Acts 24:24-25

Chapter 89

Prayer

Almighty God, we are thine in Jesus Christ, thy Son; we are born again unto thee by the power of the Spirit; we are no more wanderers: we are little children at home. We remember our wandering that we may mourn it; we set before our eyes our sonship that we may magnify thy grace. We are the miracles of God; we are the proofs of Divine Providence; we show how tenderly thou dost care for the sons of men, and how plentifully thou dost supply the necessities of the soul. We do not go abroad for witness: when witness is required we stand up ourselves and say, "The Lord is good, and his tender mercies are over all his works." May we abide in this testimony, for in it is our strength. May we remind ourselves of it in the dark and cloudy day, lest the tempter be too strong for us, and by many a well-plied seduction draw us from the steadfastness of our love. We would hear in our souls all the vows and promises we have ever been enabled to utter, and we would cause these to repeat themselves, that in their hearing the soul may take courage again, even when the storm is dark and loud. Thy goodness towards us is a daily revelation; it is not an occasional, it is an everlasting presence. Thy mercy endureth for ever. There is no point in all the space of our life that is not made golden by the touch of thy gracious love. It well becometh us, therefore, to stand up together, a unanimous host, to bless the Lord in loud psalm and cheerful anthem for his great love, his tearful pity, his redeeming grace, his Cross of sacrifice and atonement. We would become accustomed to the thought and service of the better world. As the years run away here and make us old, so eternity comes nearer to endow us with everlasting youth. So would we look onward and upward and find in anticipation the joy which cannot be found in retrospect. We look up unto the hills whence cometh our help the eternal hills, the pillars of creation, the bases of thine own throne, the hills of sapphire, the mountains of light, the highlands of glory; and as we look may our help come, and as we gaze may our strength be increased manifold, that we may praise thee, and with new confidence do thy work in the world, hoping ever in God, and making ourselves young at the throne of the heavenly grace. Show us how large is thy pity, thy love, thy tenderness; give us to feel that thou hast made us men, with many natures, many passions, enthusiasms, powers, and faculties a wondrous mystery, a creation of omnipotence everything perfect in its place and order and purpose; a wondrous instrument on which thou canst discourse music pleasing to thine own ear. May we be men, baptized in every faculty and power, exercising every one to thine honour and to thy glory whole men, complete in their cultivation and entire in their consecration. To this end thou wilt not spare the inspiring Spirit. Thou wilt not keep back the light that makes all beauteous things grow and flourish; neither wilt thou withhold the gracious rains which satisfy the thirsting souls, and make them rejoice in newness of strength. Thou dost lead us through the world and show us its great kingdoms and glories; thou dost lift them up to set them down again; thou dost reveal them not to show their greatness, but their littleness. Their wealth is a lie if it be not made good and precious by sanctification. All the world can give is given for a moment, and taken back again, or dies in the eager grasp; but thy peace abideth for ever, quieting the soul, giving the spirit enjoyment, far beyond all rack and noise and tumult. Thy peace is a peace that passeth understanding, and in its enjoyment we forget all harass and care and fret and toil, and feel that we are already enclosed within the gate which is one pearl. We bless thee for all thy love; it is so tender, so continual, so full of all-gracious ministry; it is as a nurse, as a shepherd, as a physician, as a mother; it takes upon itself all beautiful names and symbolisms, and comes to us through the medium of everything in life that most we prize. We pray for one another. Hear the prayers we cannot speak, because there are no words fit for the expression of such necessities. Hear the soul's sighing, and interpret it into deep and intense and complete confession and supplication. Listen to us when we cannot hear the whisper of our own moaning, and render unto us great answers of joy. Open our way when the gate is high, and it is locked, and we have no key, and we stand there in our helplessness looking beyond and looking above; let the looking be regarded as a prayer, and come thou to throw back the gate and permit us to go forward. Help us to keep the vow we have spoken. Thou knowest how liable it is to breach and flaw and compromise. Enable us to hold it in its integrity, to work it out in all its uttermost meaning of goodness; so that, having withstood, we may stand; having fought, we may come home at eventide as conquerors. The Lord have us where his jewels are kept; the Lord write our name above the flames that shall consume all meaner things; the Lord give us rest in the upper sanctuary calm as the Divine peace, secure as the Divine strength. Amen.

Act 24:24-25

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 Private Speech

We have often seen Paul in public; we have now to study somewhat his private ministry. It is easier to speak upon Mars' Hill to a great crowd than to speak in a gilded chamber to two eminent personages. Will Paul be the same man in both places? The persons who are listening to him are Felix and Drusilla. There the matter might be supposed to end. If we add to it the intense effect which the discourse produced, as represented in the words "Felix trembled," the case seems to be a small one. Yet as we study it the lines expand and multiply until it becomes symbolical and presses closely upon our own lives and habits. Look at the case in detail: the auditors are great people, yet the Gospel does not spare them. We have already learned somewhat concerning Felix; let us recall our information that it may give colour and accent to this particular event. Felix was a Roman procurator; he was originally a slave; he became a freed man, and he rose to power almost unlimited. He was, therefore, in some way, unquestionably, a man of genius and invincible will bent, but never broken. He and his brother Pallas were in high favour with Claudius Cæsar, the emperor, and in equally high favour with Antonia, the emperor's mother. They were the richest men, probably, in that part of the empire. When the emperor himself complained of being poor, he was told, with much suggestion in the tone, that if he would enter into partnership with Felix and Pallas, he would soon be a wealthy man. The historian tells us also, with much reading between the wide lines, that Felix was at the same time the husband of three queens. A more contemptible personage, history concurs in testifying, never combined the power of a king with the meanness of a slave. That was the one hearer. Drusilla was one of the beauties of her day"; she was the. daughter of one king and the wife of another. Felix employed Simon, a magician, to cajole her from her constancy. She allied herself with Felix another incidental tribute to the marvellous fascination of the man. In this unholy marriage a son was born, whose name was Agrippa. The mother and son both perished in an eruption of Mount Vesuvius which took place in the days of Titus Cæsar. That was the other hearer; and Paul was in their power. Was ever such goodness in the power of such wickedness? This will try Paul; the auditors are only two in number; he himself is a prisoner well-nigh a slave a word, and he is thrown to the lions; a nod, and the fire will consume him, bone and muscle. He will trip, he will falter, he will say something that will lead him into the pity and confidence of his illustrious auditors. Here is the true Apostle face to face with evil; he smites it with both hands alone, yet he feels the breath upon him of more than twelve legions of angels. He will have harvesting here if he can get it; he will take away from this field two sheaves, if possible, and garner them in heaven. This is a terrible Gospel the power of God unto salvation or unto destruction, a savour of life unto life or of death unto death. These are the instances that commend the Gospel to our confidence. This is the man who said, not long ago in our studies, "Neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy." How he looks through the villainy of the occasion! how he dares its feebleness! how he shows his penetration of the natural cowardice of wrong! Who was procurator then? Who was emperor? It is moral dignity that elevates a man up above his fellows to a height which never can be attained by merely intellectual genius. See not Paul the man only, but Paul the Christian nay, see the incarnate Gospel itself shut up with these two violators of all holy law, and how it torments them, bites them, and will not spare them one moment. The sword of the Lord! the sword of the Lord, my brethren, and the battle is won; your old sword of paste-board, and the fight is lost; the blade of Jerusalem, and none other; the battle is not yours, but God's. We cannot dwell too long, too gratefully, upon the moral dignity of this Gospel. It will not spare great people no people can be great before its majesty. There is a light that puts out the sun. The sun is a great light in itself a marvellous, dazzling eye; but there is a light that shames it away, that makes it retire in conscious feebleness. There is no greatness before the Gospel. The Christian is the king. The only monarchy that is not tinsel is the monarchy of holiness. All kings and queens, Cæsars and thrones all of them are baubles and lies and vanities if they represent not a monarchy greater than themselves. Because the Gospel speaks in this tone it lives for ever. Righteousness is the eternal quantity.

The auditors were but two in number, yet the Gospel sought to save them. The Gospel is the one-man religion. When Christianity takes the census it counts every man one, and says to despairing preachers, teachers, and evangelists, "Let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death." Christianity despises no one; Christianity is the shepherd that will not rest until the hundredth sheep be found. "Ninety-and-nine" there is no music in these chiming syllables, because one of the flock has gone astray. This is another aspect of the Gospel, equal in pathos to the aspect which has just passed before us as clothed with moral grandeur. "It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish." Other religions go by numbers, by empires; they count multitudinously: they count a nation one. The individual life is a fleck, a drop of a bucket, a very little thing, not to be named. But the religion of Jesus Christ, having found that one of the ten pieces is lost, instantly lights a candle and sweeps the house diligently until it be found. Christianity, having found that one of the lambs has gone astray, will neither eat, nor drink, nor sleep, nor hold the customary feast until the wanderer is back again. "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." So, every man is a congregation. Our ministers must be rebuked if they count more than one man in the house. There is only one man in all the populations of the earth, and he is lost and must be found. Oh, preacher! every man is a congregation; the meanest, poorest creature that crouches within hearing distance is a nation the world; know thy duty, and in Christ's great strength win the fight. Earnestness can always speak to the individual. There is no afront that can be offered to the spirit of the Gospel more deadly than to withhold because the numbers are not overwhelming. If one soul is within ear-shot, he constitutes the supreme occasion of any ministry. The Gospel has thunder for the crowd and whispers for the one listener. That is the truth. Jesus Christ often spoke to the one hearer; Jesus made revelations to individual hearers greater than any he ever made to the crowd. If we might compare the discourses of the perfect Speaker, we might say, by the accommodation of human language, that the most splendid discourses of the Messiah were delivered to solitary listeners. What said he to the woman all sin from the strange city? When she spoke of Messiah, he said, "I that speak unto thee am he." When did he say that to a crowd? What said he to the woman all grief, because she had buried all her heart? "I am the Resurrection and the Life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." And so trace his history, and you will find that to individual hearers he communicated his greatest messages. What said he in the hush of night to Nicodemus? "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Produce the match of these discourses from all the public deliverances of the Divine Speaker. When he spoke in public he spoke in another tone: "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." Even there the same sublime doctrine is conveyed: mark, the invitation is to the one thirsting man. But, whilst the preacher may find some difficulty here, the listener himself may imagine that he is too small to be addressed in his individuality. Whilst he is in the congregation, he may imagine himself lost in the crowd he is only part of the urgent occasion. We must have individuality of hearing as well as individuality of preaching. The true hearer is the man who supposes himself to be the only listener in all the sanctuary who is so absorbed in spiritual earnestness and attention that he hears every word as if spoken to himself alone a message just delivered from the great Father to the one wandering child. Such preaching, equalled by such hearing, and the next step is a converted world. "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."

In the third place, the auditors asked for entertainment; yet the Gospel gave them judgment. The Gospel has no entertainments. Felix sent for Paul to hear him concerning the faith in Christ. Felix cared nothing for this himself, for he was a Roman; but Drusilla was a Jewess, and she was the occasion of this interest in Christian matters. She had heard of her famous countryman, called Jesus of Nazareth; he had been murdered and done away with, but still his religion was exciting a good deal of curiosity in the country, and she, being a Jewess, would hear somewhat of her eccentric compatriot. So we become interested in certain sides and aspects of questions. Drusilla could have no interest in the spiritual Christ. He would burn her; but she had intellectual interest, or the interest of curiosity in the historical magician, the prince of the wonder-workers. It is not enough to be interested in Christ: we must first know what Christ it is in whom we are interested. Felix and Drusilla would hear the animated story, about the wondrous sorcerer; Paul was an expert, a devotee he would know about the whole case and would be able to explain it, and now he was at liberty to tell the tale. "And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment." Is that the faith that is in Christ? Yes. You thought Christianity was theology Christianity is morality. Let us call the prisoner Paul, and hear him concerning the famous Jew who was he? what was he? what did he do? what was he like? Tell us in graphic words all he did. "And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come." Was that Christian preaching? Verily; and the preaching we want every day. Many are delighted with high theological cobweb speculation, and call it marvellous. It is not Christian preaching. The true preaching makes the robber empty his pockets, makes the bad man white with inward accusation, makes the oppressor turn uneasily on his seat as if he were sitting on thorns and fire, turns the bad man mad, and makes him say foamingly at the church door that he will never come back again. That is preaching concerning the faith that is in Christ. The audience should always suggest the subject. This was Paul's method, and, as we have seen in our studies in the Gospel according to Matthew, it was the invariable method of Jesus Christ himself. The audience is the text; this is where our speakers fail so much. The audience is but a company of listeners, or a company of men who may listen or not listen, as they please, and all the great speakers, from Christ downward, including the great Apostle Paul himself, made the audience the text, expounded the text to itself, held a mirror up to nature. This must always be the case. What do our hearers want with speculations they cannot follow, with dreams they never heard of? He who would preach to the times must preach to the broken-heartedness of the day, to the criminality of the hour, to the inconstancy of the times, to the disloyalty of the army. Away farther and farther still the impious thought that only he preaches to the times who preaches about thoughts that people never heard of, and answers arguments which they can neither comprehend nor remember. He preaches to the times who says, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I, the Son of God, will give you rest." These are the eternal times, the other so-called times are flickering moments, changing their colour, changing their throb and pulse by an incalculable process; but the eternal need is forgiveness, the everlasting want is rest for the soul. This advice will never make popular preachers: it will make Pauline preachers, terrible preachers preachers whose sentences are thorns and goads, whose looks are judgments, and whose tones are accusations. May the good Lord of the harvest thrust into his harvest-field many such preachers! Vice is none the less vice because it is gilded and can pay its way. Felix was a rich man, his wife was partner of his property; their roof was gilded, their walls were velveted, their carpets were flowers, soft and fragrant, their wine was plentiful, and they drank it out of nothing less than gold; but the vice was the worm at the core. Nothing is settled until it is rectified; the wall must totter if it is out of plumb. Judge the Gospel theology by Gospel morality. We are not sent to make theologians, but Christians; we are not sent to build up a system, but to build up a character. How does it come that the Gospel holds its own amongst all the competing religions of the world? Because of its morality. The morality of the Gospel is not a scheme or theory of manners; it is the expression of a profound and sublime theology. The true God is above it, the true Cross is at its centre, and therefore its balances are equal, its measures are just, its actions are transparent, its character is without a spot. Men can understand our morality when they cannot understand our theology. It is possible that many may be calling for entertainment who ought to be asking for a judgment. We do not come to the throne of God to be hugged and comforted and confectioned, to be sprinkled with scented water, and to be assured that we are ripe for anything Heaven may have to disclose. Some may be far enough on the road to claim such high privileges and sacred enjoyments, but the most of us are still where we need to be reasoned with concerning righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. I know not what may be the case of special individuals, but taking the world in its totality, as representing one humanity this day, it needs only the theology which ends in morality, and it cries for the morality which is magnified, sanctified, inspired, and assured by the theology of Christ. This is our standing ground. Come, Felix, Drusilla, Zaccheus, Lazarus, beggar at the gate, blind man on the roadside, we have but one speech the forgiveness of sin through its confession at the Cross and through the blood of Christ.