Acts 9

Acts 9:11

Straight Street The street which is called Straight.—Acts 9:11.The street called Straight was in the city of Damascus. St. Paul went to stay there just after his conversion and it was there that he received back his sight.Damascus is an old, old city. Some people say it is the oldest city in the world. It was in existence thousands of years before Christ, and it is still in existence. Through the center of the city still runs the street which is called Straight. It leads in a direct line from the western gate to the eastern gate. Much of its glory has departed, but in St.

Paul’s time it was a very fine street. It was over one hundred feet wide, and nearly a mile in length, and it was divided by beautiful columns into three parts. The middle portion was reserved for foot passengers, and the sides were used by chariots and horsemen—those going eastward keeping to one side, and those going westward to the other. You see the people in Damascus rather turned things upside down. We put our carriages in the middle of our streets, and our foot-passengers at the sides.I wonder why the people of Damascus made their road quite straight. Perhaps they thought it was the quickest way of getting from one side of the city to the other, and if they did, I think they were very sensible.

You know how annoying it is, if you are in a hurry, to have to go twice the distance you need, just because the road winds in and out, and turns corners.Now, I think life is rather like a city traversed by many roads. We enter by the East Gate and we have to reach the West Gate, and we choose our own path.

The best road to choose is the straight road of uprightness, and honor, and duty; and I am going to tell you why I think it is the best.First of all, the straight road is the best because it is the quickest. Those who walk in a crooked path waste a lot of time, often lose their way, and generally miss the goal which they are trying to reach. There are many crooked bypaths leading off the straight road, and we are sometimes tempted to walk in them because the straight road is monotonous, and because they seem easier, but we always find they are longest and weariest in the end.And secondly, the straight road is the best road because it is the safest. We can see the dangers ahead. The crooked bypaths which look so interesting lead us into quagmires and thickets, but the straight road leads safely to the goal.Once upon a time there was a Sultan who wished to choose an honest man to collect his taxes, but he did not know how he was to secure him, so he called a wise counselor and asked his advice. The wise man told the Sultan to publish abroad his need, and then to invite all the applicants to his palace on a certain date, and ask them to dance.

The counselor said that he would then point out the honest man.In due course the applicants arrived at the palace, and were told to approach the Sultan, one at a time, through a dark empty corridor. When they were all assembled before the throne the Sultan said, “Gentlemen, I should very much like to see you dance.

Please dance.” The men turned very red, and looked extremely uncomfortable, and all except one refused. The one man danced with great good will. Then the wise counselor said, “That is the honest man; choose him.”How do you think he knew? He had placed sacks of money in the corridor, and all the dishonest men had filled their pockets from them. They were afraid to dance, because, if they had done so, their pockets would have sounded like money-boxes. So you see these men lost a good position because they took a bypath to become rich. The straight road is the safest and the surest in the end.And again the straight road is the best because it is the road heroes have trod. Yes, it takes a hero to walk the straight road.

It takes a hero to keep right on, turning neither to right or left, withstanding the temptations of the bypaths, bearing the weariness of the way.I like that story of the slave boy who was put up for sale in the slave-market of one of the Southern States of America. A kind man passing pitied him, and fearing lest he should fall into the hands of a cruel master, resolved to purchase him. He asked the boy, “If I buy you, will you be honest?” And the answer came—“I will be honest whether you buy me or not.” That boy had a fine pride—the pride of those who walk in the straight road.And, lastly, the straight road is the best because it is the road Christ trod. He trod it bravely and patiently although for Him it was a path strewn with thorns, and at the end of the way stood a Cross. And because Jesus has trod that path He has made it possible for us all to tread it, He has made it possible for those of us who have wandered from it to come back to it, and to make a new beginning. And, if across the path there sometimes lies the shadow of a cross, we know that beyond the cross there is a crown.

Acts 9:15

A Chosen Vessel He is a chosen vessel unto me.—Acts 9:15.I wonder how many of you can make clay models. I have seen boys and girls create wonderful things out of clay cups and saucers, and birds’ nests, and odd animals. Well you know that our cups and saucers and plates and vases are made out of clay also. Only the clay goes through so many different processes that when the china reaches us it doesn’t look a bit like the ugly-looking grey lumps that we make into models.First of all, the moist prepared clay is formed into shape on the potter’s wheel. The potter throws the lump on to his wheel which moves round horizontally, and as the wheel spins round, with a deft touch here and there he molds the clay into the shape he wants.When the vessel is shaped it is put away to dry for a short time and then it is packed with others of its kind into a sort of oven called a seggar. There it is baked for forty hours, and it comes out firm and hard.

After being baked the china is ready to be decorated. This is done by pressing on transfer designs.

The best kinds of china are hand-painted, but this is too expensive a way to ornament ordinary dishes. Lastly, the china is given its beautiful glossy surface by being dipped in liquid glaze and then baked for other fourteen hours.Now, God is just like a great Potter, and we are like the clay in His hands. He molds and forms our characters, and if we let Him do with them as He will, He makes them into very beautiful shapes. But I want you to think today rather of the use God has for His vessels than of the way He makes them. The great Potter never makes two vessels exactly alike. He forms each into a different shape, and He has a different use for each. He has given us each our work to do.Who was the “chosen vessel” of our text, and for what had he been chosen? The vessel was St.

Paul, who had just seen that great light from heaven, and had been led blind into Damascus, and God had chosen him to be His instrument to bear His name before “the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel.” St. Paul was the greatest missionary who ever lived. Think of the journeys he made—tremendous in those days—and of the sermons he preached, and of the works of healing he performed, and of the letters he wrote to the different churches; and all the time he was hampered by a serious bodily infirmity.Now God may not call you to be missionaries like Paul, but He has some special niche for you to fill. Each of you is a chosen vessel unto God just as much as Paul was; each of you is here for a purpose, and if you do not fulfill that purpose, you are a failure, however rich and prosperous you may become.There are two things I should like you to remember, and the first is that God thinks us worth using. Perhaps you say, “I am only a child and a very ordinary child. I can’t be of very much use.” That is a mistaken idea.

You never know how much good you are doing although you are in a quiet, hidden corner. That is your corner at present—the corner God has chosen for you, and He never makes a mistake.

He has some work for you to do there.One Sunday morning, more than a hundred years ago, a gloomy-looking elder came to speak to his minister before the morning service. He told him he thought something must be wrong as only one member had been added to the church in a year, and that member was just a boy. The poor old minister felt very sad. He thought that perhaps he had failed in his work. But as he was leaving the church, after the service, the boy who was his only new member came to him and told him he would like to be a minister and, if possible, a missionary. The old man was greatly cheered, and he firmly believed the boy would have his wish.

Years passed, and the boy became the great missionary, Robert Moffat, who carried the Gospel into Africa, translated it into native languages, and was famous in scientific research. The old minister’s labors and prayers had not been in vain, and through that boy he became a great blessing to the world.So we need never despair of being of no use, however humble our position.

God thinks us worth using, and after all it is better to be just a plain, ordinary tea-cup to carry a cup of cold water to somebody’s lips than a useless china ornament, even although that ornament be fit for a king’s palace.The other thing I want you to remember is that to be useful we must be willing to be used. A vessel is made to contain things, and to pass them on for the use of others. So if our vessels are to be of use we must first get them filled. Where are we to fill them? There is only one place—at the fountain of Christ’s love. And then when we have filled our vessels we must be willing to give out that love in joy and helpfulness to others.The Master stood in His garden, Among the lilies fair, Which His own right hand had planted, And trained with tenderest care. He looked at their snowy blossoms, And marked with observant eye That His flowers were sadly drooping, For their leaves were parched and dry. Close to His feet, on the pathway, Empty and frail and small, An earthen vessel was lying, Which seemed of no use at all; But the Master saw and raised it. From the dust in which it lay, And smiled, as He gently whispered, “This shall do my work today.” So to the fountain He took it, And filled it full to the brim; How glad was the earthen vessel To be of some use to Him!