PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST

[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
VI  THE INNER REVELATION OF CHRIST
F. B. Meyer

How much it must have all meant to that eager spirit, who was to interpret to all time the inner meaning of the momentous events of which those gaunt mountain solitudes had been the scene! Here the bush had burned with the fire that now burnt within his heart. Here Moses had seen God face to face, as he had seen Jesus. Here the plan of the tabernacle had been communicated, as to him that of the church. Here the water flowed from the stricken rock, and that Rock was Christ. Here Elijah stood in the entrance to the cave, and the still small voice stole into his heart; and had he not heard that same voice? Beneath those heavens glowing at noon with sultry heat, and radiant at night with myriads of stars, the cloud had moved, directing the march of the pilgrim hosts -- for him, too, it shone. Month after month he wandered to and fro, now sharing the rough fare of some Essene community, or the lot of a family of Bedouins; now swept upwards in heavenly fellowship, and again plunged into profound meditation. The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands upon thousands; and they were all waiting at his beck and call to bear him aloft into the heavenly places.

Probably the most important work of those years was to review the entire course of Old Testament truth from the new standpoint of vision suggested by the sufferings and death of the Messiah. There was no doubt that He had been crucified in weakness, and now lived in the power of God. But how was this consistent with the anticipations of the prophets and seers of the Old Testament, who had been understood by generations of rabbis to predict an all-victorious Prince? How eagerly he turned to all the well-known Messianic passages! What ecstasy must have thrilled him as he discovered that they were all consistent with Christ's suffering unto death as the way to enter His glory! And how greatly he must have wondered that he and all his people had been so blind to the obvious meaning of the inspired Word (2 Corinthians 3).

We can well understand how, on his return to Damascus, he should straightway proclaim that Jesus was the Son of God; and that he should especially confound the Jews that dwelt there, proving that this is the Messiah. In those silent meditations over the Word he stored arguments for use in many a synagogue for the next twenty years, where he would reason from the Scriptures, opening and alleging that it behoved the Messiah to suffer and to rise again from the dead, and "that this Jesus is the Messiah."

It is almost certain also that he was led at this time to understand the relation of the law to the older covenant into which God had entered with Abraham. Up to this moment he had been a son of the law, laboriously fulfilling its demands, but groaning beneath a perpetual sense of failure and condemnation. Now he was led to see that he and all his people had made too little of the promise made to Abraham, which was conditioned, not on works, but on faith. To employ his own words, he realized that the law, which came four hundred and thirty years after the giving of the covenant, could not disannul it, so as to make the promise of none effect (Galatians 3:17). He graduated backwards from Moses to Abraham. From the loftier summits of Mature he beheld the temporary and limited ministry of the Law, which was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise had been made.

In the light of this revelation he could better understand his own call to minister to the Gentiles, for this was one of the special provisions of the Abrahamic covenant: "In thee and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed."

But deeper than all was God's work with his soul. Grain by grain his proud self-reliance and impetuosity were worn away. As it happened to Moses during the forty years of shepherd life, so it befell Saul of Tarsus. No longer confident in himself, he was henceforth more than content to be the slave of Jesus Christ, going where he was sent, doing as he was bidden, and serving as the instrument of his will. We all need to go to Arabia to learn lessons like these. The Lord Himself was led up into the wilderness. And, in one form or another, every soul which has done a great work in the world has been passed through similar periods of obscurity, suffering, disappointment, or solitude.

TO BE CONTINUED....
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PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
VII.  THE EMERGENCE OF THE LIFE-PURPOSE
F. B. Meyer

(Acts 22:17-21)

"Ah! Fragments of a whole, ordained to be
Points in the life I waited.
What are ye
But roundels of a ladder, which appeared
Awhile the very platform it was reared
To lift me on?"
BROWNING

IT is a matter of absorbing interest to a mother to watch the unfolding character of her child from the apparent shapelessness of infancy to the defined outlines of marked individuality. But it is still more interesting to trace the successive stages of the emergence of the life-purpose of a new-born soul. At the moment of conversion there are two questions that arise naturally upon our lips: First, Who art Thou, Lord? and next, What wilt Thou have me to do? As to the first, we can only await the gradual revelation, as when the dawn slowly breaks on a widespread landscape. It will take an eternity to know all that Jesus Christ is and can be to his own. As to the second, we are no less dependent on the Divine revealing hand, indicating the path we are to tread, showing the scheme which the Divine mind has conceived.

Often at the beginning of the new life we attempt to forecast the work which we hope to accomplish. We take into account our tastes and aptitudes, our faculties and talents, our birth and circumstances. From these we infer that we shall probably succeed best along a certain line of useful activity. But as the moments lengthen into years, it becomes apparent that the door of opportunity is closing in that direction. It is a bitter disappointment. We refuse to believe that the hindrances to the fulfilment of our cherished hopes can be permanent. Patience, we cry, will conquer every difficulty. The entrance may be strait, but surely it is passable. At last we shall reach the wide and large place of successful achievement. We cast ourselves against the closing door, as sea birds on the illuminated glass of the lighthouse tower, to fall dazed and bewildered to the ground. And it is only after such a period of disappointment that we come to perceive that God's ways are not as our ways, nor his thoughts as our thoughts; and that He has other work for us to do, for which He has been preparing us, though we knew it not. When we are young we gird ourselves, and attempt to walk whither we will; but in after years we are guided by Another, and taken whither we would not.
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PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
VII.  THE EMERGENCE OF THE LIFE-PURPOSE
F. B. Meyer

There is a marvellously apposite illustration of these facts of common experience in the life-story which we are considering. Without doubt, at the beginning of his Christian career, the Apostle felt strongly drawn to minister to his own people. He was a Hebrew, and the son of Hebrews. The pure blood of the chosen race flowed through his heart, nourishing it with the great memories of the past. What was the meaning of his having been cradled and nourished in the heart of Judaism, except that he might better understand and win Jews? Did not his training in the strictest sect of their religion, and at the feet of Gamaliel, give him a special claim on those who held "that jewel of the law" in special reverence and honour?

But he was destined to discover that his new-found Master had other purposes for his life, and that he had been specially prepared and called to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and make all men see the fellowship of the mystery which from all generations had been hid in God. How this discovery was made to him is an interesting, study, because, though at the moment of his arrest it was clearly announced by the Lord Himself that he was to be sent to the Gentiles; yet, apparently, it did not dawn on his mind then to how large an extent his energies and time would be monopolised by ministering to those who were, at that time, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.


1. PAUL'S CHERISHED HOPE.

During his sojourn in the Sinaitic peninsula we may well believe that his soul turned towards his people with ardent desire. Was he not an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin; and could he be indifferent to the needs of his brethren according to the flesh? Surely it would not be difficult to unfold the meaning of the sacred symbolism through which their forefathers had been disciplined in those very wastes. That the rock was Christ; that the water which flowed over the sands foreshadowed his mission to the world; that the law given from Sinai had been fulfilled and re-edited in the holy life of Jesus of Nazareth; that the sacrifices, offered on those sands, had pointed to the death of the cross; and that the fire which burnt in the bush had also shone on his face -- to teach all this, and much more, and to lead his people from the desert wastes of Pharisaism to the heavenly places of which Canaan was the type, was the hope and longing of his heart. What work could be more congenial to his tastes and attitudes than this?

On his return to Damascus he at once commenced his crusade in the synagogues. "Straightway," we are told, "he preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God. And all that heard him were amazed. But Saul increased the more-in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is the very Christ." How encouraged he was by these early successes! How evidently God seemed to be setting his seal and imprimatur on his decisions! Visions of national repentance and conversion passed across his eager soul, and he dared to hope that he should live to see the dry bones become a great army for God.
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PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
VII.  THE EMERGENCE OF THE LIFE-PURPOSE
F. B. Meyer

But the vision was soon overcast. So violent was the hatred with which he was regarded by his fellow-countrymen, that he was in imminent danger of his life. They seem to have instigated the governor, who held the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, to assist them with patrols. The gates were watched day and night, that he might be killed if he endeavoured to escape. And finally he was lowered under cover of the night by a basket over the city wall.

Still, however, his purpose was unchanged. He went up to Jerusalem with the intention of seeing Peter. But in this he would probably have failed had it not been for the intervention of Barnabas, who, according to an old tradition, had been his fellow-student, educated with himself at the feet of Gamaliel. Through his good offices he was brought into contact with Peter and James, and was, not improbably, received into the house of Mary, the mother of Mark, and sister to the good Cypriote (Colossians 4:10). A blessed fortnight followed. He was with them, coming in and going out at Jerusalem, and especially engaged in holy and loving fellowship with Peter, the acknowledged leader of the Church.

It is surely an innocent use of the imagination to think of these two sitting or walking together on the house-top, when the sun was westering, conversing of the great past. On one occasion their theme would be the Lord's early ministry in Galilee, so closely associated with Peter's opening manhood; on another, the discourses and scenes of the last hours before his crucifixion; on another, the precious death and burial, the glorious resurrection and ascension, and the appearances of the forty days. "Tell me all you can remember of the Master," would be the frequent inquiry of the new disciple of him who had been so specially privileged as a witness of that mystery of love. And it must often have come to pass that as they communed together of all those things that had happened, Jesus Himself drew near, and their hearts burned within them.

What Peter could not tell him, James could. For he had shared the home of Nazareth, but had remained unbelieving till the Resurrection convinced him. He would recount the story of the early years, and corroborate Peter's narrative of events from the Easter dawn to the Day of Pentecost.

But Saul had other business in those happy days. He seems to have avoided the churches of Judaea which were in Christ, and to have again sought the synagogues. "He spake and disputed against the Grecian Jews." On many a spot where he had contended against Stephen he stood now to contend for the truths which he had first heard from the martyr's life. How well he could understand the passion with which his statements were received; but how skilfully would he drive home the goad, which had at last compelled his own surrender! But here also his efforts were met by rebuffs: "They went about to slay him."
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PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
VII.  THE EMERGENCE OF THE LIFE-PURPOSE
F. B. Meyer

Yet in spite of coldness and antipathy, he clung tenaciously to his cherished purpose. He had great sorrow and unceasing pain in his heart; he could have wished himself anathema from Christ for his brethren's sake, his kinsmen according to the flesh. And when he knelt quietly in the Temple and heard authoritatively from the Master's lips that Jerusalem would not receive his testimony, he could hardly believe it, and clung still to his hope, and pleaded against the idea that the door was closing in his face. "Surely," he cried, "it cannot be that Jerusalem will refuse my words! She has such ample proof of my sincerity, she must be willing at least to listen to the arguments which I have found so imperative; surely my marvellous change must arrest and impress her. Let me stay. To transfer me elsewhere would be a serious waste of power. I shall do better work here among people who know me so well, and conditions I can understand, than would be possible anywhere else in the world."

In a similar manner we have all cherished our life-purposes. We have forecasted our future, as liable to lie in a certain direction, and have dearly desired that it should do so. When hindrances have been put in our way, and when we have met with strong opposition and rebuff, we have still clung to our hope. Only very slowly have we yielded and accepted the inevitable. To renounce it has been like tearing out our heart. Not till long years have passed have we realized that the Lord's plan was so much wiser and grander than our own. Then suddenly we have awoke to discover that whilst we were desiring to do one thing, God was leading us to do another, and that what we have counted secondary was primary, for his glory, and the lasting satisfaction of our own heart.


2. THE CLOSING DOOR.

It began to close at Damascus; it closed still further when persecution arose at Jerusalem: but the final act was as Saul was praying in the Temple.

It would appear that he had gone there to be alone, away from the many voices that were endeavouring to counsel him. For though he had been but a few days in the city, antipathy against him had already risen to such a height that his life was in danger; and it was necessary to consider seriously what to do -- should he stay, or go? should he brave the storm, or flee before it? Some advised one course, and some another. The babble of voices confused him, deafening the whisper of the still, small voice; his attention was too distracted by human suggestions to be perfectly open to the directing finger of God. So he betook himself to the Temple, where his Master had so often been; where so many symbols spoke of Him; where holy associations gathered like troops of white-robed angels. And, as he knelt in prayer in some quiet spot, he saw Him, whom his soul loved and sought. How many visit the Temple without seeing Him! but if we see Him, we are oblivious to all beside. Their is One who is greater than the Temple. And the risen Lord gave clear and unmistakable directions, as He always will to those who can say with the Psalmist: "My soul is silent to the Lord, for my expectation is from Him." "I saw Him saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem; because they will not receive of the testimony concerning Me."
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
VII.  THE EMERGENCE OF THE LIFE-PURPOSE
F. B. Meyer

It is easy to explain why they would not accept his testimony. There was too much of the Cross in it. He had discovered aspects of the death of Jesus, which were in keen antagonism to all that savoured of Pharisaism. It was sufficiently mortifying to their pride to learn that the son of the carpenter was the long-anticipated Messiah; but to be told further that the true life could only be entered by union with that supreme act of self-renunciation was intolerable. This side of Christianity is now too little appreciated. and so the offence of the Cross has largely ceased. But wherever it is consistently advocated and practised, it is certain to arouse the sharpest controversy.

Saul, as we have seen, did not willingly accept this as the ultimatum, and still argued that Jerusalem would afford the most suitable sphere for his ministry. It is a mistake to argue with God, as though to bend Him to our will. "Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker; let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth." But all debate was at last summarily closed by the words, "Depart, for I will send thee far hence to the Gentiles."

Ah, Saul! thou hast argued, and striven, and tried to carry thy way; thou hast almost demanded that the Lord should adopt thy views, and been very loth to believe that they may not hold. Thou hast knocked vehemently against the closed doors; but it is of no avail. The Lord loves thee too well to yield to thee. Some day thou wilt come to see that He was doing better for thee than thou knewest, and was sending thee into yet a wider and more productive sphere of service.


3. THE OPENED DOOR.

So the disciples brought the hunted preacher down to Caesarea, and sent him forth to Tarsus; and not improbably he resumed his tent-making there, content to await the Lord's will and bidding. But the years passed slowly. Possibly four or five were spent in comparative obscurity and neglect. That he wrought for Christ in the immediate vicinity of his home is almost certain, as we shall see; but the word of the Lord awaited fulfilment.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
VII.  THE EMERGENCE OF THE LIFE-PURPOSE
F. B. Meyer

At last one day, as he waited, he heard a voice saying in the doorway, "Does Saul live here?" And in another moment the familiar face of his old college-friend was peering in on him, with a glad smile of recognition. Then the story was told of the marvellous outbreak of God's work in Antioch, of the overflowing blessing and the breaking nets, and Barnabas pleaded with him to return to help him gather in the whitening harvest of the first great Gentile city which the Gospel had moved. "And he brought him to Antioch; and it came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church and taught much people."

Be not afraid to trust God utterly. As you go down the long corridor you may find that He has preceded you, and locked many doors which you would fain have entered; but be sure that beyond these there is one which He has left unlocked. Open it and enter, and you will find yourself face to face with a bend of the river of opportunity, broader and deeper than anything you had dared to imagine in your sunniest dreams. Launch forth on it; it conducts to the open sea.
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PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
VIII.  "ALWAYS LED IN TRIUMPH"
F. B. Meyer

(2 Corinthians 2:14-16)

"Christ! I am Christ's! and let that name suffice you;
Ay, and for me He greatly hath sufficed;
So, with no winning words I would entice you;
Paul has no honour and no friend but Christ."
MYERS

WHILST Saul was tarrying in Tarsus, where he remained some four or five years, he appears to have concentrated his energies in the direction suggested by two references in Acts 15. In the 23rd verse, the Apostles and elder brethren address their circular letter expressly to the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. And in the 41st verse we learn that Paul, with Silas as his fellow-traveller, went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches. Evidently there were infant churches scattered throughout Saul's native province; and the conclusion is almost irresistible that they were born into existence beneath the fervid appeals and devoted labours of the new disciple.

Perhaps at this time Saul's kinsmen, Andronicus and Junia, Jason, Sosipater, and others, were brought to Christ; but his father, deeply mortified at the blasting of his hopes by the conversion of his son from the old faith, cast him off (Romans 16:7; Philippians 3:8).

His work, however, was chiefly concerned with the synagogues, which, since the Dispersion, had been established in most of the large cities of the empire. As with the earliest churches in Judaea, the main constituents of these would be converted Jews and proselytes. It is doubtful if the Apostle would have felt himself justified in receiving the Gentiles, as such, into the church. He was feeling his way in that direction, and was being prepared for the full acceptance of the commission with which he had been entrusted on the way to Damascus, and when worshipping in the Temple.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
VIII.  "ALWAYS LED IN TRIUMPH"
F. B. Meyer

It has been supposed that some of his deep experiences of privation and peril must have taken place in the course of his efforts to spread the Gospel during these years. We all remember that marvellous enumeration -- labours more abundant, stripes above measure, deaths oft, five times the forty stripes save one; thrice beaten with rods, thrice shipwrecked, a night and day in the deep; in perils, labour, travail, watchings, hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness (2 Corinthians 11). There is positively no room in his life, as narrated by the chronicler of the Acts of the Apostles, for many of these, especially when we call to mind that the Second Epistle to Corinth was written before his expulsion from Ephesus, and therefore before the long series of trials with which the Book of the Acts closes.

It is, therefore, more than probable that we are to conclude that from the very hour that he began to follow the Saviour he became identified with His sorrowful progress through the world. Hated, resisted, despised, and crucified, but pursuing his triumphant progress to his throne.

This conception was closely associated in the Apostle's mind with his unprecedented experiences, as will appear to any thoughtful student of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. Mark especially the second chapter and fourteenth verse: "Thanks be unto God, which always leadeth us in triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest through us the savour of his knowledge in every place. For we are a sweet savour of Christ unto God, in them that are being saved, and in them that are perishing."


THE METAPHOR

Was gathered from the scene of a Roman Triumph, one of the most notable events in the old world, when some great general, a Caesar or Marius, returning from distant scenes of triumph, ascended the Capitoline Hill, amid the plaudits of the assembled citizens and the fragrance of sweet odours. Before his chariot were paraded captive kings and princes; after it came long lines of prisoners laden with the spoils of war. About this time Claudius was celebrating his victories in Britain, and among his captive princes marched the brave Caractacus.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
VIII.  "ALWAYS LED IN TRIUMPH"
F. B. Meyer

To the vivid imagination of the Apostle -- always more prone to use metaphors borrowed from the life of men in camps and cities, than from scenes of natural beauty -- it seemed as though the pageantry of the scene, which so often stirred Rome to its heart, was a meet emblem of the progress of Christ through the world: Hades and death bound to his chariot wheels, his arms filled with spoils, his trains composed of the thousands whom He had conquered, and amongst whom Paul was proud to count himself.

Is not this an apt picture of every age? Each great crisis in the past has helped to advance the glorious reign of Christ. Was the fall of Babylon a crisis? It gave mankind a universal speech -- the language spoken by Alexander and his soldiers -- the delicate, subtle Greek in which the New Testament was written. Was the fall of Rome a crisis? It opened the way to the rise of the northern nations, which have ever been the home of Liberty and the Gospel. Was the fall of Feudalism, in the French Revolution, a crisis? It made the splendid achievements of the nineteenth century possible. And we may look without dismay on events that cast a shadow on our hearts. They also shall serve the cause of the Gospel. In ways we cannot tell, they shall prepare for the triumph of our King. Through the throes of the present travail the new heavens and earth shall be born. The agony is not as the expiring groan of the dying gladiator, but as the sigh of the mother bringing forth her first-born. These things, said our Lord, must needs be; and they are the beginning of travail (Matthew 24:8, R.V.). And amid all Jesus rides in triumph to his destined glory and the crown of all the earth.


THE APOSTLE'S PERSONAL POSITION

In his Master's procession was clearly apprehended and perpetually accentuated. He never wearied of describing himself as the slave of Jesus Christ. "Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God." He had been a rebel chieftain. With fire and sword he had ravaged the flock of God. He had measured his strength with Jesus of Nazareth, but had met more than his match. The Stronger One had come upon him, taken away his armour, and bound him with fetters from which he could not get free. He would not, if he could; nor could he, if he would. From that hour in which he had been smitten to the ground on the road to Damascus, he had been content to be led from city to city, from continent to continent, in the triumphal progress of his Lord, a trophy of his mighty power to bring the most stubborn under his yoke. "Thanks be unto God," he cries, "who always leadeth us in triumph."

Is this your conception of your life? Captured! Apprehended by Jesus Christ! Set apart for Himself! Do you realize that you are bound by the most sacred fetters to your Conqueror, and are following his chariot through the earth? Life would assume a new aspect if you realized this, and that all you are in your person, and own in your property, has become Emmanuel's.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
VIII.  "ALWAYS LED IN TRIUMPH"
F. B. Meyer

Those whom Jesus leads in triumph share his triumph. They may be a spectacle to angels or to men. Sometimes in the stocks; often accounted the off-scouring of all things; yet, in the spiritual realm, they are made to triumph always. Conquered, they conquer; enslaved, they are free; last in this world, but in the front rank of heavenly society. Poor, beaten, vanquished soul, lift up thy head and rejoice; for if thou art conquered by Jesus, thou shalt be always made to triumph!


THE INFLUENCE OF CHRIST ON THE CHARACTER OF THOSE WHO FOLLOW HIM

Is also clearly delineated. The metaphor is changed, and the Apostle deems himself no longer a slave, but a freed servant, a citizen, a friend bearing a bowl of incense from which redolent vapours steal into the air. God makes manifest through him in every place the sweet savour of the knowledge of Jesus. Wherever he went, man knew Jesus better; the loveliness of the Master's character became more apparent. Men became aware of a subtle fragrance, poured upon the air, which attracted them to the Man of Nazareth. The world became purer, the tone of society healthier, the morals and manners of men more refined.

What an ideal this is for us all, so to live that though we are unable to speak much or occupy a commanding position, yet from our lives a holy savour may be spread abroad, which will not be ours, but Christ's! Let us live so near Him, that we may absorb his fragrance; and then go forth to exhale it again in pureness, in knowledge, in longsuffering, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in love unfeigned, in the word of truth, and in the power of God. Just as a piece of clay or sponge may become so impregnated with some aromatic spice, that it will scent the drawer, cupboard, or box in which it lies, so we may become impregnated with the sweetness of Jesus, and spread it by an irresistible influence in every place where we are called to live or work.


YET ONCE AGAIN THE THOUGHT CHANGES.

The Apostle imagines himself to be no longer the hand that swings the incense-bowl, but the incense itself. He says, "We are unto God a sweet savour of Christ." How marvellously scent awakens memory! In a moment it will waft us back through long years to some old country lane, garden, or orange-grove, summoning to mind people and events associated with it in the happy past.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
VIII.  "ALWAYS LED IN TRIUMPH"
F. B. Meyer

When, therefore, we are told that we may be to God a sweet savour of Christ, it must be meant that we may so live as to recall to the mind of God what Jesus was in his mortal career. It is as though, as God watches us from day to day, He should see Jesus in us, and be reminded (speaking after the manner of men) of that blessed life which was offered as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.

What a test for daily living! Is my life fragrant of Jesus? Do I remind the Father of the blessed Lord? Does He detect Jesus in my walk and speech? and that there are in me the sweet savour of that daily burnt-offering, that delight in God's will, that holy joy in suffering for his glory, that absorption in his purposes which made the life of the Son of Man so well-pleasing to God?

At the foot of the Capitoline Hill the ancient triumph divided. Some of the captives were led off to the dark precincts of the Tullianum, where they were put to death. Others were reserved to live. The same fragrance was associated with the perishing on the one hand and the saved on the other. Thus it is in all Gospel-preaching and holy living. The sun that melts wax hardens clay; the light that bleaches linen tans the hands which expose it; the cloud is light to Israel, and darkness to Egypt. Those who have life are helped to intenser life, and those who lack it are only driven to further excesses of sin. To one we are the savour of life unto life, to the other of death unto death.

It was in such a mood that Saul of Tarsus spent the years of preparation which preceded the great opportunity of his life. It was in the cultivation of such virtues that he awaited the coming of Barnabas.
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PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
IX.  THE APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES
F. B. Meyer

(Romans 11:13)

"He looked abroad, and spake of some bright dawn
Of happiness and freedom, peace and love;
Day long desired, and now about to break
On all the nations."
TRENCH

IT is probable that during his years of quiet work in Cilicia and Syria, Saul of Tarsus was being led with increasing clearness to apprehend God's purpose in his life -- that he should be the Apostle of the Gentiles. The heavenly voices at the commencement of his Christian career had announced that he would be sent to them (Acts 26:20). Ananias had been informed that he was to be a chosen vessel to bear the name of Jesus before the Gentiles and kings (Acts 9:15). The vision in the Temple had culminated in the words, "Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles" (Acts 22:21). And there is no doubt that the exigencies of his labour, for so many years, amid populations largely composed of Gentiles, made him feel the impulse of the current that was bearing the whole church towards a new departure. Up till now Judaism had been the only door into Christianity; henceforth the door of faith was to stand wide open to Gentiles also, without circumcision. Some suggestion of this is furnished by his own lips, "I declared both to them of Damascus first, and at Jerusalem -- and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance" (Acts 26:20). But still the true channel-bed of his life was hardly discovered until circumstances transpired which will now demand our notice.


1. SUMMONED TO ANTIOCH.

Halfway through Luke's narrative the centre of interest shifts from the mother-church at Jerusalem to one which had been founded shortly before the time we are describing, in the gay, frivolous, busy, beautiful city of Antioch Connected with the commerce of the Western world by the River Orontes, which flowed majestically through the marble palaces and crowded wharves that lined its banks, and communicating with the thoughtful conservative East by the caravans that brought the merchandise of Mesopotamia and Arabia through the passes of the Lebanon, Antioch was an emporium of trade, a meeting-place for the Old World and the New, "an Oriental Rome, in which all the forms of the civilized life of the empire found some representation." It is for ever famous in Christian annals, because a number of unordained and unnamed disciples, fleeing from Jerusalem in the face of Saul's persecution, dared to preach the Gospel to Greeks, and to gather the converts into a church, in entire disregard of the initial rite of Judaism. There, also, the disciples of "the Way" were first called Christians from the holy name which was constantly on the lips of teachers and taught. But the imposition of that name shows that the people of Antioch were aware that a new body or sect was in process of formation. From Antioch issued the first missionary expedition for the evangelization of the world. In post-Apostolic days it was famous as the see of the great bishop, saint, and martyr, Ignatius.
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PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
IX.  THE APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES
F. B. Meyer

The population of Antioch was a rabble of all races; but the Greek element predominated, with its licentious rites, its vivacious, sparkling intellect, its marvellously elegant and subtle tongue, its passion for the theatre, the arena, and the racecourse. There was need indeed that the river of Life should find its way into that swamp of beautiful but deadly corruption; but probably none of the leaders of the church would have dared to take the initial step of conducting its streams thither. Peter and the church at Jerusalem were only just learning, through amazing incidents in the house of Cornelius, that God was prepared to grant to Gentile proselytes repentance unto life. It was left, therefore, to a handful of fugitive, Hellenistic Jews, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, to break through the barriers of the centuries, and begin preaching the Lord Jesus to the Greeks at Antioch. Instantly the Divine Spirit honoured their word, gave testimony to the word of God's grace, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord (Acts 11:19-21).

As soon as tidings of these novel proceedings reached Jerusalem, the church dispatched Barnabas, who was himself a Cypriote, to make inquiries and report. His verdict was definite and reassuring. He had no hesitation in affirming that it was a definite work of God's grace; he rejoiced that these simple souls had been thrust into so ripe and plentiful a harvest; and he carried on the work which had been inaugurated with such success that "much people was added unto the Lord."

His success, however, only added to the perplexity and difficulty of the situation, and he found himself face to face with a great problem. The Gentiles were pressing into the church, and taking their places on an equality with Jews at the Supper and Love-feasts, an action which the more conservative Jews greatly resented. The single-hearted man was hardly able to cope with the problem. But he remembered that at his conversion his old friend and fellow-student had been specially commissioned to preach to the Gentiles; and hoping that he might be ready with a solution, he departed to Tarsus to seek Saul, and having found him he brought him to Antioch. "And it came to pass that for a whole year they were gathered together with the church, and taught much people."
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PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
IX.  THE APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES
F. B. Meyer

But this year's experience at Antioch was of the utmost consequence to Saul. He learnt from Barnabas the conclusion to which the church at Jerusalem had come, on hearing Peter's recital of God's dealings with Cornelius and his household (Acts 11:18); he noticed how evidently the Spirit of God set his seal upon appeals, whether by himself or others, addressed directly to the Gentiles, and thus was led with that deep appreciation which comes from the education of circumstances to see that believing Gentiles were fellow-members of the church and fellow-heirs of the promises. God made no distinctions; why should he? All the while his horizon was broadening, his confidence increasing, his conception of God's purposes deepening, and he was formulating the Gospel which he afterwards preached among them (Galatians 2:2).

We need not stay over his brief visit to Jerusalem at the end of his year's ministry at Antioch, to carry alms from the Gentile Christians to their suffering Jewish brethren. Suffice it to say that it established a precedent which he followed in after life, and proved that there was no sort of antagonism between the new society and the old, but that all were one in Christ. On this occasion he does not seem to have met the Apostles, who probably had withdrawn from Jerusalem to avoid the murderous hate of Herod (Galatians 2:12); and the gift of the church at Antioch was, therefore, left with the elders of the mother-church (Acts 11:30). And nothing occurred to divert the heart of the future Apostle from those resolves which were crystallizing with increasing clearness before him.


2. SET APART BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.

It was a momentous hour in the history of the church when, on the return of Barnabas and Paul from Jerusalem, they met, with three others, for a season of fasting and prayer. What was the immediate reason for this special session we cannot say; but it is significant that the three prophets and two teachers represented between them five different countries. Were they yearning after their own people, and wistful to offer them the Gospel, as they now saw they might offer it, apart from the trammels and restraints of Judaism? We cannot tell. That, however, was the birth-hour of modern missions. The Holy Ghost, Christ's Vicar, the Director and Administrator of the church, bade the little group set apart two out of their number to a mission which He would unfold to them, as they dared to step out in obedience to his command.

There was no hesitation or delay. The church set them free from their duties, and the Holy Spirit sent them forth. And that journey was a complete answer to all the questions by which they had been perplexed.

In Cyprus, to which they were first attracted, because Barnabas was connected with it through his birth and estate, though they proclaimed the word of God from one end to the other in the synagogues of the Jews, they had no fruit till the Roman governor called them before him, and sought to hear their message, on hearing which he believed.
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