Acts 16

Acts 16:1-40

PAUL AND HIS Acts 16:1-40. IN entering upon this second volume in the study of Acts, we proceed from no point of natural break. That point was passed in the ninth chapter. Since the conversion of Saul, the one Apostle who has been in the ascendant, was that same Saul, now called by his new name, Paul; and when you read, “Then came he to Derbe and Lystra”, it is another sentence out of the life of the new convert, now the greatest among his brethren.Personality is the interest in all productions. It is not the landscape in novels, nor the record of battles and revolutions in history that grip and retain attention. It is the individual in the landscape, and it is the hero in the battle that attracts and holds the same. That is why this Book wears its name, “The Acts of the Apostles”.

The personnel of the Book is the point of central and intense interest.There are five distinct thoughts found in this chapter: The Selection of an Associate, The Direction of the Spirit, The Search for a Church Service, The Dispossession of a Demon, and The Dangers Changed to Defenses.THE OF AN Paul was in search of an associate. “And, behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek”. In that young man the Apostle made a rich find.

The search of Paul here has ever been and will long remain the major search of seniors in God’s work. The old man needs youth for companionship. The spirit of man is affected by constant association. If youth is made more sober by fellowship with age, conversely, age is made more youthful by companionship with the young. A man who is content in the company of old men only is old indeed; his youthful days are done; he only lives in reminiscences, and on that account seeks the fellowship of those who have long and retentive memories. But the man who lives for the future, whose vision is on the unborn days rather than the buried ones, absolutely demands junior association.

He is in sympathy with their intellectual outlook, their spirit of hopefulness, and especially with their plans and programs. Then, of course, the advance senior, whose life work has been effective, knows that he must find another, not only to carry forward the work which he has so well commenced, but to bring to realization his more far-reaching plans.

That is why Christ must be succeeded by Apostles. The “things which He began both to do and to teach” demanded for their continuance and more satisfactory accomplishment successors. It is true of every intelligent aged man that his eyes are always open, for in promising youth, and in youth alone can he find even a promise of completed endeavors.This Timothy was justly commended. He was the son of a mixed marriage—Jewish mother and Greek father, but he “was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium”. The people of those two cities knew him, and it is always a fine thing to bring your commendations from people who know you. There are men abroad who make it their business to secure a commendation from men they never met but once.

These are not all book agents; some of them profess to be preachers, and others of them ecclesiastical experts. Some one has defined an ecclesiastical expert as a most ordinary man remote from home.

The definition is justified in the face of facts. One of the strange effects of the present controversy in theology is the readiness with which certain partisans recommend their kind. There are bishops and church superintendents not a few who will ask one question and one only of the man in search of a parish, “Do you agree with our view of the Bible and Christ? Will you perform the part of a good partisan? In other words, will you back the program? If so, we are ready to commend you.” Timothy received his recommendation after another manner altogether. He neither solicited it from strangers, nor secured it from partisans. It was volunteered by his brethren.

Doubtless Paul told them that he needed an associate, and with one voice they said, “Timothy is the man. He is Biblical, spiritual, sane, dependable,” and when they had finished Paul was ready to have Timothy “go forth with him; and he took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters: for they knew all that his father was a Greek”, Paul never unnecessarily offended even his stumbling brethren. He was politic without being compromising; considerate without a surrender of conviction. Hence his conduct in this matter.The cause profited by the combination. Our opening sentence was, “Then came he to Derbe and Lystra”. Now the pronoun changes. “As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained of the Apostles and Elders which were at Jerusalem”.

The Apostle is no longer alone. The pronoun “he” has given place to the pronoun “they”.

The individual has multiplied himself. Two men are better than one. If one should chase one thousand, two shall put ten thousand to flight. So the churches were strengthened in faith and increased in number daily.There is many a man who is only one-tenth of himself because he has not found a confederate in labor. Charles Spurgeon mightily multiplied his ministry through his great brother who stood for years at his side and shared with him in every service. A. J. Gordon, Boston’s first minister, was made a mighty power by the companionship of John McElwain, and A.

C. Dixon’s ministry in Chicago was many times multiplied by his associate Woolley. The principle, then, adopted by Paul has proven a profitable one through the ages.THE OF THE SPIRITThey were directed even to the point of restraint. “Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the Word in Asia. After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not” (Acts 16:6-7). The true disciple is both guided by the Spirit and restrained by the Spirit. We put bits in the horse’s mouth both to restrain and guide, and restraint is sometimes quite as essential, if not more so, than guidance itself.

There is many a man who rushes into danger or off to an undetermined duty, who needs to be drawn back by the Holy Ghost. It is a great thing to come to the point where one isn’t determined to have his way, to take the part of his own choosing, to visit the city of his preference, to mingle with the people of his pleasure.

Strong men are naturally impatient of restraint, but they are often the very men that need the same. Going is a good thing, but its greatest profit is proven when God guides. Doing is essential, but it produces its finest fruit when Spirit-directed.The Spirit has a place of special direction. “And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night”. We will not discuss this vision now because it is so important that we propose a chapter upon the same, but let us not pass it without remembering that the Spirit can get a hearing better in some places than in others. At your bedside where you are wont to pray; in the study where you are accustomed to prepare the discourse for the people; in the hour and locality of your agony, when you know not what path to take— these are places of the Spirit’s appearance.

In these a vision is often born and a clear call is often heard, and the straight course is often marked out for men and women who know God and seek the direction of the Holy Ghost.He had a definite task awaiting him. “The Lord had called us for to preach the Gospel unto them”. We will not further elaborate this fact lest we encroach upon the following chapter, but we cannot pass from it without saying, “The Spirit seldom directs you to any spot without having there a definite task to be discharged.” Think of the day when “the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert”, and see the task set for Philip, namely, that of teaching the Ethiopian treasurer the way.

Had not the Ethiopian, an earnest searcher after truth, been on that South way, Philip would never have been sent thither. Do not fear to go even into an apparently desert place if God appoints it. He will people the desert and empower your ministry when you reach it.The thirteenth verse suggests another subject:THE SEARCH FOR A CHURCH SERVICE“And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying” (Acts 16:16). Different people spend their Sabbaths differently. Some go to the riverside in search of fish. Others go to the riverside in search of green grass and shadowed spots of rest and drinking and eating and outing.

Sadly must we admit that the Sabbath is increasingly despiritualized. It is a sport day instead of a day for the soul.

The assembly of the saints is forgotten and the lusts of the flesh are pandered to. The attitude a man entertains toward the assemblies of God’s people is a crucial test of his soul’s estate. “Tell me with who thou dost company and I will tell thee who thou art.” Recite to me how you spend your Sundays and I will know the state of your spiritual life. By this “we know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren”.The assembly commonly holds the sincere. “The women resorted thither. And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God”, she was there and “heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul”, Oh, to be able to preach to the individual or to the company that really want to know the truth! That is a privilege indeed! “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it he of God, or whether I speak of myself” (John 7:7). The reason you get converts out of your congregation is that there are sincere souls that come into it.

Lydia was not there to look at the spring bonnets or to meet a beau, but rather to get a blessing upon her soul. This made preaching worthwhile, and such keep the Church of God alive and the Cause of Christianity on the upward climb.The new convert is often the beginning of a church.

The house of Lydia became the assembly place of the saints. She constrained them to come in. There are men who call themselves ministers and who tell me that if they could only get a church they could then do great things. That is easy. Do what an Irish graduate of the Northwestern Bible and Missionary Training School did. Walk into the country seven miles; ask the good farmer and his wife to invite in their neighbors and let you preach in the house; and if you preach in the power and demonstration of the Spirit, you will shortly have a church.

This Irish evangelist saw the wife of the farmer converted the first night, a neighbor and his wife converted the next night, and forty-five in that neighborhood baptized at the end of a month’s meetings in a house, and by the time three months were passed, a beautiful church built and paid for and a whole community lifted into the light and led into unthinkable privileges. But don’t imagine that everything can move without a jar.

There will be difficulties in the way and even demons to dispossess.THE OF THE DEMON“And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: “The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. “And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the Name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. “And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the market place unto the rulers. “And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, “And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans. “And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them, “And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: “Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks” (Acts 16:16-24). This malady may have been only a distorted talent. We read, “A certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying”. Where the language here employed would indicate that the spirit was the spirit of the Pithian Apollo, it approached possibly an expression something akin to our ventriloquism; and being an unusual talent, could be turned to financial profit. It may not have been even supernatural in any sense, since their attributing their talent to python would simply be recognizing their god as the source of the same. But we know now that there are many talents of the ventriloquist nature that take on special proportions in the individual life, and quite often they are profitable. Within bounds, these are not necessarily wrong and may be even desirable.

Think of Houdini, the magician! His feats were nothing short of marvelous.

Again and again he challenged the leading spiritualists of the land to do anything by the professed aids of spirits that he could not perform by deception or magic. Houdini, had he been willing to deceive himself and others, would have claimed to be in league with the spirit world and brought evidences that would have overwhelmingly convinced the mighty majority; but, as a Christian man, he spurned such a course and employed his unusual talents to uncover the deceptive conduct of those who profited by pretense.This girl’s dispossession proved her demonic employment. Her masters were servants of Satan and they were willing to degrade her in the interest of their personal purses. Therein is involved a principle. You will find that a big majority of people in the world that are doing wrong, are doing it at the behest of somebody who prospers through the prostitution. White slavery is commonly in the interest of some bloated indolent who prefers to prostitute other people than to be seriously employed.

The illegal sale of liquor is inspired by wholesale indolents. Gambling is encouraged in “the profit of the house,” and so on.

They are veritable masters of iniquity and they have their multiplied minions. We are further impressed here with the fact thatHer employers were flamed with the spirit of patriotism.“They caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers,“And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city,“And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.“And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them.“And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely:“Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks” (Acts 16:19-24).The biggest crooks of the community are often the loudest champions of patriotism. Their professed loyalty to government is animated by the hope of personal profit. When the Philippine trouble was on between the United States and that country, the most flaming patriots among us were the venders of war material, and even in the frightful World War with Germany, our noblest spirits and our most loyal men and women were mild in their advocacy of our government beside the eloquence of those who were making money out of the holocaust. There is a patriotism that is pure and there is another that is putrid, and the writer has had a man who owned and operated houses of assignation with their drinking attachments, take him to serious task that he was not under all conditions and at all times an advocate of war. That gentleman was also engaged in the business of making war materials.

It is a good thing to look into the secret of patriotism before we pass upon the sincerity of it; and yet, this text is interesting in that it takes you on from the dispossession of the demon toTHE DANGERS CHANGED TO Prison is not a bad place for an Apostle! At least, so Paul and Silas seemed to consider, for at midnight they“prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. “And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed. “And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. “But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. “Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, “And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. “And they spake unto him the Word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. “And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. “And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house” (Acts 16:26-34). When did Paul and Silas ever have a better night with more excitement in it, attended by more blessed spiritual experiences and better soul-winning success? Prison has no terrors for a true prophet of God.Prison keepers are always possible converts. You would expect to find them hard men. Their vocation you would imagine would degrade them. The members of society they see, the fellowship they are daily compelled to have, and the repressive measures they are expected to employ—these all tend to harden; and as a rule your sheriff and your jail man are not good convert prospects. But who can resist the Spirit of God?

What hard heart can ignore an earthquake, and what closed mind is not stirred to some action, at least, by a manifest miracle?Persecutors are in sore need of a stock of apologies. They seem to have had them here. The jailor apologizes. Apology did not take the form of words, but of deeds:“He washed their stripes: and was baptized, he and all his, straightway” (Acts 16:33). “He set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house” (Acts 16:34). The magistrates apologized and“sent the serjeants, saying, Let those men go. “And the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul, The magistrates have sent to let you go: now therefore depart, and go in peace. “But Paul said unto them, They have beaten us openly uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison; and now do they thrust us out privily? nay verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out. “And the serjeants told these words unto the magistrates: and they feared, when they heard that they were Romans. “And they came and besought them, and brought them out, and desired them to depart out of the city” (Acts 16:36-38). It is amazing how quickly some men can change from mighty threateners into meek apologists, and they are always men of one sort—men who have done wrong and been wrong and who know it, and their threats continue until they are discovered and their skin is in danger, and then they speak with a voice as soft as an evening zephyr, as gentle as a rising sea breeze. This chapter concludes gloriously. “And they went out of the prison, and entered into the house of Lydia: and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, and departed” (Acts 16:40). After all, there is no place like the church—the house where God is honored, where Christ is worshipped; and the persecuted Apostle seldom suffers as much as his devoted brethren. The latter need the comfort and the former are always able to contribute it. Let me conclude this chapter by the promise of a special treatment of Act 16:9-10.

Acts 16:9-10

AN APOSTLE S DREAM Acts 16:9-10. IT is a wonderful Scripture! It is a day and night out of the life of the most wonderful Apostle and Preacher this world-conquering faith has ever known—even Paul. He had recently discovered Timothy, the son of a Jewess and a Greek. He had made of him a traveling companion, and with him had gone through the cities, delivering the decrees of God, ordaining elders at Jerusalem, strengthening the churches in the faith; and seeing a host of converts in every place. And when they had finished the region of Phrygia and Galatia, and were come over against Mysia, and thought to go to Bithynia; “the Spirit of Jesus suffered them not,” but directed them to Troas.Weary and worn they sought the rest of the night; but sleep does not always come to the exhausted man, and if it does, labors are not thereby at an end, for while the body is bound by slumber, the mind is intensively active, and the plans and purposes of life may be running on, prosecuting to the point of both mental and physical exhaustion. We invite attention, therefore, to three things: The Apostle’s Dream, The Macedonian Desire, and The Divine Direction. THE APOSTLE’S DREAM “A vision appeared to Paul in the night”. The day thoughts determine the night’s dream. This rule has its exceptions! There are dreams that we find ourselves unable to link up with anything that we ever thought or felt in our waking hours, with anything that ever remotely touched even the winged imagination. Father Ryan writes: “To the lovely land of dreams, Where what is meets with what seems Brightly dim; dimly bright, Where the suns meet stars at night, Where the darkness meets the light Heart to heart, face to face, In an infinite embrace. “Mornings break, And we wake, And we wonder where we went In the bark Thro’ the dark, But our wonder is mis-spent; For no day can cast a light On the dreamings of the night.” And yet, the rule is that the thoughts of the day influence the visions of the night, and if a man has been living upon a high plane and holding communion with Him who dwells in the heavenlies, it is not a matter of surprise that when sleep has come the spirit goes on with its communion, and receives its revelation, for, as the same Father Ryan wrote: “Ah! dreams of such a lofty reach With more than earthly fancies fraught, That not the strongest wings of speech Could ever touch their lowest thought.” You have heard of the young American art student, who sat in a National Art Gallery in Europe and tried to copy a famous painting by one of the old masters. For weary days he had patiently wrought at the easel with poor results. One day as he sat before his easel, overcome with weariness, he slept; and as he slept he dreamed that the spirit of the old master came and possessed him, and seizing a fresh piece of canvas he rapidly reproduced the masterpiece before him. And, from the hour of the dream, he was indeed capable as never before, even as Paul from the hour of this dream burned with more missionary enthusiasm than had ever characterized his consecrated past. But in passing we note another fact: The Apostle’s design was crossed by the direction of Providence. “They assayed to go into Bithynia; but the Spirit suffered them not”. To Macedonia instead they were Divinely directed. That little touch in the Apostle’s life is a revelation both of his character and of his consecration. The church has in it all too many people who never consult any opinion beyond their own, or take counsel from any source higher than the human mind. Such people often pride themselves on their “judgment”, talk of themselves as “conservative”, emphasize the fact that “a man ought to see a subject from every side before he acts”, request “time for deliberation”, excoriate people that “leap” into this, that and the other, and denominate those who dream great dreams and attempt great things as “visionaries”. Such men would never undertake anything that did not approve itself to their judgment, no matter what God said.

Such people live by “sight” and take little stock in what others call “faith”. They trust the testimony of the five senses, but smile at the idea that the Spirit of God is even capable of speech. Such men never accomplish the greatest things; such men are never world conquerors, and in the nature of the case never can be. They are fitted for a little prattling round! They can grow flowers in the front yard and table luxuries in the back yard; they can keep the lawn mown until the hair on the mink’s back is not more smooth; they can win out at the country fair with the finest basket of fruit, but they can never go far afield. A Cromwell can say, “I bless God I have been inured to difficulty, and I testify that I have never found God failing when I truly trusted Him.” And a greater than Cromwell—the Commander of all centuries and all countries—could say, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world”, and raise the question, “What is the victory that overcometh the world?” and answer it, “Even your faith.” Paul had the spirit of a Cromwell and the Spirit of the Christ, and when the providential plan crossed the Apostle’s path he put no trust in his little human inventions, or plans, or desires, but swung about and took the course the Holy Ghost hinted. Such a man is fitted to be an apostle of the faith of Jesus Christ, a Captain in the army that is to know conquest to the uttermost parts of the earth. Paul knew what some men forget, namely, this: The Divine plan always exceeds even an Apostle’s purpose. If asked today, “What is the greatest lesson that the Christian can learn?” I should be compelled to witness that it is in this very suggestion: The Divine plan exceeds the best that is in the human mind. Peace and power are the portion only of those who reach the point where they are fully persuaded that the Divine plan is the best one, and consequently surrender themselves in waiting for His manifestation and in working along the line of the Spirit’s suggestion. As the clay cannot fashion itself into a vision of beauty, but by yielding to the potter’s touch is appointed to honor, so man can accomplish more by letting God direct his energies and determine his destiny, than if he go forth in his own power. His will was not given him to oppose the Divine will but to discover the Divine will and do it. Tennyson knew a great deal of truth and he wrote some of it down when he said: “Our wills are ours, we know not how; Our wills are ours to make them Thine.” Jesus Christ Himself, with infinite wisdom as His portion, could say to God the Father, “Lo, I come to do Thy will”. And in that fact is found the explanation of His otherwise inexplicable life. Horace Bushnell declares, “The simple thought of a life which is the unfolding of the Divine plan is too beautiful, too captivating to suffer one indifferent or heedless moment. Living in this manner, every turn you experience will be a discovery to you of God, every change a token of His Fatherly counsel! Even your burdens and trials and losses and wrongs (for come they must and will) will be regarded by you as opportunities, coming that God may gird you for greater things, and that these are only a part of His own blessed plan.” We talk a great deal about the old Puritan fathers, and their proud descendants are quite ready to put away their Puritan religion; but the one thing that made them men of might was that same faith! They submitted everything to God, believed in the Divine plan above all else, and sought the same assiduously. When the fortunes of the army were low in the troubled days of 1648, and the officers of the army wanted to hold an inquiry into the matter, they did not appoint a commission, as we would do in this day, but a prayer meeting in Windsor instead, and Cromwell declared that was the sane thing to do. Now in the Church, when anything is wrong we appoint a time and place of a committee meeting instead. The meaning is that we want to get men’s wisdom, but they wanted to find out the will of God. If your purpose is crossed by the Divine plan, put your purpose aside, for the Divine commission always exceeds the Apostle’s purpose.

If you have desired to go to Bithynia, and God says “Macedonia”, give up your preference, adopt His appointment. The former would only prove a mistake if you made it; the latter will prove a revelation. And in that revelation we find our second suggestion. THE ’S DESIRE It was a representative speech. “Come over into Macedonia and help us”. Mark you, this Macedonian’s speech is in the plural. It is no personal appeal that he has to present, save as he identifies himself with his nation’s interest. He speaks for his neighbors; he speaks for his land—a land that was lying in ignorance under the dominance of devils. Almost without exception God raises up in every generation and in every section some one man whose heart is big enough to take on the social and moral burdens of the people, and whose sympathies are wide enough both to see his neighbor’s need and sweep it with a great desire for help. Such men are God’s prophets, as a rule, and to them alone did the poet’s words make appeal: “Somebody near you is struggling alone Over life’s desert sand; Faith, hope and courage together are gone; Reach him a helping hand; Turn on his darkness a beam of your light; Kindle, to guide him, a beacon-fire bright; Cheer his discouragement, soothe his affright, Lovingly help him to stand. “Somebody near you is hungry and cold; Send him some aid to-day; Somebody near you is feeble and old, Left without human stay. Under his burden put hands kind and strong; Speak to him tenderly, sing him a song, Haste to do something to help him along Over his weary way. “Dear one, be busy, for time flieth fast, Soon it will all be gone, Soon will our season of service be past, Soon will our day be done. Somebody near you needs now a kind word; Somebody needs help such as you can afford; Haste to assist in the Name of the Lord, There may be a soul to be won.” This appeal was addressed to a commissioned prophet. Paul was no ordinary man, not even a self-constituted philosopher. He was God’s man— the man for the hour and the man for the need. I often think of what Newell Dwight Hillis said of the true prophet, namely this, “If we ask history to instruct us, we shall see that every prophet foretelling new times has had three characteristics. He is a seer and sees clearly; he is a great heart and feels deeply; he is a hero and dares valiantly.” But vision-power is the first and last gift. That vision and outlook God has given to every Moses and Elijah, to every John and Paul, and with instant skill they have laid the finger upon the diseased spot in the social life. But it is not enough that the seer has the vision that sees. * * What his mind sees his heart must also feel.” No man who does not take the world’s sufferings into his very soul can ever speak to them with comforting words; and the one reason why the Apostle Paul could win men and women by the hundreds from sin to the Saviour was in the circumstance that he was God’s anointed Apostle, and God could make him such because his heart beat with sorrow for human woe and pain and ignorance and death. This appointment emphasizes the power of personality. The Macedonian did not want Paul to send him a letter, even though he might have written one that equalled that which went to Corinth or to the Romans; he did not want Paul to send them a message of love, or to lay a hand upon the Gospel of Luke, or Matthew, or Mark, and forward it. He wanted him to come in person. It would not have been sufficient even for him to have sent Timothy. This Macedonian knew what men are more and more learning, viz., that personality is a great power in the world. Eloquently has John Watson voiced this fact for us, declaring that any cause can endure hardness, and will accomplish mighty results and retain the dew of its youth if only it is properly represented in a great-souled person.

S. E. Herrick, speaking of John Calvin, says, “There are some men like the Amazon, whose work refuses to be speedily absorbed or assimilated, for, though they have thrown themselves into the world’s common treasury of thought and experience, they still remain what they were before; so strong and vigorous are they that their personality abides.” He thinks that Choate and Blackstone were such men in the realm of law; that Shakespeare and Milton were such men in the realm of poetry, Bacon and Newton in the realm of science, Raphael and Angelo in art.” Certainly Paul was such a man in the work of the Church of God, and in Christ’s great field of conquest—the world. They wanted him. At this moment the hope of China and of Africa and Japan and of the Isles is not more the Gospel we are sending them than the men who go as our representatives, and when history is complete, and our children’s children shall turn the pages of the same, there will be no prouder pages discovered than those that cover the character and accomplishments of those who have gone from us to the foreign fields to preach the everlasting Gospel of the Son of God, and to live in the midst of the natives, Christ and Him crucified. But once again, this text involves THE APOSTLE’S “And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the Gospel unto them” (Acts 16:10). In the cry of the man he heard the call of God. Why then should Christian young men and women get together and debate the question as to whether God had ever called them to the foreign field, when by it some of them mean that God has never spoken to them in any audible voice and said, “I want you in Africa”? Is it not true that the African himself, in his ignorance and squalor, and sin, turning his face away from his black land to the white man in pitiful appeal—that his voice is the call of God? Did not the Samaritan properly interpret the Divine call when on his way to Jericho he saw at the roadside the man wounded and dying, and heard in that groan a voice from God? And is not this the very thing of which Christ Himself is speaking when in Matthew’s Gospel, the twenty-fifth chapter, He writes: “I was an hungred, and ye gave Me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took Me not in: naked, and ye clothed Me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited Me not. “Then shall they also answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we Thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto Thee? “Then shall He answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to Me” (Matthew 25:42-45). Yes, in the cries that are coming to us from the heathen nations of the earth, we are hearing the call of God. Their pitiful condition is His powerful appeal! In his answer he involves his fellows. There is a singular change in the subject involved in this text. Without any apparent reason, it changes from singular to plural; the laws of grammar are well-nigh disregarded in obedience to the laws of the Spirit, for it read, “And when he had seen the vision, straightway we sought to go forth into Macedonia.” “No man lives unto himself.” Our influence is always felt by our fellows and our action is always determining their conduct. The man who never believes in foreign missions on the day of the offering will find an easy following, and the man who does believe in it and puts his prayers and thought and money into the redemption of black men and yellow men and red men, will carry with him others to this same Christ-like work. Paul was not alone, nor will any man long remain solitary who engages in such endeavor. Carey felt at first that he would never find fellowship in this service, but his alarm was without occasion; and Judson was at first discouraged, thinking that his influence was not felt anywhere, but it reached every continent and circled the world and brought into service tens of hundreds of his fellows, and millions of money. The greatest need of every country, of every city, of every little community, is men who have heard the voice of God, and in answer to the same have made themselves leaders of their fellows. Dr. Marvin Vincent speaks of that game which we used to play as children, “Follow the leader!” and insists that it has an application to later life when great leaders in Christian thought and Christian endeavor and Christian conquest are not to be left to go alone. When Christ rose up to go to Jerusalem some of the disciples said, “Then we also will go with Thee”, and one of them made the remark which, after his baptism of the Spirit, he was able to fulfil, should it become needful, namely, “I will die with Thee”.God give us men of great souls, for such men never move alone! When they answer the Macedonian cry their brethren will join them in going forth. Finally, The only instrument of help for Macedonia was the old Gospel. “Knowing that God had called us to preach the Gospel unto them”. Until this hour there is no other. Talk of “the light of Asia”—it is in Christ! Talk of the illumination of Africa—it is with the Gospel! Talk of the redemption of India—“There is no other name”, nor any other “philosophy of the plan of salvation”! Talk of the renewal of Japan—it will never be until Japan is regenerated through the preaching of the Gospel! Talk about the salvation of the Isles of the Sea—the old Gospel is the only thing that has ever wrought it, or ever will! Oh, to give that to men! To send it to Japan, to India, to South America! To send it into the heart of China! This is indeed the opportunity of the century! We can afford to despise the lesser things that we may accomplish perfectly this larger thing. One writes, “We have read somewhere of a ship captain who passed a dismantled vessel that was sinking in mid-ocean. He saw the signals of distress; he heard the shrieks of men and women crowding its deck; yet he held his course though officers and men implored him to stop, and offered at the risk of their lives to rescue the people from the sinking ship. His vessel was freighted with a costly cargo, destined for a port where it was in great demand. Another vessel had sailed the same day, laden with a similar cargo, for the same port. Could he reach his destination a single day in advance, he would make enormous profits. Should his vessel be out sailed, another would gather in the wealth he coveted. “He sailed on. The ill-fated bark went down with its cargo of human life. He reached the port in time; he reaped the golden harvest; he bought the silence of those who witnessed his heartless deed; he ranked high in business circles; but he lived and died a miserable man. The memory of his crime tortured him by day and haunted his dreams by night. When storms swept the coast near by his princely mansion, he fancied he could hear in the wail of the winds the wild shrieks of the men and women he had abandoned to their fate. Often he would start from his sleep with the command on his lips to ‘Lower the boat!’ only to feel the cold sweat of mortal agony on his brow, and the sharp tooth of remorse in his heart. “The sight of ocean became a reproach, for it was the sepulchre of those his selfishness had slain; and the sight that its distant surges brought to his ear seemed an accusing voice proclaiming his guilt. He sought a hiding-place in solitude; but the memory of that sinking ship peopled his quiet retreat with spectral forms, and haunted him back to the thoroughfares of life. His deed had passed beyond recall. The victims of his avarice were buried where no sounding line could reveal the mystery of that missing ship. His secret was safe in his own heart; but, like the sting of the worm that ‘dieth not’, he found no relief from its ceaseless pain. He must bear with him through time and to eternity the memory of his inhuman deed. “Other men are sailing over the ocean of life with their ships freighted with costly merchandise. Other vessels are floundering on the deep. The storms of passion or misfortune sweep the track of many a vessel, leaving it a helpless hulk upon the sea of life. The cry of human hearts, desperate amid their pains and perils, are going up for help. Sorrowing ones are on life’s ocean, with hearts and lives made desolate by their hands in mute appeal for sympathy and help. Boys and girls are tossing on that stormy sea, with no hearts to love them, and no hands to guide their erring steps aright.

Young men are on that ocean, helpless moral wrecks, at the mercy of every gust of appetite and passion, drifting hopelessly on, unless some one sends a lifeboat to their relief. Women old and withered, and young and fair, are looking out for help beneath the lowering sky, and across a stormy sea. Some along in life are struggling feebly in the depths of poverty, and some, torn from the moorings of virtue by ruthless hands, have been abandoned to the unfeeling winds and waves of human life, without hope, unless some friends, tender and strong, shall lead them to Him who alone can say, ‘Thy sins, which are many, are forgiven thee’. “From men and women hungry, sick, and dying, the cry is ever going up for help. From men and women, feeding on the Dead Sea fruit of vicious pleasure, yielding the ashes of bitter pain, the cry for help is ever heard. From Christian and from heathen lands the voice of humanity in tones of deep despair is sending forth its cry, and Christ has laid, not on angels, but on men, the commission of their relief. His life was spent in doing good, and that example He has left as a sacred legacy to those who would follow in His steps. We are not living for ourselves alone, but every human being, whether in the depths of sorrow shrouded by ignorance, or sinking in the sea of sin, has a claim upon us as strong as that the dying thief had on the dying Saviour.”

Acts 16:25

SONGS IN THE NIGHT Acts 16:25. MUSIC is not a modern art! It dates back to the beginning of human history. Before the fourth chapter of Genesis has gone far with the Adamic family tree, it puts in a musical branch in the person of “Jubal, who was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ”, and, if we are to credit the Old Testament record, song accompanied the stringed instruments. That Israel employed it to sacred ends, witness Miriam, Jephthah’s daughter, Deborah and others. But sacred song never found its fittest subject till Christ came, and ever since, in proportion to the progress of true Christianity, song has risen to higher note and harmonies more heavenly. What Paul and Silas sang we know not, save that “they sang hymns”, but that is sufficient.

That fact is full of suggestions. The first is this:SINGING IS A SACRED We do not half appreciate it, half realize its joy or power. We do not consider its origin, its obligation, its proper exercise, as becometh Christians. It is a sacred gift from God. The child who is possessed of perfect vocal organs, to whom song comes as to the lark or the nightingale, is favored far above the millions of us who are compelled to take our place, musically, with the grunting swine or silent swan. I thank God for the powers of speech. I praise Him for a voice by which preaching is possible, but I never hear man or woman lift up a voice clear as a bell and harmonious as organ-peal, and soulful as an angel, but I come near breaking the last link in the commandment-chain, “Thou shalt not covet anything that is thy neighbor’s.” How any man can ever sing so as to charm his fellows, and forget the God who gave him his voice, I do not understand. The great Haydn, when an old man, sat down to listen to a company of sweet singers render his oratorio, “The Creation”, and when they came to that mighty passage, “Let there be light”, he sprang from his seat, and throwing his hands toward heaven, burst into tears, saying, “Not from me! Not from me; but from God it came!” And unto God it ought to be given. Paul and Silas were tithing their voices this midnight. They were not of those who, having a talent, hide it in a napkin and complain that they were given no more, but rather of those who take every talent and put it on interest that their Lord at His Coming might have His own with usury. The dumb souls of our churches are not sinless in their silence. More of us could sing if only we were more arduous in our efforts, and more of us could play if we were more patient and painstaking. To me, one of the severest commentaries on feminine Christianity and feminine accomplishments exists in the fact that not one woman out of forty can play a piano or organ to the notes of a Gospel song.

And, yet, music is supposed to be a sine qua non in female education. And it is a fact that quite a few of our schoolbred sisters can creditably acquit themselves with an operatic air, a love-ditty, or the tunes of the dance. So much the greater shame if these same profess Jesus Christ and yet cannot keep to the chords of a Gospel hymn sufficiently well to lead a congregation. I would that every man and woman who. can sing at all, that every one who knows the use of piano key or organ stop, would say of his musical talent what Tom Sullivan, the converted criminal, said of his voice, “I haven’t much of it, but I mean to grow it, and whether it be small or great, I’ll give it to God.” In the next place our text suggests THE CHIEF SUBJECT OF SACRED SONG“Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God”, and we know that Jesus was the subject of that midnight song. When they preached Jesus, the Roman magistrates put them in hold. But if they cannot preach Him, they will sing His love. There was in their throbbing hearts that night a sentiment akin to that which stirred the saintly Samuel Medley when he wrote, “Oh, could I speak the matchless worth, Oh, could I sound the glories forth Which in my Saviour shine, Id soar and touch the heavenly strings And vie with Gabriel while he sings In notes almost Divine. “I’d sing the precious blood He spilt My ransom from the dreadful guilt Of sin and wrath Divine! Id sing His glorious righteousness In which all-perfect heavenly dress My soul shall ever shine. “I’d sing the character He bears And all the forms of love He wears Exalted on His throne. In loftiest songs of sweetest praise I would to everlasting days Make all His glories known.” And from that night the saints of God have needed no new subject, “Sweetest note in seraph song, Sweetest Name on mortal tongue, Sweetest carol ever sung, Jesus, blessed Jesus.” Some months ago a mother, dying in this city, called her children—grown-up men and women— about her bed and said to them, “Darlings, I am about to go and I want you to sing me over the river.” They got their books, and looking into the pale face, they asked, “About what shall we sing, mother?” She replied, “There is but one subject! Sing to me of Jesus and His love!” And while they sang she ceased breathing, and the bright spirit, still listening from this shore, was greeted by the angel choir, and lo, they confirmed her opinion, for they sang, “Alleluia to the Lamb.” SONG IS NOT TO BE BY They had put Paul and Silas into the inner prison —a place of filth, foul air and pestilence. Still they sang! They had made their feet fast in stocks, and almost certainly manacled their hands. But their mouths were open, and out of them praises poured. Beloved, the love of Christ will constrain song in singular places. The ardent spirit is not so much governed and choked by times and seasons, but in season and out of season speaks for his Lord.

The Christian singer might not ask always for a choir gallery and a sympathizing audience. The sinful world needs his song the more, and the more sinful his auditors are, the more savage and brutal they are, the greater occasion for that courage that clears its throat, stands boldly up, give its sweetest note. It is no trial whatever to stand in a choir gallery and send out a silvery voice to those who watch in sympathy, and with thirsty ears drink every sound. But out yonder in the street, where jeering men and leering women, and low-bred boys banter you and blaspheme; yonder, where the Salvationists stand shoe-deep in mud to sing, it costs something. We can but believe that a song there stands for more than a song here, just as a sermon there is braver than a sermon here. Sing, then, wherever song is needed.

Convert the street-corner into a sanctuary, even the damnable saloon into a place of praise. A young tenor singer came from his home in the east to visit a friend in Chicago. This friend took him to see the board of trade with its great wheat pit, the auditorium and some of the largest mercantile establishments. Then he said, “Now I have shown some of the best things. Perhaps you care to see some of our worst things,” and he took him to haunts where vice held high carnival. In one of these places the inmates were singing ribald songs. At last they called upon this young man to sing.

He didn’t know what to do. His musical love was sacred only, and thinking a moment he said, “Courage, my heart! In this hell I must stand by my Christian colors”, and he opened his lips. In clear sweet tones he sang, “Jesus, Lover of My Soul”. They were charmed by the voice; they scarce thought of the words. When he finished they encored and he sang a second time, “Nearer, my God, to Thee, Nearer to Thee! E’en though it be a cross that raiseth me; Still all my song shall be—Nearer, my God to Thee! Nearer, my God, to Thee, Nearer to Thee!” When he finished, the crowd, sin-convicted, slunk out of the place. The proprietor turned the clock up to twelve, turned out the lights, wiped his moist eyes and went home. No more selling liquor that night. The sweet-voiced tenor had turned that hell into too heavenly a place for further comfort in his unholy calling. SING FOR THE SAKE OF THE Prison life is unspeakably painful. It is not so much the meagre rations or ill-treatment that emaciates men, shut behind iron bars. It is the dull monotony, the sullen sameness, the stinging conscience. These are the trichina that pierce to the vitals of prisoners. Ah, what a relief to hear such songs! Not a man murmured because wakened out of sleep, but rising up with open ears they listened as the young girl listens while her lover serenades, and like her, their hearts were moved, their deepest and best sentiments stirred. It was so different from what they commonly heard from fellow-sufferers, so foreign to the accustomed oaths and execrations, and cursings of the freshly incarcerated. They were at first surprised, and then soothed and sweetened, for the sounds came stealing into their cells like an echo from an angel choir, and they wanted to be converted. And ah, the multitude of prisoners! The cells contain not one thousandth part of them.

They are everywhere—in our homes, in our streets, in our shops, in our sanctuaries, sitting hard beside us; prisoners of evil, conscience-judged and sin-bound! How they need our song, and not one of them is so sunken in iniquity as to be indifferent to it! Not one of them so chained that he will not rise up to catch its melody!