard but a stifled sob. Paul's words, 'Ye shall see
my face no more,' had pierced their hearts. In turn
the elders of Ephesus fell on the apostle's neck and
kissed him."
"Paul was a man of strong conviction and great
force of character, but also possessed of exquisite
tenderness and a wealth of affection. If he had
to endure the strongest- enmities, he also won for
himself the deepest and most enduring friendships.
At once so gigantic and so gentle, his personality was
a great power, and seemed wholly to overshadow his
companions and followers, though in themselves men
of great excellence and worth, such as Timothy,
Titus, Silas, Luke, and others." — Ormiston.

390 STUDIES IN ACTS

CHAPTER XXI.

An intense interest attaches to this and the follow-'
ing chapters of the book, both from the standpoint
of Paul's later history, and of the attitude of the
Roman rulers to the Christian religion. For fullness
of treatment on the latter point, the reader must be
referred to Prof. Ramsay's work, already many times
noted. 3,4. "Landed at Tyre; . . and having sought
out the disciples" (Variorum rendering). There is
no account of any missionary work in Tyre. But by
this time Paul and his companions had learned to
expect Christians in every such considerable city on
the Mediterranean, and to search them out.
10,11. "Agabus." Undoubtedly the same prophet
who is mentioned in chapter xi. 28.
16. "Mnason, ... an old disciple." Like
Barnabas, he was of Cyprus. Unlike Barnabas, he
seems not to have given over his property to the
church, since he had a house in Jerusalem large
enough to accommodate Paul and his companions
during the throng of the Pentecost season.
21. This verse has an emphatic bearing on the
Jewish-Gentile controversy, and is an example of the
false reports intentionally made current about Paul's
teaching. 22-25. The course proposed by James and the
elders of the Jerusalem church was not inconsistent
with Paul's rule of expediency by which he "became

NOTES AND COMMENTS 391
all things to all men." Besides, he had had a vow in
Corinth, and had shaved his head in Cenchrea. That
these four Jewish Christians should have a Nazarite
vow upon them shows how tenaciously many in the
Jerusalem church still clung to the Mosaic forms of
worship. (See Num. vi.) That Paul should purify
himself with them and pay the expenses of their
release would prove that he was not antagonistic
to the ancient customs. Perhaps there is no other
incident that so fully illustrates his true position.
He had come to look upon all these things as not
legally binding (I. Cor. vii. 19), but simply as expe
dient for such Jewish Christians as felt the need
of them, and inexpedient for all Gentiles. (See
Essay XIV.)
27. No doubt the plan would have succeeded had
it not been for these "Jews which were of Asia."
33. From this time forth to the close of the
record Paul is a distinguished Roman prisoner. His
imprisonment was in reality rescue, and it was the
providential means of his reaching Rome.
CHAPTER XXII.
1. "Hear ye my defense."
"In this speech to the multitude the apostle gives a
skillfully arranged account of his past experience and
conduct with the view of allaying the fanatical ex
citement of many of the Jews, and of replying to
their unfounded accusations against him. He avows

392 STUDIES IN ACTS
himself to be a Jew both by birth and training;
refers to his fierce persecution of Christians; gives
an account of his wonderful and memorable conver
sion; explains how he was baptized and admitted
into the fellowship of the disciples by a pious Jew,
and refers to his labors among the Gentiles.
Throughout the address he depreciates himself, exalts
Christ, and makes conversion to him an epoch in the
life of the convert. It is interesting to note how the
addresses delivered by Paul on this occasion, and
when brought before Agrippa (Ch. xxvi.), differ
from each other and from the narrative given by
Luke (Ch. ix.), and yet how they harmonize in all
material points. The discrepancies in the several
statements present no serious difficulties to any ex
cept those who seek to find and multiply contradic
tions in Scripture." . . . "It is observable that
in speaking to the Jews from the stairs of the castle
Paul not only uses the Hebrew dialect but gives a
Jewish coloring to the entire narrative; while, when
addressing Agrippa and his associates in the royal
hall, in keeping with the place and parties, he gives
the story a strong Gentile coloring, speaking of the
hostility of the Jews, and of the persecuted Chris
tians as saints." — Ormiston.
12. "Ananias, a devout man according to the
law." "The apostle neglects nothing in his address which
can conciliate his audience, and so he tells them that
the messenger whom God sent to him was ' well

NOTES AND COMMENTS 393
Teported of by all the Jews that dwelt in Damas
cus.' " — Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges.
15. "Thou shalt be his witness unto all men of
what thou hast seen and heard."
This was the Apostle Paul's commission and is to
be compared with that given to the other apostles by
the risen Savior (Matt, xxviii. 19, 20; Mark xvi. 15,
16; Luke xxiv. 46-48).
16. " Be baptized, and wash away thy sins."
Compare this with Titus iii. 5: "According to his
mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration,
and renewing of the Holy Spirit." (Also with Eph.
V. 25-27.)
"Baptism administered to real penitents is both a
means and a seal of pardon. Nor did God ordinarily
in the primitive church bestow this on any, unless
through this means." — Johji Wesley.
22. "They gave him audience unto this word."
The very name Gentile was enough to infuriate
this people. Up to this point Paul prudently re
frained from its use. Immediately when it fell from
his lips the outbreak began. The incident is an indi
cation of the abysmal hatred of the Jews, and it
serves to enhance in our minds the mighty problem
that confronted Paul.
27. "Art thou a Roman? "
" With a wild and cruel fanaticism they shouted,
'Away with him ; away with such a fellow from the
earth; for it is not fit that he should live.' Thus
began one of the most odious and despicable specta-

394 STUDIES IN ACTS
cles which the world can witness, the spectacle of an
Oriental mob, hideous with impotent rage, howling,
cursing, gnashing their teeth, flinging about their
arms, waving and tossing their blue and red robes,
casting dust into the air by handfuls, with all the
furious gesticulations of an uncontrolled fanaticism."
Rescued from the mob by Lysias, and about to be
examined by scourging, Paul appealed to his rights
as a Roman citizen. This rescue and this appeal are
made prominent by Luke. The very words of the
appeal are given, and the startled centurion's
response, "Art thou a Roman?" and the scene has
in it the thrill of tragedy.
"As if the fact were incredible the centurion
added, 'The privilege of citizenship cost me much.'
To this Paul with great dignity replied, ' I have been
a citizen from my birth.' By the Lex Portia Roman
citizens were exempt from all degrading punishment,
such as that of scourging. The words Civus
Romanus sum acted like a magical charm in dis
arming the violence of provincial magistrates. . . .
'It is a crime to bind a Roman citizen; a heinous
iniquity to scourge him; what shall I say to crucify
him?' "According to the Roman law it was death for any
one falsely to assert a claim to the immunities of
citizenship, one of which was exemption from the
lash. ' ' — Ormiston.

NOTES AND COMMENTS 395
CHAPTER XXIII.
2. "With disgraceful illegality Ananias ordered
the officers of the court to smite him on the mouth."
— Farrar.
3. "God shall smite thee, thou whited wall."
"Where," asks St. Jerome, "is that patience of
the Savior, who, as a lamb led to the slaughter, opens
not his mouth; who gently asks the smiter, 'If I
have spoken evil, bear witness to the evil; but if
well, why smitest thou me? ' We are not detracting
from the apostle, but declaring the glory of God,
who, suffering in the flesh, reigns above the wrong
and frailty of the flesh." — Jerome. Quoted by
Farrar. Even the greatest of Christ's servants suffers by
comparison with the Master himself.
" We know from Josephus that Ananias did come
to a violent end. St. Paul calls him ' whited wall '
because he bore the semblance of a minister of
justice, but was not what he seemed. Cp. ' whited
sepulchers' Matt, xxiii. 27." — Cambridge Bible for
Schools and Colleges.
5. "I wist not, brethren, that he was high priest."
How should Paul not know that he was high priest?
"Numerous explanations have been offered. The
most satisfactory, though not free from objections, is
that given by Bengal, Neander, Hackett, Schaff,
Howson and others, which supposes that Paul meant

396 STUDIES IN ACTS
that he did not recollect or consider that it was the
high priest whom he was addressing. . . . Farrar
suggests that in a crowded assembly he had not
noticed who the speaker was. Owing to his weak
ness of sight, all that he saw before him was a
blurred white figure, issuing a brutal order, and to
this person, who, in his external whiteness and in
ward worthlessness, thus reminded him of the plasv
tered wall of a sepulcher, he had addressed his
indignant denunciation."
After the first flash of indignant resentment was
over, Paul immediately resumed his wonted style of
urbane and perfect gentility.
The frankness and dignity of his apology are admir
able, and politic also as showing his familiarity with
the Scriptures and his high regard for them.
6. " I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee."
Farrar thinks Paul's course here was not ingen
uous, and he sees in xxiv. 21, an indication that Paul
himself regretted it. Alford, however, says: " Sure
ly no defense of Paul for adopting this course is
required, but all admiration is due for his skill and
presence of mind."
9. " And there arose a great cry."
What fierce passions, how little self-control, what
an utter lack of the judicial mind in this Jewish San
hedrin I
11. "Be of good cheer, Paul. As thou hast tes
tified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness
also at Rome."

NOTES AND COMMENTS 397
"On this passage Alford has the following excel
lent remarks : By these few words the Lord assured
him of a safe issue of his present troubles, of an
accomplishment of his intention of visiting Rome, of
the certainty that he should preach the Gospel and
bear testimony there. So that they upheld and com
forted him in the uncertainty of his life from the
Jews, in the uncertainty of his liberation from the
prison in Caesarea, in the uncertainty of his surviving
the storm in the Mediterranean, in the uncertainty of
his fate on arriving at Rome. So may one crumb of
divine grace and help be multiplied to feed five
thousand wants and anxieties." — Quoted by Ormiston.
12. " Bound themselves by a great curse."
Perhaps they were piqued at the way in which
Paul had escaped them, and became the more mali
cious. 16. This is the only reference to Paul's relatives
to be found in the New Testament.
23. That a force of 470 soldiers should be de
tailed for this march, indicates the apprehension of
the Roman officials. That such a force could be
spared from Jerusalem on a moment's notice indi
cates the strength of the army that was kept there.
27. "Having understood that he was a Roman."
Lysias did not know that he was a Roman till after
he had rescued Paul. Meyer calls this a lie, and sees
in it a proof of the genuineness of the letter. That
Lysias should warp the truth in this ingenious way
for a purpose, would be quite natural. That an

398 STUDIES IN ACTS
author should create such a fiction with no purpose
in it from his own standpoint would be unaccount
able. Luke recorded what happened.
CHAPTER XXIV.
1. "A certain orator named Tertullus, who in
formed the governor against Paul."
"The Jews, probably because ignorant of Roman
law, engaged the services of a Roman barrister of
eminent ability, persuasive eloquence, and probably
of great reputation, to make the charges against the
apostle. From the outline given of his speech, he
was evidently a practiced pleader, and a voluble,
plausible orator. Augustine says, ' Eloquence is the
gift of God, but the eloquence of a bad man is like
poison in a golden cup!" — Ormiston.
" The language of Tertullus is that of gross flat
tery. History ascribes to Felix a very different char
acter. Both Josephus and Tacitus represent him as
one of the most corrupt and oppressive rulers ever
sent by the Romans into Judea. He deserved some
praise for the vigor with which he suppressed the
bands of robbers by which the country had been
infested. The compliment had that basis, but no
more." — Hackett.
It has been suggested that even this was because
he preferred a monopoly on robbery.
5-9. " Having made an orderly and formal indict
ment against the apostle of treason against Rome,

NOTES AND COMMENTS 399
schism against Moses, and profanity against the gods,
the clever and crafty advocate insinuates that the
Sanhedrin would have judged Paul righteously had
Lysias not interposed, and further gets the elders to
assent to all that he had said." — Ormiston.
10-21. Paul replies definitely to the charges. He
could not have created a sedition against the Roman
government in twelve days. So far from schism they
had found him purified in the temple with gifts and
offerings. As to heresy, he confesses that after the
way which they called a heresy he worshiped God.
This he explains at some length, and pleads a con
science void of offense toward God and man. Before
a Roman tribunal his peculiar way of worshiping
Jehovah would count for nothing. He was claiming
a recognized right.
17. " Now after many years I came to bring alms
to my nation."
"This allusion is very abrupt. It is the first and
only intimation contained in the Acts that Paul had
been taking up contributions on so extensive a plan.
The manner in which the epistles supply this defi
ciency, as Paley has shown (Horse Paulinae), fur
nishes an incontestable proof of the credibility of
the New Testament writers." — Hackett.
26. "Felix trembled."
Tacitus says of Felix: "In the practice of all
kinds of lust, crime and cruelty, he exercised the
power of a king and the temper of a slave."
Respecting Felix and his wife Drusilla, Hackett

400 STUDIES IN ACTS
quotes Josephus as follows: " Agrippa gave his sis
ter Drusilla in marriage to Azizus, king of the
Emesenes, who had consented to be circumcised for
the sake of the alliance. But this marriage of Dru
silla with Azizus was dissolved in a short time, after
this manner. When Felix was procurator of Jud^a
he saw her, and, being captivated with her beauty,
persuaded her to desert her husband, transgress the
laws of her country, and marry himself."
"The fate of this woman," Hackett observes,
" Was singular. She had a son by Felix, and both
the mother and the son were among those who lost
their lives in the eruption of Vesuvius in A. D. 79."
Paul was brought before the bar of Felix, but
Felix trembled before the bar of Paul. He trembled,
but with him as with many another sinner, procras
tination took the place of repentance, and " the
thief of time " was found to be also the thief of the
soul. His groveling nature sought a bribe; the apos
tle offered him heaven and God. He little knew or
cared that ' ' Through all ages and in aU human story
The path of duty is the way to glory. ' '
CHAPTER XXV.
1-5. This was a critical time for Paul. The new
procurator would wish to please the chief men among
the Jews. These wealthy and influential men made
a plausible request, namely, that instead of subject
ing them to the inconvenience of going to Caesarea,

NOTES AND COMMENTS 401
Paul should be brought back to Jerusalem for trial.
"Two years of deferred hopes and obstructed pur
poses and dreary imprisonment had not quenched the
deadly antipathy of the Jews to the man whose free
offer of the Gospel to the Gentiles seemed to them
one of the most fatal omens of their impending
ruin." Their request was to have Paul once more
before the Sanhedrin ; their plan was to assassinate
him. But Festus was not to be trifled with, and
falling back upon the requirements of the Roman
law, he answered that Paul was kept in charge at
Caesarea (Revised Version). Once more under the
laws of Rome, the assassins were thwarted and Paul
was saved. Meyer asks us to notice the contrast be
tween Jewish baseness and the strict order of the
Roman government.
9. Festus, knowing Paul's rights as a Roman citi
zen, can do no more than propose to release him
from all charges before the Roman laWj and request
him to go to Jerusalem for trial upon charges before
the Sanhedi'in.
10. " I am standing before Caesar's judgment
seat." See Essay XII.
13. This was Herod Agrippa II., son of Herod
Agrippa I., whose tragical death is related in xii. 20-
24. He was grandson of Aristobulus, and great-
grandson of Herod the Great. It is well understood
that his sister Bernice was living with him in a
criminal way. " She was noted for her beauty and
proflif^acy. Luke's accuracy in introducing her at
"26

402 STUDIES IN ACTS
this stage of the history is worthy of remark. After
a brief marriage with her first husband, she became
the wife of Herod, her uncle, king of Chalcis, and on
his death remained for a time with her brother,
Agrippa. Her third marriage with Polemon, king of
Cilicia, she soon dissolved, and returned to her
brother not long before the death of the emperor
Claudius (A,. D. 54). She could have been with
Agrippa, therefore, in the time of Festus, as Luke
represents in our narrative. Her subsequent connec
tion with Vespasian and Titus made her name
familiar to Roman writers. Several of them, Taci
tus, Suetonius, and Juvenal, either mention her ex-
]3ressly or allude to her." — Hackett.
This Agrippa sided with the Romans in the war
against Jerusalem. After the fall of the city he
retired to Rome with his sister Bernice, and there
died in 100 A. D.
23. See Comment on xxvi. 1.
26. "Unto my lord."
Gloag says: "In the use of this title we have an
instance of the extreme accuracy of the historian of
the Acts."
"This title was declined by the first two emperors,
Augustus and Tiberias. Caligula (37-41) accepted it,
but it 'was not a recognized title of any emperor
before Domitian (81-96). . . . Antoninus Pius
(138-161) was the first who put this title on his coins.
Polycarp, who was a contemporary of some of the

NOTES AND COMMENTS 403
apostles, and who suffered martyrdom at an advanced
age, refused to utter it." — Ormiston.

CHAPTER XXVI.
1. "Then Paul stretched forth the hand, and an
swered for himself."
"It was not, as commonly represented, a new trial.
That would have been on all grounds impossible.
Agrippa was without judical functions, and the
authority of the procurator had been cut short by the
appeal. It was more in the nature of a private, or
drawing-room audience — a sort of show occasion,
designed for the amusement of these princely guests,
and the idle aristocracy of Caesarea, both Jewish and
Gentile. Festus had ordered the auditorium to be
prepared for the occasion, and invited all the chief
officers of the army and the principal inhabitants of
the town (xxv. 23). The Herods were fond of show,
and Festus gratified their humor by a grand pro
cessional display." — Farrar.
6. Paul claims that Christianity is the true fruit
age of Judaism.
8. A sudden and impassioned appeal, and an un
answerable argument in favor of the resurrection.
10, ll. An intimation of the extent of Paul's work
of persecution, and a proof that he was implicated
in the death of others than Stephen.
12-19. Paul's second account of the Christophany
at the time of his conversion, the first having been

404 STUDIES IN ACTS
given in Hebrew before the angry Jews in Jerusalem
(xxii. 5-11).
"There are some differences between this speech
and the one made on the stairs of the castle in Jeru
salem. The contradictions are only apparent and
vanish before a little scrutiny. Here before Agrippa
Paul does not hesitate to call the disciples whom he
had persecuted, saints, holy persons (v. 10), a term
which would have been resented had it been used in
the former speech before the mob. There he said
instead 'men and women' (xxii. 4). In describing
the scene on the Damascus road some particulars not
given before are mentioned. The light was 'above
the brightness of the sun.' They 'all' fell to the
ground. The voice spake to him 'in the Hebrew
tongue.' It said, 'It is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks.' These particulars would go to show
before Agrippa that in that sublime moment Paul
was calm and self-possessed. He noted everything.
He did not fall down in a swoon. All fell before the
power of the light. It was not a delusion, not a
mere vision. It was a sensible reality." — Stifler.
Paul begins and ends his account of the Chris
tophany with a respectful address to the king (vv.
13 and 19).
20-23. "Paul was now launched on the full tide
of the sacred and impassioned oratory which was so
powerful an agent in his mission work. He was
delivering to kings and governors and chief captains

NOTES AND COMMENTS 405
that testimony which was the chief object of his
Iif e . ' ' — Farrar .
24. " Festus saw that nature was not working in
Paul; grace he did not see."
"His profane mind remained wholly unaffected by
the holy inspiration of the strange speaker, and took
his utterances as the whims of a mind perverted by
much study from the equilibrium of sound under
standing. ' ' — Meyer.
25. Paul was rudely interrupted, but his reply was
admirable. His speech was marred, but his courtesy
was perfect.
28. "Then Agrippa said unto Paul, with but little
persuasion thou wouldest fain make me a Christian"
(Eevised Version).
Herod must have uttered the word "Christian"
with a good-natured sneer, mingled of Jewish preju
dice and Roman pride.
" The king is of course well-meaning enough not to
take amiss the burning words, but also as a luxurious
man of the world, sufficiently estranged from what is
holy instantly to banish the transiently felt impres
sion with haughtily contemptuous mockery." —
Meyer. "Doubtless his polished remark on this compen
dious style of making converts sounded very witty to
that distinguished company, and they would with
difficulty suppress their laughter at the notion that
Agrippa, favorite of Claudius, friend of Nero, King
of Chalcis, Ituria, Trachonitis, nominator of the high

406 STUDIES IN ACTS
priest, and supreme guardian of the temple treasures,
should succumb to the potency of this ' short method
with a Jew.' That Paul should make the king a
Christian (!) would sound too ludicrous. But the
laugh would be instantly suppressed in pity and
admiration of the poor but noble prisoner, as with
perfect dignity he took advantage of Agrippa's am
biguous expression, and said, with all the fervent sin
cerity of a loving heart, 'I could pray to God that
whether in little or in much not thou only, but even
all who are listening to me this day might become
even such as I am except — he added as he raised his
fettered hand — except these bonds.' They saw that
this was indeed no common prisoner; one who could
argue as he had argued, and speak as he had spoken;
one who was so filled with the exaltation of an inspir
ing idea, so enriched with the happiness of a firm
faith and a peaceful conscience, that he could tell
them how he prayed that they all — all those princely
and distinguished people — could be even such as he —
and who yet in the spirit of entire forgiveness desired
that the sharing of his faith might not involve the
sharing of his sorrows and misfortunes — must be
such a one as they never yet had seen or known
either in the worlds of Jewry or heathendom." —
Farrar. Paul does not resent the name Chrisiian; he
accepts and defends it. Herod's use of it shows that
it had traveled far beyond the city of its origin.

NOTES AND COMMENTS 407
"No more he feels upon his high-raised arm
The ponderous chain, than does the playful child
The bracelet formed of many a flowery link ;
Heedless of self, forgetful that his life
Is now to be defended by his words,
He only thinks of doing good to them
That seek his lite." — Graham.

CHAPTER XXVII.
1. "A convoy of prisoners was starting for Rome
under charge of a centurion of the Augustan cohort,
and a detachment of soldiers, and Paul was sent
along with it. He, of course, occupied a very differ
ent position from the other prisoners. He was a
man of distinction, a Roman citizen who had ap
pealed for trial to the supreme court of Rome. The
others had been in all probability condemned to
death, and were going to supply the perpetual de
mand which Rome made on the provinces for human
victims to amuse the populace by their death in the
arena. Luke uses the first person throughout the narra
tive, and he was therefore in Paul's company. But
how was this permitted? It is hardly possible to sup
pose that the prisoner's friends were allowed to
accompany him. Pliny mentions a case in point.
Paetus was brought a prisoner from Illiricum to
Rome, and his wife Arria vainly begged to accompany
him; several slaves were permitted to go with him as
waiter's, valets, etc., and Arria offered herself alone
to perform all their duties; but her prayer was

408 STUDIES IN ACTS
refused. The analogy shows how Luke and Aris
tarchus accompanied Paul. They must have gone as
his slaves, not merely performing the duties of slaves
(as Arria offered to do), but actually passing as
slaves. In this way not merely had Paul faithful
friends always beside him; but his importance in the
eyes of the centurion was enhanced, and that was of
great importance. The narrative clearly implies that
Paul enjoyed much respect during this voyage, such
as a penniless traveler without a servant to attend
him would never receive either in the first century or
the nineteenth." — Ramsay.
2. Aristarchus. See xix. 29; xx. 4; Col. iv. 10,
and Philem. 24. How gladly would we know more
of this man who was such a faithful companion of
Paul during the last chapters of his history! The
term "fellow-prisoner" in Col. iv. 10 may be used by
Paul as an emphatic and tender compliment to his
constant friendship.
For a paragraph on this interesting voyage the
reader must be referred to Essay XIL ; for a close
study of it, to Prof. Ramsay's work already many
times quoted.
9. "The fast." The fast of the Day of Atone
ment. This fast fell, according to Prof. Ramsay, on
Oct. 5th, 59. It was observed by Paul and Aris
tarchus and is used by Luke as a note of time, show
ing that the season was so far advanced as to make
navigation dangerous. After Nov. 11, all navigation
on the open sea was discontinued.

NOTES AND COMMENTS 409
14. " But not long after there arose a tempestuous
<typhonic) wind, called Euraquilo " (Revised Ver
sion). "Before they got half way across the open bay
(seventeen miles from shore to shore) there came a
sudden change, such as is characteristic on that sea,
where 'southerly winds almost invariably shift to a
violent northerly wind.' There struck down from
the Cretan mountains, which towered above them to
the height of over 7,000 feet, a sudden eddying squall
from about east north-east. Every one who has any
experience sailing on lakes and bays overhung by
mountains will appreciate the epithet 'typhonic,'
which Luke uses. As a ship captain recently said to
me in relating an anecdote of his own experience in
Cretan waters, ' The wind comes down from those
mountains fit to blow the ship out of the water.' " —
!Ra7nsay. 19, " With our own hands we threw away aU the
ship's fittings and equipment." " This verse is a
climax. It records the extreme act of sacrifice. The
first person used in the Authorized Version occurs
only in some less authoritative MSS., but greatly
increases the effect. The sailors threw overboard
part of the cargo; and the passengers and supernu
meraries, in eager anxiety to do something, threw
overboard whatever movables they found, which was
of little or no practical use, but they were eager to do
something. This makes a striking picture of growing
panic; but the third person which appears in the

410 STUDIES IN ACTS
great MSS., is ineffective, and makes no climax." —
Ramsay.
21-26. Paul's action here is that of one whose
soul is calmed by faith, and whose God answers
prayer. Paul held the secret of heroism.
" God hath given thee all them that are with thee."
Evidently Paul had been praying for this. He who
calmed the sea of Galilee could grant an answer to
Paul's prayers for the souls of his fellows in the
storm. 31. Here and in verse 11 the centurion is repre
sented as in chief command of the ship. Prof.
Ramsay says:
"To our modern ideas the captain is supreme on
the deck of his ship . . . Here the ultimate
decision lies with the centurion, and he takes the
advice of the captain. The centurion therefore is
represented as the commanding officer, which implies
that the ship was a government ship, and the cen
turion ranked as the highest officer on board. That
doubtless is true to the facts of Roman service. The
provisioning of the vast city of Rome, situated in a
country where farming had ceased to pay owing to
the ruinous foreign competition in grain, was the
most serious and pressing department of the Imperial
administration. Whatever else the Emperor might
neglect, this he could not neglect and live. In the
urban populace he was holding a wild beast by the
ear; and, if he did not feed it, the beast would tear
him to pieces. With ancient means of transport the

NOTES AND COMMENTS 411
task was a hundred times harder than it would be
now ; and the service of ships on which Rome was
entirely dependent was not left to private enterprise,
but was a state department."
33. On board ship during a storm there is great
inconvenience in getting food, and with many not
much inclination to take it. For these reasons the
fourteen days was a practical though not an absolute
fast. "What the apostle means is that the crew and
passengers had taken during all that time no regular
food, only snatching a morsel now and then when
they were able, and that of something which had not
been prepared." — Cambridge Bible for Schools and,
Colleges. 35. A sublime act. Amidst the storp, upon a
creaking and heaving vessel no longer sea-worthy,
among faces pale and haggard with fear, there is one
man who is calm, prayerful, thankful; who praises
God while breaking bread, and by word and example
encourages others to be calm and to eat. "Like the
father of a family among those at table," says
Meyer. 44. " So it came to pass that all escaped safe to
land." " Only the rarest conjunction of favorable
circumstances could have brought about such a for
tunate ending of their apparently hopeless situation ;
and one of the completest services that has been ren
dered to New Testament scholarship is James-
Smith's proof (Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul)

412 STUDIES IN ACTS
that all these circumstances are united in St. Paul's
Bay. The only difficulty to which he has applied a
rather violent solution is the sandy beach; at the
traditional point where the ship was run ashore
there is no sandy beach; but he considers that it is
' now worn away by the wasting action of the sea. '
On this detail only local knowledge would justify a
decision. ' ' — Ramsay.
"If the assumption of the school of Bauer as to
the set purpose animating the book of Acts were cor
rect, this narrative of the voyage, with all its collat
eral circumstances in such detail, would be a mean
ingless ballast of the book. But it justifies itself in
the purely historical destination of the work, and
confirms that destination." — Meyer.
" Ridge of the mountain wave, lower thy crest!
Wail of Euraquilo, be thou at restl
Sorrow can never be, darkness must fly,
"Where saith the Light of light. Peace! It is I."
— Greek hymn of Anatoliug. Quoted by SOtaf.
CHAPTER XXVni.
1. *'They knew that the island was called Melita."
Modern Malta. At present there can be no doubt
about the identification of this island.
"The objections which have been advanced, that
there are now no vipers on the island, and only one
place where any wood grows, are too trivial to de
serve notice. Such changes are natural and probable

NOTES AND COMMENTS 413
in a small island, populous and long civilized." —
Ramsay.
2. "The term 'barbarians' is characteristic of
the nationality of the writer. It does not indicate
rudeness or uncivilized habits, but merely non-Greek
birth. It is difficult to imagine that a Syrian or a
Jew or any one but a Greek would have applied the
name to the people of Malta, who had been in con
tact with the Phoenicians and the Romans for many
centuries." — Ramsay.
7. " Chief man of the island, whose name was
Publius." This is another of the noble Roman.s
whom we are accustomed to meet so frequently in
the book of Acts. The Apostle Paul richly repays
his hospitality.
11. "A ship of Alexandria." A government
corn-ship plying between Egypt and Rome. (See
note on xxvii. 31.)
14. " . . Puteoli, where we found brethren. "
"Puteoli, as a great harbor, was a central point
and a crossing of intercourse; and thus Christianity
had already established itself there. All movements
of thought throughout the Empire acted with mar
velous rapidity on Rome, the heart of the vast and
complicated organism; and the crossing-places or
knots on the main highways of intercourse with the
East, Puteoli, Corinth, Ephesus, Syrian Antioch —
became centers from which Christianity radiated." —
Ramsay.
" The concession of a seven days' stay so near the

414 STUDIES IN ACTS
end of the journey, testifies how much Paul possessed
the love and confidence of the centurion." — Meyer.
During these seven days the brethren in Rome
could easily be notified of Paul's progress toward
the city.
15. The Three Taverns was about 33 miles out
from Rome, and Appii Forum about 40. Paul had
never before been welcomed and escorted thus to a
city. Rome was an " epitome of the inhabited
world," and Paul had long desired to visit it as the
climax of his labors. How ardently he must have
approached the city! and with what misgivings as a
prisoner in chains! How many doubts must have
risen in his mind! Had his Jewish enemies com
municated with the authorities, or with the Jewish
Christians? Would the church receive him at all?
Would his old friends and former fellow-workers,
some of whom had drifted to Rome, welcome him?
Ah, they knew his heart, and they knew his circum
stances, and they did a most gracious thing in going
out to greet and welcome him.
16. "Captain of the guard."
" The Greek title Stratopedarch very rarely
occurs; and it remained for Mommsen, aided by the
form given in an old Latin version, Princeps Peri-
grinorum, to explain who the officer really was, and
to place the whole episode of Paul's Roman impris
onment in a new light.
"Augustus had reduced to a regular system the
maintenance of communications bet-ween the center

NOTES AND COMMENTS 415
of control in Rome and the armies stationed in the
great frontier provinces. Legionary centurions, com
monly called frumentarii, went to and fro between
Rome and the armies, and were employed for numer
ous purposes that demanded communication between
the Emperor and his armies and provinces. They
acted not only for commissariat purposes (whence
the name), but as couriers, and for police purposes,
and for conducting prisoners; and in time they
became detested as agents and spies of the govern
ment. They all belonged to legions stationed in the
provinces, and were considered to be on detached
duty when they went to Rome; and hence in Rome
they were 'soldiers from abroad,' perigrini. While
in Rome they resided in a camp on the Oselian Hill,
called Castra Perigrinorum. In this camp there
were always a number of them present, changing
from day to day, as some came and others went
away. This camp was under the command of the
P7'inceps Perigrinorum; and it is clear that Strato
pedarch in Acts is the Greek name for that officer."
— Ramsay.
17-31. For material upon these verses the reader
is referred to the last pages of Essay XII.
"During the two years of his imprisonment Paul
regarded himself as 'an ambassador in a chain'
(Eph. vi. 20); he asked the prayers of the Colossian
and Asian churches generally for his success in
preaching; his tone is hopeful, and full of energy
and spirit for the work (Col. iv. 3, 4), and he looked

416 STUDIES I*f ACTS
forward to acquittal and a visit to Colossae (Philem..
22")."— Ramsay.
"The presence of many friends in Rome also
cheered Paul. He had been permitted to take two
personal attendants with him from Caesarea; but
though his other companions in Jerusalem were pre
vented from accompanying him in his voyage, some
of them followed him to Rome. Timothy was with
him during the great part of his imprisonment, was
sent on a mission to Philippi about the end of 61
(Phil. ii. 19), and thereafter seems to have had his
headquarters in Asia, whence he was summoned by
Paul to join him during his second imprisonment.
Tychicus also joined Paul in Rome in 60, and was
sent on a mission to Asia, and especially to the
churches of the Lycos valley, early in 61. They
probably left Caesarea when Paul sailed for Rome,
visited on the way their own homes, and arrived in
Rome not long after Paul himself." — Ramsay.
It is pleasing to note that Mark visited Paul in
Rome (Col. iv. 10), and that Paul commends him
warmly to the Christians whom he expected to meet
in Asia, and even took pains to send oral commenda
tions beforehand in his behalf. With these glimpses
of friendship and reunion, and of forgetting and for
giving, and of "care for all the churches," the life of
Paul passes from the pages of history.
"Paul at Rome! Climax of the Gospel! End of
Acts ! Victory of the word of God I ' ' — Bengel.

INDEX

Advent, second, 320.
Agabus, 139.
Amos, quoted, 149.
Ampliitheater, 185.
Ananias and Sappliira, 83.
Angel, of the Church, 280.
Antioch, iu Syria, 123 f .
Antiochus, Epipanes, death of,
153.
Apostles, Christological teach
ing of, 54.
Aquila, 234.
Aristarchus, 250.
Arnold, quoted, 189.
Athens, 227.
Atonement, 23, 46, 59, 60.
Augustine, quoted, 140.
Baptism, 45, 51, 52, 224, 314, 319,
346.
Baptism, household, 374.
Baptism, Infant, 375.
Baptism, culmination of conver
sion, 117.
Barnabas, 129, 159.
Berea, church established, 227. '
Blasphemy, final, 73.
Brace, Charles L/oring, quoted,
137, 187.
Browning, Mrs. quoted, 233.
Brutus, suicide of, 223.
Campbell, A., quoted, 274.
Carey, William, 177, 224.
Carlyle, quoted, 43, 232.
Charles IX., of France, death of,
154.
Christian, the name, 134, 355, .356,
406.
Christophany, of Stephen, 96.
Chronology, of Acts, 17.
Chrysostom, 39.
Church, a praying brotherhood,
63.
Church, benefactions of, 67.
Church, basis of membership in,
52.
Church, social soul of, 67.

Cicero, quoted, 124.
Civilization, Greek, 188.
Claudius, edict of, 18.
Commission, Cbrist's, 30.
Communion Service, 58, 61.
Communism, 65, 66, 140, 326 f
Confession, the good, 346.
Conversion, 318.
Cook, Joseph, quoted, 218, 221.
Cornelius, conversion of, 105 f,
character of, 115.
Covetousness, :i'i!>,
Corinth, described, 233.
Cowper, quoted, '2H.
Grafts, Rev. 'Wilbur F., quoted,
3()S.
Creasy, quoted, 189.
Creed, Apostles'. .54, 80.
Crown, of thorns, 31.
Crucifixion, 36.
Deacons. 90, 280.
Demas, 251.
Denominations, 135.
De Rressense, quoted, 213.
Diana, temple of, 383.
Dorner, quoted, 43.
Ebionites, -214.
Edersheim, quoted, 107, 304, 306.
Edwards, Jonathan, 39.
Elders, 280.
Elders, appointed, 230.
Elymas, the sorcerer, 192.
Epaphras, 250.
Epicureans, 139, 328.
Eunuch, baptism of, 107.
Evidence, cumulative, 148.
Exorcism, 381.
Expediency, 284, 332.
Famine, in Jerusalem, 136, 294.
Farrar, quoted, 183, 207, 209, 238.
Felix, 19.
Festus, 19.
Fisher, Prof. George P., quoted,
154.
Forgiveness, 24, 75, 78, 100, 319.
(See remission).

(27)

417

418

INDEX

Fortune, goddess ol, 139.
Future, the, 306.
Gallio, 236.
Gamaliel, 84, 330.
Gibbon, quoted, 247.
Godet, quoted, 184, 302.
Gospel, universal, 109.
Government, Roman, 188.
Hackett, Dr. Hoi-atio B., quoted,
16, 17, 311.
Hades, 313.
Hatred, 111.
Herder, quoted, 43.
Herod Agrippa I., 144.
Herod Agrippa I., death of, 152.
Herod Antipas, 145.
Herod the Great, 145.
Heroism, of the martyrs, 84.
Holy Spirit, historic presence of,
12.
Holy Spirit, promise of, 31.
Holy Spirit, guidance of, 113, 117.
Holy Spirit, in the church, 259 f.
Impurity, of pagan worship, 211.
Inspiration, 93, 310.
Isaiah, quoted, 118.
Jailer, converted, 225.
James, the brotlier of the Lord,
209.
James, the martyr apostle, 143 f.
Jerusalem, destruction of, 214.
Jerusalem, superseded by Anti
och, 219.
Jesus, a reality, 24.
Jesus, messiahship of, 31.
Jesus, Lamb of God, 35.
Jesus, unique life of, 36.
Jesus, Lord and Christ, 44.
Jesus, fellowship ol, .57.
Jesus, love of, 59.
Jesus, hated, 76.
Jesus, method of, 99,
Jesus, on the Cross, 100.
Jesus, prediction of, 1.50.
.Tews, mockery of, 71.
John the Baptist, 34, 61.
John the Baptist, message of, 149.
.Tudsou, Adoniram, 177.
Justification, 366.
Justin Martyr, 84.
Kurtz, quoted, 285, 289, 309, 315.
Law and Gospel, 92.
Latimer, 84, 88.
Lazarus, resurrection of, 76.
Liberty, false, 139.

Livingstone, David, 177.
Lord's Day, 109.
Lord's Supper, 316.
Love, Christian, 30, 78.
Love, as a principle of unity,
293 f.
Loyalty, to Christ, 132.
Luther, quoted, 84, 197.
Luke, author of Acts, 15, 16.
Lydia, converted, 223.
Macaulay, quoted, 184.
Martvn, Henry, 177.
Matthias, 307.
Milton, quoted, 42.
Ministry, 362.
Miracles, 43, 75, 81.
Miraculous, the, 20.
Mishna, 324.
Missions, defended, 126.
Moloch, 339.
Mystery, of the Gospel, 118.
Neander, quoted, 50, 203.
Necessity, intellectual, 13.
Nero, 144.
Nero, death of, 154.
Nero, Paul before, 242.
Nero, burning of Rome, 248.
Ordination, 370.
Orthodoxy, 79, 80.
Paganism, ancient, 181.
Paley, William, 305.
Parousia, 319.
Patronus, Patrona, 285.
Parker, Joseph, quoted, 202.
Paul, characterized, 15.
appeal to Caesar, 19, 241 ;
conversion of, 1 66, 347 f ;
early date of Epistles, 21 ;
as a martyr, 84 ; brought to
Antioch, 133 ; sent out with
Barnabas, 159; primacy of,
161 ; endowments of, 165 ;
apostle of emancipation,
168; preaching in Pisidian
Antioch, 194; in Iconium,
197; in Lystra, 198; crosses
the ^Egean, 221 ; in Athens,
229 ; connection with Roman
officials, 343; imprisonment
in Rome, 247; not penniless,
253; as organizer aud uni
fier, 275 f; change of name,
363; character of, 389; in the
storm, 411; companions in
Rome, 416.

INDEX

419

Pentecost, 31.
Pentecost, sermon on, 33.
Pentecost, preparation for, 34.
Pentecost, birthday of the church,
105.
Persecution, 75. 79, 80, 99, 125.
Peter, the apostle, 40.
Peter, primacy of, 84, 160.
Peter, true Jew, 112, 114.
Peter, revelations to, 116.
Peter, defense of Gentile Chris
tianity, 208.
Phariseeism, 76.
Piiebe, Patrona, 285.
Poetry, 43.
Prayer, unspiritual, 31.
Prayer, in tlie first church, 63, 64,
83, 151.
Progress, 128.
Prophecy, Messianic, 30.
Pulpit, prostitution of, 38.
Pulpit, sacredness of, 39.
Pulpit, themes of, 40, 44.
Rabbinical Schools, 333.
Ramsay, Prof. W. M., quoted 13,
14, .17, 18, 20, 206, 220, 246, 253,
,301.
Ramsay, theory stated, 244.
Reality, the soul ol religion, 24.
Remission of sins, 46.
Renan, quoted, 124, 145, 232.
Repentance, 46.
Resurrection of Jesus, 35, 36, 305.
312.
Resurrection of Jesus, effect upon
the Jews, 71.
Retaliation, 75.
Romans, hated by the Jews, 112.
Rome, 347.
Ruskin, quoted, 61, 333.
Sabbath, Jewish, 109.
Sabattier, quoted, 85, 104, 158,
. 318, 240, 283.

Sacrifice, human, 340.
Sadduceeism, 77.
Samaritans, conversion of, 108
Sanday, Prof., quoted, 315.
Sanhedrin, described, 83.
Sanhedrin, maxim of, 89.
Schaff, quoted, 43, 122, 311, 314,
317.
Scribes, learning of, 321.
Sectarianism, 136.
Sergius Paulus, 192.
Silas, 213, 220, 291.
Slaves, in the Roman Empire, 185.
Smith, Henry B., quoted, 43.
Sorcerers, 192, 193, 343.
Stephen, martyrdom of, 89 f.
Stoicism, 139, 229.
Strauss, 22.
Succession, apostolic, .54.
Sunday, 307.
Synagogue, model of the church,
281.
Tanners, unclean, 113.
Tennyson, quoted, 42.
Theology, systematic, 23.
Theophany, of Stephen, 96.
Thessalonica, church established,
226.
Timothy, student ol Paul, 250.
Titus, student ol Paul, 250.
Torquemada, 130.
Traditionalism, 127, 322, 331.
Tubingen, theory, 13.
Uncleanness, ceremonial, 354.
Union, Gliristian, 52, 388.
Venus, worship of, 211.
Victor Hugo, quoted, 145.
Way, the, 22.
Weiss, quoted, 306.
We-narratives, 16.
Whittier, quoted, 42, 306.
Woman, treatment of among the
ancients, 368, 374, 376, 378.

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