Acts 14

Acts 14:1-28

The Acts of the Apostles Chapter 14:1-28 Acts 14:1-20 In this paragraph we follow Paul and his company to the furthest outward limit of their first missionary journey. The remainder of the chapter is occupied with the revisitation of the churches on the return journey. We follow the movement, first at Iconium; then at Lystra; and then for a brief period at Derbe, concerning which nothing of importance is recorded, but which was evidently a period of quietness and peace in the work of evangelization. From Derbe they turned back again, traversing the route already taken, instead of crossing immediately home, as they might have done.

The chief interest in this story for us centres in the continuity of the work. This is best seen in the observation of the workers, by watching Paul and his little company as they arrived at Iconium, and at last escaped from there under pressure, and found their way to Lystra, where Paul was stoned and left for dead. There are four matters of interest: first the methods of their ministry; secondly the manifestations of power that accompanied their ministry, particularly the fact of the diversity of manifestations; thirdly the diversity of their experiences; and finally, the perils that threatened them.

In order to observe the methods of the ministry of these men, we must get back into the atmosphere, into the actual surroundings where the work was carried on. At Antioch in Pisidia there was a large Hebrew synagogue where the apostle first preached. He left Antioch because he was flung out of the city, and he took his way fifty miles to the east. There he certainly found a synagogue, but not so many Hebrews. He was coming gradually into the more definitely Gentile atmosphere. Hearing there was a plot on foot for the taking of his life, he left Iconium, and travelled forty miles to the southeast, and came to Lystra, where there was no synagogue.

He had now come into the most pronounced atmosphere of Gentile life and thought. Thus we follow the movement of the Christian faith into an entirely new atmosphere, being further removed from the influences of Hebraism.

In the third verse of this chapter (Acts 13:3) there is a phrase which we must specially note, “Long time therefore they tarried there,” that is, at Iconium. “Speaking boldly in the Lord, Who bare witness unto the Word of His grace.” That was the one theme of these men as they travelled. In this book of the Acts of the Apostles, wherever that word Word occurs in this connection, the first letter should be capitalized. “The Word of His grace “was the theme of the preaching. These men went into the new cities with no new message, but with the same message; adapting their method of presentation, but never changing the truth. They came to Lystra at last, and even there, as in Antioch of Pisidia, as in Antioch of Syria, as at Jerusalem at the beginning, they had one message, “The Word of His grace.” The phrase stands for all the facts concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which these men were telling as they went. Presently we shall come to an account of how certain men said of Paul, Let us hear what this babbler says. A babbler was a teller of tales.

There were men travelling through those Greek cities who gained their living by telling tales. They were public entertainers; they gathered people round them, and told stories of the things they had seen. Paul was a teller of tales. So also were his companions. They told what we speak of as “the old, old story.” They told the story of the life of Jesus; they told the story of His death; they told the story of His resurrection, because by His resurrection everything else was transfigured, illuminated, interpreted. They were tellers of tales; and the message was always the same, “The Word of His grace.”

At the beginning of this chapter there is one of those small words of the New Testament, which are so often full of light. A small and insignificant word it appears to be at first, and yet it is the light centre of the whole verse. “And it came to pass in Iconium, that they entered together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great multitude believed.” “They so spake.” The word immediately suggests the manner of the delivery of the message. It was not only the thing they said, it was the way they said it. “They so spake.” Some expositors in dealing with this have laid emphasis upon the fact that the apostles were careful in preparation. Another lays emphasis upon the fact of Paul’s logical mind, by which he compelled men to agree to the things he spoke. That little word “so” arrests the spirit, and grips it, and says to all teachers and preachers, Can you so speak that men will believe? Paul I think gives his own explanation of the meaning of the word “so.” When writing to the Corinthians, in his first letter, speaking of his coming to them, he said, “I came unto you . . . not with excellency of speech or of wisdom.” Then it was not his eloquence, it was not his logical faculty. “And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling/’ Paul was always a man intrepid, courageous, dogmatic, daring; but the intensive force of his intrepidity and courage is there revealed, “I was with you in weakness and in fear, and in much trembling.” Continuing he said: “And my speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” There we discover the secret of the “so,” “They so spake.” That is the secret of the preaching that prevails, and that wins; the preaching that is authoritative, definite, positive, and without apology, as the result of a sense of weakness and trembling and fear in the mind of the preacher; but which weakness and trembling and fear are all overcome by the preacher’s fellowship with the Holy Spirit. The true preacher says the thing that seems to have no force in it, and which carries no conviction merely as the result of his eloquence, or his argument; but when he says it, it becomes a fire and a searching and a burning, because the Holy Spirit catches it up, and bears it in upon the inner consciousness of men.

In the fourteenth chapter, and the early part of the third verse (Acts 14:3), we read, “Long time therefore.” Wherever we find the word “therefore” we enquire “wherefore?” Let us glance at the preceding verse: “The Jews that were disobedient stirred up the souls of the Gentiles, and made them evil affected against the brethren.” Therefore, the apostles stayed for a long time in Iconium. The reason of the long tarrying was not the success of the work, but its difficulties. The reason why they stayed was that persecution was abroad against those first gathered disciples. This reveals the persistence of their method. All new difficulties did but inspire these men to continuity and perseverance.

Yet once again, as we watch the methods of this ministry here, we have one of the first illustrations of the wonderful power of adaptation. At Lystra we have the picture of these people desiring to sacrifice to him, and the story of what happened at Lystra is an unconscious but very powerful evidence of the authenticity of this book. Ovid tells of a legend of the coming into that very region of Jupiter and Mercury long before. That city of Lystra had at its very gates a temple erected to Jupiter, in memory of the fact that Jupiter and Mercury had there descended. Immediately these people said, This is another epiphany of the deities; the gods have come again, as our fathers told us they came long before. That was the occasion for Paul’s speech.

In Antioch of Pisidia he had in the synagogue Jews and Greeks, men who in their hunger for one God, had turned to Hebraism. His speech there indicated the unity of Deity, and the government of God in grace. Now in Lystra there was not a single reference in his address to the Hebrew Scriptures, or Hebrew history. He began where the men of Lystra were, discovered the elements of religion present in their actual consciousness, and upon that based his appeal. His address, a brief and wonderful one, was delivered to men who had never had the light of revelation.

When these men were suggesting to offer sacrifices to him, even the priests of Jupiter bringing sacrifices and garlands, he said to them, “We also are men of like passions with you.” There, in a flash, idolatry is revealed, in contrast to the religion of revelation. All the gods that men worship are gods of like passions to themselves. Think of all the systems of religion that the world has, the highest and best, as well as the lowest and most degraded; and the deity worshipped is of like passions with humanity. In those words Paul put the falsity of idolatry before the attention of these men; and declared to them the living God, the One Whose very Being lies in a realm far removed from the rage and jealousy of human passion. He drew their attention to the fact that He had never left Himself without witness, even in their midst; calling them to a realization of the fact that if they had the light of Nature, if they had taken time to think, they might have discovered the power and wisdom of God. There he began his appeal; and then he preached to them “good tidings.” Luke, giving the record, did not repeat the story of the evangel; but he did emphasize the method of the apostle, who recognized the element of religious life that there was in the basest people, and endeavoured to correct it, and so instruct the people toward the truth.

Having thus glanced at the methods of the work, let us look over the story again, observing the manifestations of power. At Iconium the Lord wrought signs and wonders by their hands. There is no detailed list of these given; but the words employed, “signs and wonders,” are familiar. They were miraculous manifestations. We have no account of such signs and wonders in Antioch of Pisidia. Observe the diversity of the Spirit’s activity. In Antioch in Pisidia there was preaching, and nothing else is recorded. In Iconium there was the preaching of the same Word of grace, and an accompaniment of signs and wonders.

It may be said, Why draw such emphatic attention to this? In order that we may be reminded that we cannot base a system of procedure upon any single occurrence in any given place, That is a peril always threatening the Christian Church. In Iconium there were signs and wonders; therefore there must be signs and wonders everywhere. By no means. .On the method of the Holy Spirit at any given hour and place, we have no right to base a doctrine of perpetuity. When men, sincere souls, attempt to teach that the one sign of the gift of the Spirit is the gift of tongues, they are departing from apostolic history. The Holy Spirit can surely bestow the gift of tongues to-day, so that a man can speak in another language; but He will as surely supply the interpreter also for the man so speaking.

We supremely need to-day to get back into such fellowship with the Spirit of God, as to remember that He can do what He wills, giving gifts as He pleases. I am sure that the gift of healing is still within the power of Jesus Christ, and that He can bestow it upon men for the purposes of His will; but I believe that when a man has that gift, he will lay hands on men, and they will be healed.

We cannot compel the Spirit of God to a line of activity, which He takes upon occasion, and declare that is His perpetual method. At Lystra there was another revelation. Paul was preaching, and in his audience there was a cripple. Paul spoke to him, and commanded him to stand up because of what he saw in his face. He saw that he had faith to believe. Two things are revealed in that story: the faith of the man created by the preacher, as listening to the story of the risen Christ he applied that story to his own peculiar need; and a preacher interpreting the faith in the face of his listener.

Every preacher knows the man who listens, and who looking through the preacher, sees the truth, grasps it, begins to apply it; the light of it is in his eye, eagerness is manifested in his face. There was a great and magnificent irregularity in Paul’s preaching.

He dared to stop, and say to the man, “Stand upright on thy feet.” Then the man leaped up and walked. The men of Lystra looked upon it as a great material miracle, but the deeper fact was the spiritual miracle that lay behind it; that man’s apprehension of the truth, and the application of it to his own case; the preacher’s knowledge of it, and his keenness of sight in the man’s operation of faith in the living Lord. That was the wonderful thing.

Then “they stoned Paul, and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead”; and to the astonishment of his own company, presently he rose and walked back into the city. Do not miss the miraculous here. It may be said he swooned and recovered. That may be true: but the men of Lystra and the disciples took him for dead. As the stones fell thick and fast upon him, I think he remembered Stephen. Personally I think he was dead; and quite literally and actually was restored to life, and had a positive resurrection, in order to the fulfillment of his life’s work.

Looking over the ground once more, we mark the diversity of the apostle’s experiences. How differently God deals with His workers. From Antioch Paul was allowed to escape, and was preserved. At Iconium God overruled circumstances, he was warned, and escaped. But he did not escape from Lystra. We cannot say that God took care of him at Antioch, and at Iconium, and that He did not take care of him at Lystra.

That would be blasphemy. Paul was writing to Timothy, the young minister, his last letter, and said to him, You know the persecutions I endured at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, but out of them all the Lord delivered me. At Antioch and Iconium He delivered him by saving him from the stones. At Lystra He delivered him through stoning. How often we are tempted to say: God delivered in the past, but He has not done so this time. Calamity has come, we are bruised and broken.

Wait a little. Presently we shall be able to say, Out of them all He delivered me. Sometimes the only deliverance God can work for us is by the way of the stones, and by furnace experiences.

We note finally the perils threatening these men. There were the perils of opposition. Disobedience produced the spirit of opposition; hatred, plotting, stoning. But the gravest peril threatening these men was that which came to them in the hour when men suggested that they should worship them. That is the supreme peril to the Christian worker. It would have been so easy to gain power and notoriety; to take this worship, and abandon the pathway of persecution and of the stones.

That is the peril of the prophet. When men bring garlands to worship, when men suggest his deification, he is in extreme danger. If men would help the prophet, they should pray that he may never accept the garland, or the worship of men. This was a most insidious hour. I would not suggest that there was any trembling on the part of Paul. He was not seduced, because he was living in such fellowship with his Lord that it was impossible.

This is the end of the first missionary journey on the outward march. As we look over the movement we are impressed by the fiery sword of the Christian evangel. Wherever these men came they brought a disturbing, dividing force. Every city was shaken to its centre, and men driven into opposite camps. As we watch, we remember the word of Jesus, “Think not that I came to send peace on the earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword! “Unless the Christian evangel of to-day is a fiery, dividing, separating influence, flinging men into opposite camps, it is not the evangel of the apostles. It is always a disturbing element, because it makes no compromise.

This evangel comes into human life, and removes and casts out the devil in human life. This evangel has no soft phrases for sin, no rose-water method with iniquity. It is the evangel of blood and fire; and those who object to such terminology are those who are without the evangel.

Moreover we are impressed with the fiery spirit of the evangelists. Authority, insistence, courage, invincibility. They came to no city to discuss philosophies, but they came to preach Christ. They came into the midst of all forms of religious life to recognize the elements of truth, but not to leave men in gloom. They came to correct the mistake, to redeem the truth from error, and to set men upon the highway. They were great intrepid daring fiery spirits; and it is only thus that the kingdom is ever to be won for our God and His Christ.

Acts 14:21-28 This is the story of the return journey, after the first missionary campaign of Paul. The last place visited in his outward march was Derbe. I think we are warranted in supposing that his work there was characterized by quietness and peace. No details are preserved, but it is recorded in the first verse of this paragraph, that when they had preached the Gospel to that city, and had made many disciples, they returned. From other writings we know that in Derbe the apostle gained a friend, a companion, a fellow-helper, in Gaius. Up to this point the whole journey had been characterized by stress and strain. It may be that the persecuting Jews did not know where Paul and his company had gone. Certainly they do not seem to have followed him to Derbe.

From Derbe the great eastern road ran through the passes of the Taurus range of mountains straight to Tarsus, from whence Paul and his company could have taken ship, and crossed quickly over to Seleucia, and so would have arrived at Antioch in Syria. That was the easy way back to the Church that had sent them forth. That would have been the most speedy and safe method of return; most speedy certainly, for the distance was very little in comparison with the route now taken. Instead of that they traversed the twenty miles back to Lystra, the forty on to Iconium, the sixty on to Antioch; and then came along the southern coast. The crossing of swollen rivers and the presence of robbers might have made the mountain passes dangerous. Nevertheless perils from robbers and rivers are always easier than perils from antagonistic fanatics.

Along the way by which they had come, they had left companies of angry men in every city, determined to deal with them, and if possible to put them to death. Instead of taking what appeared to be the speedy and safe way Paul turned back again, called at Lystra, and tarried there, how long we do not know; moved on to Iconium, tarried there, doing definite and specific work; went back again to Antioch in Pisidia, journeyed down through Pisidia, and stayed to preach at Perga. From thence he took ship, and sailed home.

The fact of this backward journey is significant. The outward journey had been one of missionary enterprise; it was the journey of a pioneer, the going into new territory, with a new evangel. He created division, bringing the sword wherever he came, dividing cities and men into two camps, believers and blasphemers, men full of jealousy, men filled with joy. Let us then survey this journey back; considering first the fact of that journey; secondly, its values; and finally, its consummation, as they rehearsed to the Church all the things that had been fulfilled.

As we think of the fact of that backward journey, the courage of it impresses us; and we are driven to enquire its cause. First of all Paul went from Derbe, the place of peaceful work, over the twenty miles of “wild and dusty plain,” to Lystra, the place of the stones. At this long distance of time from the actual happenings we are in danger of forgetting all the facts of the case. The end of his previous work in Lystra is very briefly told; they stoned him and left him for dead. So far as Lystra was concerned, that was the end of his ministry. It is easily read, but to understand it a little exercise of the imagination is necessary.

Twenty years after, the memory of that stoning was with him still: “Once was I stoned.” Such an experience was one that undoubtedly left its stamp upon him physically, to the end of his days. The journey completed, Derbe being evangelized in peace and in power, there was the short way home through the Taurus ranges, by Seleucia, to Antioch. But he did not take it, he went back to the place of the stones, back to the place of the suffering, back to the places where the hatred of his fellow countrymen, and the opposition of the new men whom he was seeking to lead to light, had broken out into fierceness, where they had rained stones upon him, and left him for dead.

Then he went back still further forty miles, to Iconium. He had left that city in haste. There had been perils and dangers in Iconium from the first of his preaching there; and he had tarried a long while because of the perils and the dangers. At last his friends had discovered there was a plot hatching to end his life, and under their advice he left in haste. Because the plot had failed when he was there before, it was not at all likely that those men had lost their resentment.

Once again, he went still further back to Antioch, over another sixty miles, through all the perils of that strange and wild country of Lycaonia, among men of strange speech. That was the city from which, at the end of his ministry, he had been cast out. He had to leave Antioch because Antioch would have him no longer.

We cannot read this paragraph, then, without seeing the wonderful courage of this man and his little company. If there was no good cause for this backward journey, it was the courage of foolhardiness. Why did he thus go back? The answer is to be found in the discovery of what he did. He went back to Lystra to find the little group of disciples; back to Iconium to see those who had believed; back to Antioch for the same purpose. He went back, confirming, exhorting, organizing.

Paul was driven back first by his consciousness of the importance of the truth which he had declared, the great Gospel of which he was not ashamed, which he knew to be the power of God unto salvation. The first visit through these cities had been that of proclamation; but in all the things he had said there were implications and applications, which it was necessary these early disciples should understand. He had passed through these cities preaching two things supremely: first, the risen Christ; and secondly, the possibility of man’s justification by faith in the risen Christ. These were great truths, arresting men, compelling attention, constraining belief in certain cases, and blasphemy in others.

But those who had been won by the words, constrained by them, and had believed, did not understand the full value of them. There were implications in the doctrines of resurrection and of justification. If these little groups of men, situated in an atmosphere so antagonistic to life, were not to be overcome, and devastated, it was necessary that they should be instructed. It was his passion for truth, and for its perfect understanding, that drove him back over the way. When years later, from prison he wrote the greatest of his letters-letters we had never had humanly speaking, apart from the limitation of the prison house-one thing he repeatedly said, in writing to his children in this very region, in Ephesus, Colossse, and Philippi, was that the supreme passion of his heart for them was always that they might have full knowledge. Full knowledge makes faith mightier, and hope burn more brightly, and love more profound. On the outward way he proclaimed the central verities, and gathered men in the first act of faith; but he went back, in order that the truth might have its full triumph in the lives of those who had believed.

Then he was drawn, not only by passion for truth, but by the fellowship of the saints. There in the cities were the companies, the assemblies, of separated souls. Think of those little groups in the different cities. In Lystra they had left the apostle for dead; but there were disciples there, among them probably Timothy. At Iconium was another group, so much alone, Jew and Gentile alike hating them. At Antioch were those proselytes of the gate, and those Hebrews who had dared to enter the larger life, very much alone.

The lure of the lonely saints compelled him to turn his back upon the Taurus passes, and the quick way home, to tramp the long distances, that he might minister a new courage to them. And what courage he must have brought when he came and stood in the midst of that little group at Lystra, and they saw the brands of the Lord Jesus upon his face, the brutal bruising of the stones still there. I think the fellowship of the saints drew him the long way home again.

But we do not touch the deepest note until we hear one word falling from his lips in the course of his confirmation and exhortation. He charged them that they should “continue in the faith; and that through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God.” The master passion of all his work is disclosed in the words: “the Kingdom of God.” The way into the Kingdom of God was declared, it is the way of tribulation. The meaning of that declaration is not that through tribulations individual men enter into the Kingdom of God. It is rather that through tribulation we realize the Kingdom of God, set up the Kingdom of God. This man, in common with all the great seers of God, recognized that the Kingdom of God is already established, but needing to be realized. The Kingdom of God is established, and no man escapes it.

We do not understand the buffeting of the tempest, and the mystery of the battle, and the strange perplexities in conflict of the saints as they march toward the ultimate; but we know that it is all within the Kingdom of God. No army marches across the face of the world, but that He marshalls the battalions, and overrules the movement.

But to enter the Kingdom, and bring men into relation with it, to establish it in the world, to cast out the forces that spoil, can only be done through tribulations. Did not this man know now, as he had not known before, that the Kingdom of God was established through the tribulations of the Lord Christ Himself? Only through tribulations can God enter into His Kingdom, and realize it in this world, with its sin and suffering and sorrow. Paul himself had felt the stones raining on him at Lystra, the physical agony and the mental disappointment; but he knew that by the process of that pain, he was helping to establish the Kingdom. It was the passion for the Kingdom that drove him on the outward journey through perils oft. It was the passion for the Kingdom that drove him back with fine statesmanship and consecration, to strengthen the little companies of men, who in their turn, through trial and tribulation should cooperate with God for the establishment of the Kingdom. This was the courage of faith, and of a great knowledge; courage born of a true conception of the methods by which God would establish His Kingdom.

The values of that journey back to the Churches may be expressed in three words: confirmation, exhortation, and organization.

Confirmation means reestablishment, or perhaps even better, further support. He went back to give further support to these Churches, to interpret to them the meaning of their life in Christ; a most important part of all Christian enterprise. Having seen the flaming glory, and heard the wooing winsomeness of the infinite music of the evangel of a risen Lord, and of justification, the young child of God must be taught the meaning of life in Christ. Paul went back to further establish, to support, to confirm.

But he went back for exhortation. He exhorted them to continue in the faith. In those cities the seen things were antagonistic. Go back to Lystra, Iconium, Antioch in Pisidia, get right into the midst of the city, and look around, and you will see temples, idols, shrines, lasciviousness, lust, luxury. That is a description of all cities, ancient and modern. Cities never change.

These people were living in the midst of these things. Oh, this lure of the near. How is a man to be victor over the things that can be seen and touched and handled, of which he is quite sure? By faith, which is the assurance of the unseen things. Faith is the venture that steps off the tangible; and in the doing of it, demonstrates to its own soul the reality of the intangible. Paul said to these men as he went back, Do not look at the seen things in Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch; continue in the faith.

This is the great word that ever needs to be uttered for the establishment of Christian life. He exhorted them to patience in tribulation, because that was the way of victory.

Then organization. He appointed elders, or presbyters, in all the Churches, by prayer with fasting, in the company of the Church. Finally he commended them, Church and elders, to the Lord in Whom they had believed. This was the first organization of the Church outside the area of Judaism.

So far all the emphasis of the declaration has been upon the Church. Was there any value in the return journey to the apostle? That return journey, and all such return journeys, gave him an exposition of the very doctrines which he had preached. Paul did not study theology before he began preaching, but learned his theology as he preached. It was when he had seen the effect produced by the evangel on life that he knew what justification and sanctification really meant. Seeing the effect of the Gospel on the lives of men, he came to an understanding of its power and method; and it was after such observation that he was able to say, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God.”

The return journey was thus also one of confirmation of his own Gospel. He saw its power, and was growingly convinced of its value. He was also confirmed in his purpose to continue in the great work.

I think there was also another value. When he had confirmed and exhorted and organized at Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, and after he had preached in Perga, and reached Attalia, there emerged another value of the long journey home. Watch the progress of that little ship along the coast, to the north of Cyprus, and observe that man on deck, bruised and battered, weakened physically by the perils of the journeys, and the brutality and cruelty. Look at his eyes, sore eyes, weak eyes perchance; but eyes through which on that sea voyage there flamed the glory of a triumph. I think the quiet restfulness of that sea voyage was great gain. Thank God this apostle was a man, who knew the weariness of work; and there was great value to him in the longer journey by sea, as he took his way back.

One brief glance at the consummation of the journey. The Church at Antioch had commended him to the grace of God. They had sent him forth with Barnabas to the work whereunto the Holy Spirit had called them. There at Antioch they had waited for his return, and had prayed. At last he came back to them, the work fulfilled, and they awaited the report.

That was a wonderful meeting when the Spirit had said, “Separate Me Barnabas and Saul”; and the Church had separated them, and sent them on their way. This also was a wonderful meeting, full of expectation, and the glory of a new enterprise. The men they had separated are there; one of them is bruised and weakened; he is carrying the brands of Jesus in his body. What will they talk about? “They rehearsed.” Did they tell about the difficulties, the stones and the bruises? Yes, but how did they tell them? Listen to the brief ring of triumph. “They rehearsed all things that God had done with them, and how that He opened a door of faith unto the Gentiles.” Their view-point was that of the Divine activity.

Other things were out of sight, or set in relation to it. But the supreme thing they said to the Church was this, that “God had opened a door of faith unto the Gentiles,” That was the report.

As we close this meditation there is one sentence of supreme value to all Christian men and women. “Through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God.” The form and fashion of the tribulations change with changing years, but the principle abides. The places of suffering are the places of power. Lystra, the place of stones, is the dynamic centre, “I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost; for a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries” That is the reason why he stayed, The place of power is where the adversaries are, and the stones, and the tribulations. It is the process of tribulation that brings the victory.

“Far down the ages now, Her journey well-nigh done, The pilgrim Church pursues her way In haste to reach the crown. The story of the past Comes up before her view; How well it seems to suit her still, Old, and yet ever new!

“‘Tis the same story still, Of sin and weariness; Of grace and love still flowing down To pardon and to bless: No wider is the gate, No broader is the way, No smoother is the ancient path, That leads to light and day.

“No sweeter is the cup, No less our lot of ill; ‘Twas tribulation ages since, ‘Tis tribulation still: No slacker grows the fight, No feebler is the foe, No less the need of armour tried Of shield and spear and bow.

“Thus onward still we press, Through evil and through good, Through pain and poverty and want, Through peril and through blood; Still faithful to our God, And to our Captain true; We follow where He leads the way, The Kingdom in our view.”