Acts 24:10-25

Chapter 88

Prayer

Almighty God, we would hide ourselves in thy love. Thy love is an infinite pavilion in which there is defence for every trustful soul. We say this in the triumph given unto us by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. We need no other refuge; we are at rest in thy love. Receive us, every one, and give every heart to feel the joy of Divine and infinite security. We love thy name. We look up unto the hills whence cometh our help, and, behold, they are higher than our imagining, stronger than all we can think the hills of God, the mountains of light, the everlasting fortresses which give protection to the souls loving the Saviour and living in him. Come to us this new year and make it the brightest of all our time. Thou hast yet more wondrous things to do in us and by us and for us. Thy miracles are not ended; thy revelations are not spent; thou still hast the light that can enlarge our outlook and make us glad with higher joy. We will not believe that the fountain of thy grace can be dried up; we will look for the living water, and looking, we shall surely find it there is a look of the heart which thou canst not deny. We, therefore, come in quest of the living stream, the holy river the blessed gift of God to the thirst of the immortal soul. We come in the name that is above every name, and, therefore, we shall not be sent empty away. We have victory assured in the name which we breathe. The name of Jesus cannot fail if we pronounce it with our faith and love; it is an answer to our prayer, a fulfilment of our desire, an inspiration of our truest hope. Show us that the name of Jesus Christ is full of riches, full of grace, full of meaning. May we dwell upon it; may we appeal to it continually that it may answer us with great replies and satisfy us with infinite satisfactions. We would be led farther into the heavenly fields than yet we have travelled; we would see brighter visions than yet we have gazed upon; we would hear the innermost voice and music of thy truth that steals upon the listening soul and gives delight in secret, causing the life to be filled with new courage that it may fight God's battles in the open day. Wherein we have done evil, let the Lord be pitiful unto us, and astonish us by renewals of grace; may the hill of our sin be overshadowed by the infinite mountains of God's grace. Where sin abounds, may grace much more abound, so as to cast into forgetfulness the mistakes, the infirmities, the errors, and the crimes of our life. This is our one hope: that Christ is stronger than our enemy, Christ is richer in resources than the foe plighted to be against us evermore. We will trust in Christ, we will rest in Christ, we will hide ourselves behind Christ; we have no other hope; we ask no other defence. Thou knowest our desires, our necessities; thou knowest our innermost thought and wish. Thou wilt give us answers according to thy reading of our hearts, lather than to our utterance of desire. Thou wilt say, "No," where it is good for us that our prayer should be rejected. Thou wilt correctly read all the circumstances which make up our life, and to them, in all their wondrous combination and inexpressible meaning, thou wilt give the answer of thy love. Hold thou us up, and we shall be safe. Wherein we have done wrong, pity us; wherein we have done aright, the praise be thine, for we did it against ourselves and against an infinite pressure. This is thy miracle, and we will praise it as the wonder of heaven. Wherein thou hast said in thy counsel, "This year thou shalt die," make the way easy, make the downward slope a gentle one, and send such mitigations of fear as shall turn apprehension into triumph. Wherein thou hast called any of us to new trial or suffering or endurance, may we bear it heroically as men sustained by grace Divine, and encouraged by exceeding great and precious promises. Let thy blessing go forth to our houses, to our sick-chamber, to all the little ones, whose prayers are best because they are wordless, and are but upward looks with meaning in them thou alone canst understand. Go with those who have gone far away, who have joined themselves unto citizens in countries where there is no cross, no Christ, no knowledge of God. Bring back the wanderer whilst we hold the door open to receive him. The Lord make us glad this year because lost children are born again unto us, and wanderers are come home. Upon the whole Church, redeemed with blood, let the mercy and the grace and the peace of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost rest in multiplied abundance. Bring all believing hearts nearer to God. Establish in love and confidence and union all who name the name of Jesus Christ. And thus, as the years come and go yea, go in their coming-may we grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and find, at last, that we have been all the while undergoing preparation, not for death, but for higher life, for wider service, for profounder worship. Amen.

Act 24:10-25

10. Then Paul, after that the governor had beckoned unto him to speak, answered, Forasmuch as I know that thou has been of many years a judge unto this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself:

11. Because that thou mayest understand, that there are yet but twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem for to worship.

12. And they neither found me in the temple disputing with any man, neither raising up the people, neither in the synagogues, nor in the city:

13. Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me.

14. But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets:

15. And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.

16. And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men.

17. Now after many years I came to bring alms to my nation, and offerings.

18. Whereupon certain Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple, neither with multitude, nor with tumult,

19. Who ought to have been here before thee, and object, if they had ought against me.

20. Or else let these same here say if they have found any evil-doing in me while I stood before the council,

21. Except it be for this one voice, that I cried standing among them, Touching the resurrection of the dead, I am called in question by you this day.

22. And when Felix heard these things, having more perfect knowledge of that way, he deferred them, and said, When Lysias the chief captain shall come down, I will know the uttermost of your matter.

23. And he commanded a centurion to keep Paul, and to let him have liberty, and that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him.

24. And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ.

25. And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.

Paul's Inspired Method

This whole chapter may enable us to see some new and illustrative views of the spirit and character of the Apostle Paul. We begin to see somewhat of the gigantic stature of his mind; but the loftiness of the mountain must not lead us to overlook the fine mosses and delicate flowers with which its base is so exquisitely enamelled. It is difficult for many people to see more than one feature in a character; they become prejudiced in favour of one view of the mind, and that prejudice excludes features quite as great as any which have been perceived. The character of Paul, for example, is as fine in texture as it is vast in bulk. When men speak of Jeremiah, they think of him as the weeping prophet, forgetting that in the prophecies of Jeremiah are some of the finest poems ever dreamed by human imagination. But you will never persuade the world that Jeremiah did anything but cry. So with the Apostle Paul: a prejudice has been formed respecting him as a reasoner, a theologian, a man mighty in debate. The truth is, no man in all the New Testament but One had a heart so great, so tender, so womanly; but you will never persuade the Church that Paul was anything but a theological fighter. This is distressing: it hinders the progress of Christian education. It represents our own nature, nevertheless, and shows us to ourselves, revealing the impossibility of our taking in more than one view of any many-sided character. Look at the incident before us as contributing somewhat to the elucidation of the finer and more fibrous lines that made up the life, the soul, the inspiration, and the service of the great Apostle.

Look at the contrast between Paul's introduction and the preface of Tertullus. Christianity makes gentlemen; Christianity is the religion of delicateness, refinement, subtlety of spiritual excellence. It put a fire into Paul's weak eyes that nothing else could have put there. Christianity changes the visage, the voice, the touch; it makes new creatures. Wherein we are vulgar, common, ill-looking, we are not Christians; we do but show the space which Christianity has yet to cover and to conquer, and, blessed be God, it will do so. It will change our vile body and make it like unto the typical Body, full of glory; on the road it performs intermediate miracles and sets up symbolic signs, full of earnest and pledge. Tertullus began cringingly, fulsomely, falsely. He told Felix things which Felix knew were not true, but they were men standing on the same level, and they were not critical when the vanity of the one was excited and the falsehood of the other was prepared to minister to it.

The governor having haughtily inclined his head towards the prisoner in sign that he might speak now a haughty Roman nod Paul said, "Forasmuch as I know that thou hast been of many years a judge unto this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself." Felix had not been judge a great many years, but he had been judge more than about twice the usual time, and Paul recognised that fact, forasmuch as it was the only compliment he was able to pay the corrupt governor. It was a circumstance over which Felix had next to no control. A man cannot help being the senior member of a company. Beautiful the genius, subtle and not false the flattery, which recognises his seniority as if it were an excellence! Christianity is courteous never rough; recognising whatever can be recognised in the way of excellence, or continuance of service, but never stooping to drag its own crown in the mire.

In this introduction you have one of the lines in Paul's character. Look at the temper which Paul displayed under what we may call this hurricane of abuse. He has just been called "a pestilent fellow," "a mover of sedition," and "a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes," a profaner of the temple, and then he is asked to speak for himself. There is no excitement in his reply, there is no resentment; he contents himself with denial and with challenging proof. Some charges you can only deny. There is nothing so easy as to bring a charge against a man, and all that is left to him, in proportion to his innocence, is the poor opportunity of saying, "This is not true." But the world is slow to learn that lesson. The world has read the Bible, and has been struck with the instances in which innocent men have been basely charged with infamous crimes, and, whilst the world is quite willing to believe that four thousand years ago innocent men may have been charged falsely, the world will not believe that about its own contemporaries. It is a wicked world! What has Paul to say in reply to these accusatory statements? Nothing, except, to say they are not true, any one of them, and, therefore, the men who speak them are liars. That is a poor defence; yet that is the only defence possible. Any man is placed at an infinite disadvantage who has to answer charges in which there is no truth. Were there the slightest particle of truth, he could out of that particle make a great defence; but when the charges of pestilence, sedition, ringleadership, profanity, are only pure and simple lies from end to end, part of his defence is in his quietness, no small part of his defence is in the absence of vindictive-ness. Fury would have created suspicion, and resentment would have been an argument on the other side; but the quietness of the consciousness of innocence and utter absence of anything like undignified feeling these must be taken as contributing to the establishment of an irrefragable proof that an innocent man was in the presence of Felix.

Look at the manner in which the personal defence is made to create room for the doctrinal exposition. Paul does not spend much time upon himself: he hastens away to speak of larger things and larger interests. We have seen this to be the habit of Paul; he will not tarry over little things; he is in haste to accomplish a sublime purpose and issue. This is his spirit now. The larger consideration always ruled Paul; in his view, the whole world was only made for the one purpose of receiving the kingdom of Christ. Why do we not take our rule from his magnanimous method? Do not defend yourself, but preach and live, expound and exemplify the truth. There is a view in which it is a very small thing as to what any man is or does; when the man is innocent, there is nothing more trifling than that he should begin to defend himself. Rest in your innocence. Many stones may be thrown at you, but every one of them will miss the mark; the cruel part of it all is that some persons imagine that if stones are thrown at you, you deserve to be stoned. Do not let that trouble you; such men are not to be convinced; they are amongst the people who are elected by a sovereignty we cannot control to be the victims of their own prejudices. They have only one idea in their heads, and it is impossible to get another into them; you may silence them, but never convince them. Do not waste your time over them, but exemplify the Gospel, expound the larger truth, live in the larger element, and in due time all will be brought to a peaceful and happy issue. Paul never failed to proceed from the little personal to the infinite impersonal. A moment's wave of the hand that perhaps he might remove a particle of the mud, and away he went broad-souled, mind on fire to tell what he knew about the kingdom of his blessed Lord and Master. To each of us the Spirit says, "Go thou and do likewise."

Observe, in the fourth place, how Paul keeps hold of his audience, by preaching Christianity without so much as naming Christ. This is the mystery which modern times cannot handle. Read Paul's defence and tell me where Christianity can be found in it in any doctrinal and positive form. Is there not genius here? Is there not inspiration in knowing where to stop, how to draw your lines, how to adapt resources to necessities? Paul might have been the orator on the other side; Paul might have been simply a Roman addressing a Roman, so far as the name, the priesthood, and the deity of Jesus Christ are concerned. As we now understand or misunderstand the matter, there is not one evangelical sentence in the whole speech. That would not suit a modern audience, because a modern audience is foolish. Inspiration guides a man quite as much in teaching him whatnot to say as in teaching him what to say; inspiration has to do with method as well as with matter. I know not whether there can be found any instance of Divine inspiration more patent and satisfactory than the one which we find in this speech of Paul. Is he then not preaching Christ? He is preaching him all the time. He is creating a wonder; he is developing a certain state of mind; he says mentally, "This is not the whole affair. I shall have more chances; it is enough now to touch curiosity, to excite surprise, to create interest in me and in my message; by-and-by I shall speak to that procurator in a way he never heard mortal tongue deliver itself; but now I have to answer this mean hireling, who would plead my cause if I only paid him enough to do so. I have to do a little preliminary work; the Holy Ghost bids me say this and say no more." We might do a great deal of preaching in that way if the Church would allow us; but the Church always brings its own thermometer and barometer along with it, for the purpose of measuring heats and temperatures and weights and atmospheric conditions. The merchant can be preaching Christianity in his business without ever letting it be known that he ever spent one moment on his knees. It is not necessary to be a theologian to be a great preacher. Men can preach Christianity and defend the Cross in temper, actions, family and commercial relations, and beget a state of mental wonder on the part of the observers as to how such things happen to be as they are. By-and-by such men may be sent for, that they may speak concerning the mystery; that they may tell how it is that they did not take all that they might have clutched; how it was that honesty triumphed over perfidy, and how it could possibly be that a man could say, "No," when by saying "Yes" he might have secured a competence. In the after-talks, when the babbling Tertullus has gone, the great mystery of personal consciousness, personal honour, and personal sacrifice may be revealed and declared.

In making his defence, Paul keeps to the Scriptures: "believing," said he, in the fourteenth verse, "all things which are written in the law and in the prophets." This was so much gained; but it was a generality that wanted accent, so he proceeds, in the sixteenth verse, to supply the accent which was required: "And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men." There you have the complete character the student plunged in the mysteries of the Scriptures the man drilling himself, under Divine inspiration and encouragement, in moral integrity and sanctity; recognising the supremacy of conscience and training the ethical faculty to the highest sensitiveness and the most penetrating discernment.

This was moral preaching? I would God we had more moral preaching, then! The man who is severe with his own conscience will know how to treat the consciences of other men; the man who lives in conscience will be a tremendous preacher when the occasion arises for him to address conscience. Paul, at this stage in the speech, gives us a hint of the power which he will exercise by-and-by when he confronts Felix alone. No man can preach to the conscience, with any truly gracious and happy effect, who does not attend to his own conscience. Herein have we confidence in the great Apostle. His genius we might have learned to neglect, his great intellectual sagacity might have fallen into the familiarity which brings with it indifference, if not contempt; but so long as he stands up a conscientious man, a righteous man, we cannot but respect and venerate him. Nothing will stand in the world's estimation for ever but downright in-and-out goodness. No preacher can live on mere foam of words; no lecturer on the platform can have an everlasting reputation who neglects the moral nature of his audiences; no book can be a perpetual monitor that has in it only flippancy and humour and laughter. He will have supreme influence whose character is like a pillar on the top of which there is lily-work. The lily-work does nothing for the pillar: the pillar does its own bearing work: it has the weight upon it; and yet the lily-work is praised by the children, praised by infantile minds; the little, frail, pretty lily-work will attract more attention than the upright, solid, all-bearing pillar. Never mind, pillar; we rest on thee, we trust to thee. There are temporary reputations which will pass away; but at the last the pillar may be spoken of, because it so nobly, strongly, and quietly carried the whole burden. So it is with conscience. It is the righteousness of the world that saves it, not ten geniuses, ten poets, ten dreamers, ten defenders, but ten righteous men. Whilst they pray, the fire-shower, the fire-storm, will not descend.