PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST

[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
IX.  THE APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES
F. B. Meyer

After landing on the mainland, Paul, contrary to the judgment of John Mark, struck up from the sea-coast to the far-reaching table-lands of the interior, four thousand feet above the sea-level, with the evident intention of establishing churches on the great trade route which ran through Asia Minor from Tarsus to Ephesus. What might not be the result for East and West, if this great mutual bridge were to become a highway for the feet of the Son of God! But there the same experience awaited him.

The Jews in Antioch and Pisidia refused, whilst the Gentiles welcomed them. Indeed he was compelled to turn publicly from his own countrymen, and hold up the Gospel as light and salvation to those whom the prophet described as at the uttermost end of the earth. Then it was that the word of the Lord spread throughout all the region.

At Iconium, whither they fled before a persecution which made it unsafe to remain in Antioch, they again found the malice of the Jews so persistent that they were driven forth into the Gentile cities and district of Lycaonia, where there were probably no synagogues at all. There, too, they preached the Gospel, and made many disciples.

Everywhere it was the Jewish element that was obstructive and implacable; while the Gentiles, when left to themselves, received them and their message with open arms. God gave manifest testimony to the word of his grace whenever they unfolded it to the Gentiles; set before those eager seekers the open door of faith; and granted signs and wonders to be wrought of His servants' hands (Acts 14:3-27; Acts 15:12).

As Paul quietly studied these indications of God's will, he needed no angel to tell him that as Israel would not hear, God was provoking them to jealousy by them who were not a people. He saw that the original branches were being broken off, that the wild olive grafts might take their place. Blindness was happening to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles had been gathered in (Romans 11:8, Romans 11:17, Romans 11:25). His love was not abated. How could it be? Were they not his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh? But he must follow the divine plan.
_____________________________________________

[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
IX.  THE APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES
F. B. Meyer

Probably Paul's greatest experience of this journey was his first visit to the warm-hearted Galatians, whose country is probably referred to in the vague allusion of Acts 14:24. In any case, his insistence in his epistle that he had preached to them the Gospel as he had received it direct and undiluted from Christ, compels us to locate his first acquaintance with them at this time, and before that memorable visit to Jerusalem, to which we shall refer presently, and in which he consulted the Apostles concerning the Gospel he proclaimed (Acts 15; Galatians 2). It is probable that he was detained amongst them by a painful attack of his habitual malady, aggravated by climatic changes, or malaria. "Ye know," he says, "that because of an infirmity of the flesh, I preached the gospel unto you the first time; and that which was a temptation in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected." So far from rejecting him on this account, his sorrows and afflictions only touched them more to the quick, and bound them to him. "I bear you witness," he says, "that, if possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me."

His success among this affectionate people was remarkable, and still further deepened the impression, which was becoming the guiding star of his career, that he must bend his strength to the salvation of the Gentiles, whose cause had been laid on his heart at the hour of his conversion.


3. HIS APOSTOLATE RECOGNIZED BY THE APOSTLES.

We do not propose to add anything to the discussion in which so much has been urged on either side, as to the time when the visit to Jerusalem, referred to in Galatians 2, took place. After carefully considering the arguments of those who would identify it with the visit to bring alms mentioned above, and of those who would make it a separate visit for the special purpose of obtaining the opinion of the leaders on his ministry -- we fall back on the more generally received view that Galatians 2, refers to the visit mentioned in Acts 15, when, as we shall see in a succeeding chapter, he was sent as a deputation from Antioch to Jerusalem to obtain the views of the Apostles on the admission of Gentiles into the church.
__________________________________________

[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
IX.  THE APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES
F. B. Meyer

It is sufficient for our present purpose to notice that Paul definitely sought the opinion of those in repute among the Apostles on his teaching, lest by any means he should be running, or had run, in vain. In the course of several interviews it became increasingly evident to James, Peter, and John, that their former persecutor had received a Divine commission to the Gentiles. They realized that he had been entrusted with the Gospel of the uncircumcision. Peter especially recognized that he who wrought in himself unto the apostolate of the Jew was equally energetic in this fervid soul unto the Gentile. The responsible leaders of the mother-church could not help perceiving the grace that was given to him; and finally they gave to him the right hand of fellowship, that he should go to the Gentiles, whilst they went to the circumcision.

This was the further and final confirmation of the purpose which had been forming in his heart; and he recognized that he was appointed an herald and an apostle, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. He gloried in this ministry, and often spoke of the grace which had been given to him, the least of all saints, to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. He never failed to begin his work in any place by an honest endeavour to save some of his own flesh; but he always realized that his supreme stewardship was to those who were called uncircumcision by that which was called circumcision in the flesh made by hands.

By the hand of the risen Jesus he had been appointed to the apostleship. In nothing did he come behind the very chiefest of the Apostles; and truly the signs of an Apostle were wrought through his means, in all signs and wonders and mighty works (1 Corinthians 9:1; 1 Corinthians 15:9; Galatians 1:1).

Surely, then, it is befitting that the church which bears his name should stand in the heart of the greatest Gentile city of the age, and bear the emblem of the death of Christ above its smoke and turmoil -- the sign of the work and service of the great Apostle of the Gentiles.
_____________________________________________

[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
X.  "FOURTEEN YEARS AGO"
F. B. Meyer

(2 Corinthians 12:2-5)

"We are not free
To say we see not, for the glory comes
Nightly and daily, like the flowing sea;
His lustre pierceth through the midnight glooms;
And, at prime hour, behold! He follows me
With golden shadows to my secret rooms!"
C. T. TURNER

IF WE count back fourteen years from the writing of this epistle, we shall find ourselves amid the events narrated in the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of the Book of the Acts; especially at that momentous hour in the history of Christianity when five men, representing five different countries, met together to fast and pray about the state of the world and their duty in respect to it. The Evangelist tells us in two chapters the results of that conference, in the separation and sending forth of the two missionaries; and of the hardships, difficulties, and sufferings through which they fulfilled their high calling. But Paul draws aside the vail from his heart and shows us what his inner experiences were during those wonderful months. He was a man in Christ, caught up into Paradise, the third heaven, to hear unspeakable words. Luke dwells on the outside, the covering of badger-skins; Paul on the inside, the hangings of blue. Luke speaks of the man; Paul of the man -- in Christ. Luke depicts the sorrows and tears that beset him; Paul the elation and joy which bore him to the very bosom of Christ, so that many pains and sorrows were actually necessary as a make-weight, lest he should be exalted above measure on account of the abundance of revelations afforded him.

How little we know of one another's lives! Only the little circle around us, or some twin-soul, and sometimes not these, realize the visions and revelations, or hear the unspeakable words, which fall to the lot of the favoured soul. Perhaps even Barnabas, who shared the toils and perils of this man of God, had little or no conception of what his companion was experiencing. He beheld the same scenes on which their outward gaze rested, but not the visions that were unfolded to the inner eye. He heard the voices that sounded in their ears, of blaspheming and reviling critics, with which so few notes of comfort and encouragement blended; but he was not aware of the still small voice of Christ, which bade Paul have no fear.

It would be a sorry thing if all our life could be summed up in our journeyings to and fro on life's thoroughfares, our business engagements, or our glad intercourse with the dear ones of the home circle, if there were nothing except what a Barnabas might share, and a Luke record. A Chinese picture that lacks light, and shade, and depth, is not art. We need to dwell deep, to have a life beneath a life, to have windows in our heart that look across the river into the unseen and eternal. The pictures that fascinate are those that suggest more than they reveal, in which the blue distance fades into the heavens, and the light mist veils mountain, moorland, and sea. Oh for the peace that passeth understanding, the joy that is unspeakable and full of glory, the deep things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived! We may be thankful, therefore, that we can supplement the narrative of Luke by the words of the Apostle, as he recalls what happened to him fourteen years before he wrote.
__________________________________________

[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
X.  "FOURTEEN YEARS AGO"
F. B. Meyer

1. THE DESCRIPTION THE APOSTLE GIVES OF HIMSELF.

"A man in Christ." He was in Christ, but that did not make him less a man. There are three qualities in a truly manly character: Resolution, Fortitude, and Courage.

Resolution -- that a man will take up one high ambition and aim, prosecuting it through good and evil report, through sun and storm. How evidently this characterized the Apostle, who pursued his purpose of ministering to the Gentiles from Antioch to Iconium, and thence to Lystra and Derbe. The hatred of the Jews did not dissuade; the fickleness of the crowds did not daunt; the hailstone storm of stones at Lystra did not turn him aside. It was his persistent ambition to preach the Gospel where Christ had not been named, so that they should see to whom no tidings of Him had come, and they who had not heard should understand.

Fortitude -- that a man should be able to sustain sorrow and heart-rending anguish. Every true man needs this, for there is no one without his hours of heart-rending grief, when it seems as though the heart-strings must break and the life-blood be shed.

Then to be strong, to steer straight onward, to dare to praise God, to sit alone and keep silence, because He hath laid it upon us, to put our mouths in the dust, if so be there may be hope, here is fortitude indeed. But Paul manifested this also, when he bore with uncomplaining nobility the cowardice of Mark, the relentless hatred of his fellow-countrymen, and after his stoning at Lystra, aroused from what had seemed to be his death-swoon, struggled back into the city from which he had been dragged to all appearance a corpse, and having saluted the brethren, and specially the young Timothy, started on the following morning to continue his loved work in the neighbouring cities of Lycaonia.

Courage -- that a man should have a heart, like John Knox, the inscription on whose tomb tells us that one lies beneath who never feared the face of clay. Paul never lacked courage. He never flinched from facing an amphitheatre full of raging fanatics, or braving consuls and procurators, or from withstanding an Apostle who deserved to be blamed. And his heroic courage was conspicuously manifested in this very journey, that instead of taking an easier and directer route home by way of his native city and the Cilician Gates, he dared to retrace his steps to each of the cities in which he had preached, confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God. At great personal risk he stayed long enough in each place to appoint elders in the infant communities, and to pray with fasting, commending them to God, on whom they believed.

When we become Christian men we do not forfeit these characteristics. No, but they become purified of ingredients that might vitiate and corrupt them. Apart from Christ resolution may become obstinacy, fortitude stoicism, and courage fatalism. These are exaggerations, and therefore defects. Directly, however, a man is in Christ -- not only in Christ for position, but in Christ for condition; not only in Christ for standing, but in Christ in his daily walk; not only in Christ as before God, but for the environing atmosphere of his daily life -- then all danger of exaggeration is done away, and the native strength of manly character is invigorated from the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and sweetened by the meekness and gentleness of the Lamb who was slain.
__________________________________________

[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
X.  "FOURTEEN YEARS AGO"
F. B. Meyer

2. TO SUCH, BRIDAL MOMENTS COME.

Days of the bridal of heaven and earth, high days, hours of vision and ecstasy, when the tide runs high and fast, and the cup of life brims to overflow. "I knew such an one caught up even to the third heaven, to Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. On behalf of such a man will I glory."

At first we might suppose that the Apostle was really describing the experience of some one else. He appears to distinguish between that blessed man, whose experience he was describing, and himself. "On mine own behalf I will not glory, save in my weaknesses." But as his story proceeds, and he tells us that by reason of the visions and revelations granted to him there was danger of his being exalted overmuch, it becomes clear that he is describing some radiant experiences through which he passed during that first missionary tour -- so marked, so blessed, so full of transfiguring glory that their light had not entirely died from his heart, though a chasm of fourteen years lay between.

Such experiences may come in hours of great pain. The conjecture has been hazarded that this rapture into Paradise took place during the Apostle's stoning at Lystra. But be this as it may, he could find no words to tell what he saw and heard. The disciple whom Jesus loved had a similar experience; he too saw through heaven's open door, but with all his wealth of language he has failed to do more than ransack creation and revelation for imagery and symbols which leave us in a condition of bewilderment, like the masses of colour in Turner's later pictures. Paradise were indeed a poor place if words could describe it. The third heaven were not worthy of its Maker if its glories did not transcend our furthest imaginings. He hath set eternity in our heart, a capacity for the infinite, a yearning after the Divine. In hours of reverie, when stirred by certain notes in music, especially of the violin or organ, when under the spell of a sunset on a summer's eve, when we wake up to love, we know that words are but the counters of thought, the signs and symbols of realities, and not the realities. Translate into words for me the sighings of the wind through the forest, and the withdrawal of the sea down a pebbly beach, and the spring sunlight playing on the hyacinth-strewn grass. You cannot! Then you know why the Apostle described his experiences in Paradise as unspeakable.

But these hours are as evanescent as they are unspeakable. Why? Lest we should be exalted above measure, and become proud. If the Apostle feared this, much more should we. Lest we should come to trust in an experience, as an aim or object of life, instead of regarding it as God's seal and testimony, which He may withhold, if we make more of it than we ought. We must not live in an experience; but in Jesus, from whom, as from the sun, all lovely and helpful experiences emanate. Lest we should get out of touch with men and women around us, the majority of whom do not live on mountain-tops, but in valleys, where demons possess and worry the afflicted.
______________________________________

[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
X.  "FOURTEEN YEARS AGO"
F. B. Meyer

Through God's wise providence such radiant hours do not linger, because our strength is not fed from them. We shall not get much working strength out of whipped cream, however pleasant it taste to the palate; and if we only rely on the raptures of Paradise for our sources of spiritual power, we shall come lamentably short of our true reinforcements. So God, in his mercy, gives them once or twice, now and again; and at the time of sending them accompanies them with a make-weight, that we may be reminded of our utter weakness and helplessness, and be driven to avail ourselves of his grace, in which alone is our sufficiency.

Do not expect the vision of Paradise to linger; it would dazzle you, and make life unnatural and unreal. Do not regret the passage of the blessed, rapturous hours, light of step and fleet of pace. Do not think that you have fallen from grace when their flush and glow are over. Whether they fall to your constant lot or not, or even if they never visit you, you are still in Christ, still joined to the Lord, still accepted in the Beloved; and neither height of rapture nor depth of depression shall ever separate you from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. Be content, then, to turn, as Jesus did, from the rapture of Paradise, presented on the Transfiguration Mount, to take the way of the cross, through which you will become able to open Paradise to souls in despair, like the dying thief.


3. THE DISCIPLINE OF PAIN.

We need not stay to discuss what was the nature of Paul's thorn in the flesh. It is not very material now and here. Enough that it was very painful. Paul calls it "a stake," as though he were impaled; and it must have been physical, as he could not have prayed thrice for the removal of a moral taint, and been refused. In infinite wisdom God permitted the messenger of Satan to buffet his servant; and all through that first missionary journey he had to face a long succession of buffetings. There were perils of robbers, of waters, of mountain-passes, and of violent crowds; but in addition to all, there was the lacerating thorn.

He probably suffered from weak eyes, or some distressing form of ophthalmia. We infer this from the eagerness of his Galatian converts to give him their eyes, from his dependence on an amanuensis, and from the clumsy letters with which he wrote the postscripts to his epistles (Galatians 6:11, R.V.). And if this were the case, the pain would be greatly aggravated as he faced the keen blasts that swept the mountain plateau on which the Pisidian Antioch was situated.
____________________________________________

[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
X.  "FOURTEEN YEARS AGO"
F. B. Meyer

Was it during this journey that he besought the Lord on three separate occasions for deliverance, and received the assurance that .though the thorns were left. more than sufficient grace would be given? If so, like a peal of bells, at Antioch. Iconium. Derbe. and Lystra. he must have heard the music of those tender words: My grace is sufficient, sufficient, SUFFICIENT for thee! Sufficient when friends forsake, and foes pursue; sufficient to make thee strong against a raging synagogue, or a shower of stones; sufficient for excessive labours of body, and conflicts of soul; sufficient to enable thee to do as much work, and even more, than if the body were perfectly whole -- for my strength is made perfect only amid the conditions of mortal weakness.

In estimating the greatness of a man's life-work, it is fair to take into consideration the difficulties under which he has wrought. And how greatly does our appreciation of the Apostle rise when we remember that he was incessantly in pain. Instead, however, of sitting down in despair, and pleading physical infirmity as his excuse for doing nothing, he bravely claimed the grace which waited within call, and did greater work through God's enabling might than he could have done through his own had it been unhindered by his weakness.

Ah, afflicted ones, your disabilities were meant to unite with God's enablings; your weakness to mate his power. Do not sit down before that mistaken marriage, that uncongenial business, that unfortunate partnership, that physical weakness, that hesitancy of speech, that disfigurement of face, as though they must necessarily maim and conquer you. God's grace is at hand -- sufficient  -- and at its best when human weakness is most profound. Appropriate it, and learn that those that wait on God are stronger in their weakness than the sons of men in their stoutest health and vigour.
____________________________________________

[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XI.  THE CONFLICT OF PAUL'S LIFE
F. B. Meyer

(Acts 15; Galatians 2)

"Some law there needs be, other than the law
Of our own wills; happy is he who finds
A Law wherein his spirit is left free.
I will not bend again
My spirit to a yoke that is not Christ's."
H. HAMILTON KING

IN THE separation of Abraham from country, kindred, and father's house, the story of his people was foreshadowed. As Balaam, under the inspiration of the Almighty, said, Lo, it is a people that dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations  Their dress, rites, customs, and religious habits, were carefully and expressly determined to accentuate their separation, that, being withdrawn from the influence of surrounding nations, they might be fitted to receive, keep, and transmit the knowledge of God. In no other way could they have borne the precious deposit entrusted to them down the centuries, and maintained their unbroken witness to the unity, spirituality, and holiness of God. Not otherwise could they have become the religious poets, prophets, and teachers of mankind.

The laws of separation were so rigid that Peter did not scruple to remind Cornelius and his friends of the risk he ran in crossing the threshold of a Gentile's house, although his host was a man of high rank, of irreproachable character, and well reported of by all the nation of the Jews. And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, even his fellow-believers, who were of the circumcision, found grievous fault with him: "They contended with him, saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them." The law of commandments, contained in ordinances, some of them ordained through Moses, and many superadded by successive generations of doctors and rabbis, stood like a middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile.

All these barriers and restrictions were represented in the initial act of Judaism, the rite of circumcision, the importance of which had been magnified to a most preposterous extent. It was affirmed by one rabbi that but for circumcision heaven and earth could not exist; and by another that it was equivalent to all the command-menu of the law. It was counted more desirable for a Gentile to submit to this rite than to obey all the affirmative precepts of Moses, or to love God and his neighbour. It was supposed that Adam, Noah, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and Balaam, had all been born circumcised; and that subsequently the rite was under the special and peculiar charge of the great prophet Elijah, who was always at hand to see to its due observance.
________________________________________

[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XI.  THE CONFLICT OF PAUL'S LIFE
F. B. Meyer

The rigour of these observances was heavy enough in Jerusalem. But in foreign parts, amid great Gentile communities, with whom the Jews were constantly engaged in commerce, it became customary to relax the stringency of the bonds of Judaism, though always maintaining circumcision, the intermarriage of Jew with Jew, and that particular method of preparing animal flesh for food which is still in vogue amongst Jews. It was clear, therefore, that any innovation which Christianity might introduce into Judaism would be more likely to reveal itself at a distance from Jerusalem, where it would not be instantly repressed by the unbending conservative sentiment so strongly entrenched in the metropolis of the national faith. We are not surprised, therefore, that Antioch became the scene of that forward movement, led by Barnabas and Paul, which consisted in openly welcoming Gentile converts into the Christian community, without insisting on their previous conformity to the venerable rite of circumcision.

This marked a great advance. Hitherto, especially in Judaea, the Christians were regarded by the people as a Jewish sect; and so long as they were prepared to attend the Temple services, conform to the regulations, and maintain the institutions of Judaism, their belief in Jesus as the long-promised Messiah was regarded as a peculiarity which might be condoned and winked at. It was permissible that they should meet in the Love-feast, so long as they did not forsake the Temple; they might pray to Jesus as God if they acted in all other respects as devout Jews. But if this rule had been universally maintained, Christianity, like a stream in a marshy land, would have speedily been lost to view. After a few brief years it would have been indistinguishable. And Judaism, with its intolerable burden and exaggerations, would have stood forth among men as the only representative of the purest faith which had ever visited our world. The world of the Gentiles would have been hopelessly alienated; the coming of the Kingdom of God would have been put back for centuries, even if it had ever emerged from the stifling conditions of its cradle.

All this, however, was prevented by the policy to which Barnabas and Paul had been led. In the Epistle to the (Galatians 2:4-12) we have a pleasant glimpse of the liberty which the converts in Antioch had in Christ Jesus. Circumcised and uncircumcised joined in the common exercises of Christian fellowship. They ate together without question; and even Peter, when on a visit to Antioch, was so charmed with the godly simplicity and beauty of their communion, that he joined freely with them, and partook of their Love-feasts and common meals.

The conservative party in the Jerusalem church, however, on hearing these tidings, was ill at ease. They saw that if this principle were allowed to be universal, it would undermine their authority, and eventually rend their religious supremacy from their grasp. They could not brook the thought that circumcision might fall into disuse, and that the deep spiritual teaching of Moses might become common coin for the handling of Gentile fingers; and, therefore, as the first step, sent down false brethren, who were privily brought in, and came to spy out the liberty which the church at Antioch practised. Then, when they were assured of the facts, certain men came down from Judaea, and taught the brethren, saying, "Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved."

It was an important crisis, and led to the breaking out of a controversy which embittered many succeeding years in the Apostle's life; but it led to some of his noblest epistles, and to his exposition of the principles of the Gospel with unrivalled clearness and beauty.
______________________________________

[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XI.  THE CONFLICT OF PAUL'S LIFE
F. B. Meyer

1. GREAT QUESTIONS WERE AT STAKE.

This, for instance: Whether Christianity was to be a sect of Judaism, a chamber in the Temple, a bud confined in its green sheath, a dwarfed and stunted babe in swaddling clothes that forbade its natural development? And this: Whether the Levitical institutions of rites and ceremonies, of feasts and fasts, were of a piece with the great moral code of Sinai and Deuteronomy; or might be regarded as temporary and fugitive, brought in for a specific purpose, but to be laid aside when that purpose was fulfilled? But this most of all: What were the conditions on which men might be saved?

The conditions of salvation are debated in the language of every age. The terms vary, but the controversy is always the same. Substitute Ritualism for Judaism, and the rites of the church for circumcision, and you are confronted by the same questions and issues as were encountered by our Apostle. Still men say, Except you be christened, confirmed, and received into our church, ye cannot be saved. And it is from Paul's store of arguments, with which apparently before his old age his adversaries were silenced, that we must find our weapons, as Luther found them before us.

Salvation is not secured by obedience to a rite, by the observance of a code of rules, or even by obedience to a creed, pronounced orthodox. A man may be precise in all of these and yet be under the wrath of God, and his character be scarred by passion and self-indulgence. The only condition of salvation is faith, which believes in Him that justifies the ungodly, and receives into the heart the very nature of Jesus to become the power of the new life. How infinitely unimportant, then, compared with faith, is any outward rite. It may have its place, as the outward sign and seal of the covenant, but it has no efficacy apart from the spiritual act.

But there is a constant tendency in the human heart to magnify the importance of the outward rite to the minimising of the value of the spiritual attribute, which it should express or accompany. The outward is so much more accessible, manageable, and computable; the spiritual so removed from human vision and manipulation. In these days men are prone to magnify the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper in the precise manner in which these Judaizing Christians magnified circumcision. And when they are allowed to do so, their whole theory of religion becomes mechanical and formal. Those who punctiliously follow their precepts are hopelessly led into the ditch, whilst those who denounce their error are anathematised and consigned to the uncovenanted mercies of God.

Let us never forget, then, that circumcision availeth nothing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love, a new creature, and the keeping of the commandments of God. And let us never fail to follow the Apostle's example, who said, "To whom we gave place in the way of subjection, no, not for an hour, that the truth of the Gospel might continue with you."
__________________________________________

[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XI.  THE CONFLICT OF PAUL'S LIFE
F. B. Meyer

2. THE ARGUMENTS ON EITHER SIDE.

"There was much contention.''

Did not Jesus fulfil the law of Moses? Was He not circumcised? And did He not rigorously observe the Temple fasts and feasts, and even pay his share in the Temple tax?

Certainly, said Barnabas and Paul: but you must remember that when He died He said, "It is finished"; and the vail of the Temple was rent from the top to the bottom, to show that Judaism had finished its God-given mission. From that moment He became not a Saviour of Jews only, but the world's Redeemer. When God ratified the new covenant with the blood of Calvary, He made the first covenant old. And that which becometh old and waxeth aged is nigh to vanishing away.

But surely the law given by Moses is permanent? Did not Jesus of Nazareth assert that not one jot or tittle should pass away until all was fulfilled?

Precisely. But surely we must distinguish between the outward and inward, the ritual and ethical, the form and the substance? It is impossible to believe that the sublime ceremonial of Leviticus, which was imposed for a special purpose, can be of the same binding force and moment as the ten words of the Law which are borne witness to by the conscience of all men.

But if you do away with the restrictions of the Law, will you not loosen all moral restraint, and lead to a general relaxation of all bonds in the family and the State?

There is no fear of this, the stalwart defenders of the simplicities of the faith answer from the other side. Souls that are united to Jesus Christ by faith are cleansed by receiving from Him tides of spiritual life and health; so that they become more than ever pure, and holy, and divine. Do we then make the law of none effect through faith? God forbid; nay, we establish the law. The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes us free from the law of sin and death.
__________________________________________

[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XI.  THE CONFLICT OF PAUL'S LIFE
F. B. Meyer

3. THE APPEAL TO JERUSALEM.

The disputing and questioning, however, showed no signs of abating, and it was finally decided that Paul and Barnabas, and certain others with them, should go up to Jerusalem to consult the Apostles and elders about this question. They travelled slowly through Phoenicia and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles in each of the little Christian communities on their route, until they reached Jerusalem, where, in a great missionary convocation, specially convened, they told all things that God had done with them -- that is, in co-operation and fellowship with them; as though by blessing them the living Christ were Himself implicated in the methods they had adopted. But their statements were interrupted by the uprising of certain of the sect of the Pharisees that believed, and the heated interjection of the reiterated statement, "It is needful to circumcise them, and to keep the law of Moses."

Again a special meeting was summoned: in which there was much questioning. Then Peter arose, and said, "This matter was settled in my judgment by God Himself, when in the house of Cornelius the Holy Spirit descended on uncircumcised Gentiles, as on us at the beginning; and as He made no distinction, why should we?"

Next Barnabas and Paul repeated their wondrous story, this time laying emphasis on the fact that they were only the instruments through whom God wrought, and showed how greatly the Gentiles had been blessed, and were being blessed, altogether apart from circumcision.

Lastly, James summed up the whole debate by enumerating some three or four minor points on which he thought it well to insist, for the right ordering of the young communities; but he did not mention circumcision among them, nor insist on obedience to the Mosaic and Levitical institutions. To his sage counsel the Apostles and elders agreed.

This unanimity between the leading Apostles and the two Evangelists, who were the cause of the whole controversy, was probably largely due to the private interview which Paul had sought with them, and which most commentators allocate to this period (Galatians 2:2). He tells us that he went up by revelation, as though, in addition to the request of the church, there were strong spiritual pressure exerted on him; and when he reached Jerusalem he laid before them who were of repute the Gospel he was preaching among the Gentiles, lest he were running in vain. But to his great satisfaction they did not comment adversely upon his statements, nor insist upon Titus, a young Greek, being circumcised; and they even went so far as to recognize that the Gospel of the uncircumcision had been entrusted to him, giving him and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that they should go unto the Gentiles, as themselves unto the circumcision. The power of the risen Jesus was so mightily in his servants, that there was no gainsaying their vocation.

The Pharisee party was defeated, and a decree signed in the sense of James' address; but from that moment a relentless war broke out, which followed the Apostle for the next ten years of his life, and cost him many bitter tears. Every church he planted was visited by the emissaries of his virulent opponents, who were not content with insisting on the necessity of circumcision, but asserted that Paul was no Apostle, because he had only seen Christ in vision, and had never companied with Him during the days of his flesh. They traduced his personal character, misrepresented his reluctance to take the gifts of his converts, dwelt with cruel animosity upon his personal defects, and in many cases succeeded in alienating the love and loyalty of his converts.
__________________________________________

[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XI.  THE CONFLICT OF PAUL'S LIFE
F. B. Meyer

This cruel persecution is constantly alluded to in the Epistles to the Galatians and Corinthians, and cut Paul to the quick. However, he never owned himself vanquished. By prayers and tears, by arguments and persuasions, by threatenings and expostulations, the heroic lion-heart fought the good fight to the end; and, if we may judge from the tone of his later epistles, was permitted to see the close of the controversy, in which it was determined once for all that the new-wine Christianity should not be poured into the worn-out bottle-skins of Judaism.

If the conditions of justification are now clearly defined as repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; if salvation is as free as the flowers of spring or the air of heaven; if we are able to stand fast in the freedom with which Christ has made us free; if we may preach to all and any that those who believe are justified from all things -- it is due to the unflinching courage with which the great Apostle of the Gentiles contended for the faith once delivered to the saints, and which led him on one occasion to confront even the Apostle Peter himself, because he was to be blamed (Galatians 2:11).
___________________________________________

[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XII.  A LESSON OF GUIDANCE
F. B. Meyer

(Acts 16)

"Oh, let thy sacred will
All thy delight in me fulfil!
Let me not think an action mine own way,
But as thy love shall sway,
Resigning up the rudder to thy skill."
HERBERT

AFTER a brief respite, Paul proposed to Barnabas that they should return to visit the brethren in every city wherein they had proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they fared. This was the beginning of his second missionary journey, which was to have far-reaching results.

Barnabas suggested that they should take Mark with them as before, a proposition which his companion positively refused to entertain. Mark had deserted them on the threshold of their previous expedition, and there was grave fear that he might do so again. Barnabas was as strong on the other side. Perhaps he felt that he had some rights in the matter, as the senior in age, because of the tie of blood between himself and his sister's son. At last the contention reached so acute a stage that the church became aware of it, and took Paul's side, for the narrative of the Acts tells us that when Paul chose Silas, and went forth, "he was commended by the brethren to the grace of the Lord."

Whenever we are about to undertake some great enterprise for God, in proportion to its importance we may expect to encounter the strong man armed, "straddling across the way." How often he attempts to overthrow us through the temper or disposition of our associates! The crew mutinies as Columbus nears the long-looked-for coast! Nothing tests us more than this. It is difficult to be resolute and gentle, strong and sweet. Beware of temptation from this side, fellow-workers. If you are compelled to differ from your companions, let it be in love; let them feel that you have no interests to serve but those of truth, If Lot quarrels with you, it is best to give him his own terms and send him away; God will give you ever so much more than he can take. Only do nothing to drive the Holy Dove of God from your bosom. Perfect love is the only atmosphere in which the Divine Spirit can manifest his gracious help.
_______________________________________