PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST

[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XV.  "IN WEAKNESS AND FEAR"
F. B. Meyer

This was more than the influential men of the Jewish community could bear; they opposed, blasphemed, and drove him from the synagogue. Their attitude was more than usually virulent. They were unreasonable and wicked; they were animated by the spirit which had led their nation to kill the Lord Jesus and the prophets; they pleased not God, and were contrary to all men; they were filling up the measure of their sins (1 Thessalonians 2:14-16; 2 Thessalonians 3:2).

Their hatred culminated when the Apostle gladly accepted the offer of a God-fearing proselyte, Titus Justus, whose house was close to the synagogue, to hold meetings there. This new move was attended with instant and remarkable success. Among those that migrated with the Apostle from the synagogue was Crispus, its chief ruler, who believed in the Lord with all his house. Many of the people of Corinth, also, heard, believed, and were baptized. As the new meeting-house became more crowded, and the movement increased in numbers and influence, the Jews became more and more exasperated, and at last rose in a body, seized Paul, and dragged him before the Roman Governor, who happened to be Gallio, brother to Seneca, the famous philosopher, and Nero's tutor. He was a man of unusual culture and refinement, sweetness, and lovableness. He represented the broad and liberal views of educated Romans, of the policy that Rome should exercise towards the various religions of the provinces; and when he discovered that the charge against Paul was of no imperial importance, and had to do indeed not with facts, or civil wrong or moral outrage, but with words, and names, and Jewish law, he would have nothing more to do with it or them, but bade his lictors drive them from the judgment-seat.

The Greeks were only too glad that contempt should be heaped on the hated Jews, and took the opportunity of seizing Sosthenes, the new chief ruler of the synagogue -- who had succeeded to the post vacated by Crispus -- and beating him in the very presence of the Proconsul. He regarded their horse-play, however, with perfect indifference. What did it matter if a Jew got a few stripes more or less? No doubt they were richly merited; and so long as there was no public disturbance, the castigation might serve a useful purpose in cautioning the Jews against bringing their matters into public notice or trespassing on the public patience.

But the incident must have greatly aggravated the hatred of the Jews against the Apostle and his converts; the more so when, as it would appear, Sosthenes himself became a convert, and so intimately associated with the Apostle as to be coupled in after years with himself in the inscription of the first Epistle to the Corinthians -- "Sosthenes our brother."
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XV.  "IN WEAKNESS AND FEAR"
F. B. Meyer

3. THE CHARACTER OF HIS CONVERTS.

Corinth has been compared to Paris for its vice; to Newmarket for the preponderance of the sporting interest; to Chicago for the mixture of its population; to Vanity Fair for its frivolity and lightness. Thither gathered the scum of the world. Soldiers and sailors, slaves and prostitutes, jockeys and chariot drivers, athletes and wrestlers; Romans with their imperial bearing; Greeks with their regular features; Jews with their unmistakable badge; Scythians from the shores of the Black Sea; men of Mesopotamia, Pontus, Egypt, and Asia Minor, all bent on business or amusement, and daubed to a greater or less extent with the exceeding evil of this grossly impure city. The Temple of Venus, with its thousand priestesses, legalised vice; the Isthmian Games, held once in three years, established betting and gambling; the motley character of the population encouraged a wild admixture of thought and opinion, for which there was no recognized standard or court of appeal.

To such a city Paul opened his message, encouraged by the assurance of the Lord that He had much people there. How often to his tried and persecuted servants does the Master come as He came to the Apostle! They may be conscious of weakness and much fear, may speak his word in trembling, may be derided as a spectacle and laughing-stock, may be encompassed with toil and pain and persecution; but He stands beside in a vision, and says: "Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee. They may gather themselves against thee, but not by Me. Whosoever shall gather against thee shall fall for thy sake. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise in judgment against thee thou shalt condemn."

With this encouragement in his heart, Paul laboured for a year and six months in this gay and sinful city, with marvellous success. It is true that not many of the wise, or mighty, or noble of this world, were among the chosen ones; they who were accounted as weak, and base, and contemptible, by the high-bred leaders of Corinthian society were selected as the foundation-stones of the newly-gathered church. There might be a Crispus and Gaius, a Stephanas and his household, all of whom, contrary to his usual practice, the Apostle baptized before Timothy and Silas arrived; but these were exceptions to the general rule. Perhaps women preponderated in the young community, as the Apostle devotes so much space in his Epistle to regulating their behaviour. We know, at least, of Phoebe, the deaconess of the church at Cenchrea, who bore his epistle to Rome; and of Chloe, whose household slaves were the medium of intelligence when Paul was at Ephesus.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XV.  "IN WEAKNESS AND FEAR"
F. B. Meyer

The majority of his converts, however, were of the lowest caste, and of those who had been deeply stained with the vices that made Corinth notorious. The city was the resort of fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminates, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, and extortioners, and such had they been; but under the preaching of the Cross, in the power of the Holy Ghost, a marvellous change had passed over them -- they had become washed, sanctified, and justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God. Jesus had become their wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Delivered from the power of darkness, they had become children of the light and of the day: heirs of God, and joint heirs with the Son of his love.

What a contrast between that little Church and the great heathen world out of which it had been chosen! We may imagine one of its meetings towards the close of the Apostle's visit. It is a Sabbath evening. Outside, the streets are full of pleasure-seekers and revellers. Groups of idlers are discussing the last chariot race, or staking their money on an approaching boxing-match. The varied costumes, vivid gestures, handsome equipages, the mimes and plays, the processions and shows, compose a never-palling picture of movement and colour. But within the little meeting-place all is hushed and still. Paul is speaking of things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived; or the men in turn are contributing to the edification of the rest, with a psalm, or a teaching, or a revelation, or the interpretation of an unknown tongue; while the women, modestly veiled, listen in silence. Now the Love-feast is being partaken of, each bringing some contribution of victuals to the common store; and presently the Lord's Supper will conclude the evening engagements, partaken of according to the method delivered to the Apostle by the Lord Jesus Himself.

This was a marvellous sequel to his timid and unadorned entrance among them. But it is evident that the Apostle was far from satisfied. He complained that he could not speak unto them as unto spiritual; but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ; that he was obliged to feed them with milk, and not with meat. He, doubtless, detected the first working of that unhallowed leaven which was afterwards to break out in such fearful ferment. Even before he. left there were probably manifestations of party spirit, of the appraising of gift above grace, of the mistaking licence for liberty, of the undue prominence of women in public assemblies, of greed in the Love-feasts, confusion in the ministrations, and heresy in the doctrine of the resurrection. It must have been, therefore, with no small misgiving that he tore himself away at the close of his protracted sojourn, leaving the infant community to the tendance of God with much of the same solicitude with which Jochebed launched the cradle ark on the tawny waters of the Nile.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XV.  "IN WEAKNESS AND FEAR"
F. B. Meyer

But though he left the city, it produced an ineffaceable effect upon his methods of thought and expression. It was there that he came under the influence of those imperial conceptions which were embodied in Rome, the undisputed mistress of the world. There he wrote his first two epistles, those to the Thessalonians. There, also, he was compelled to study the intimate questions connected with the formation and government of churches so heterogeneously constituted; and there he reached the final form of stating the Gospel. Years afterwards we find him alluding to the mingling of gold, silver, and precious stones, with wood, hay, and stubble, in the construction of temples and other buildings; or comparing the body to a temple; or drawing illustrations from the boxing-match and the arena, the triumphal procession and the theatrical representation. It seemed as though his speech were dyed with the colouring borrowed from the spectacles with which he had grown so familiar in the streets of Corinth.

At last, however, he resolved to leave Corinth. Many reasons prompted this step, and amongst them the desire to proceed to Jerusalem to ascertain the feeling of the mother church. Still further to conciliate the conservative element there, he had bound himself in the vow of a Nazarite, and was anxious to perform the concluding ceremonial within the Temple. He was obliged to have his head shorn at Cenchrea, because the month had expired; but he carried the hair with him to be burnt on the great altar within the Temple court. Aquila and Priscilla probably thought that Ephesus would be a better mart for their wares than Corinth, so they sailed with him. And thus the first memorable missionary tour in Greece came to an end, and for the fourth time since his conversion the Apostle approached the city which was doubly dear to him -- memories of his Lord being now entwined with the sacred associations of David, Solomon, Hezekiah, and Ezra.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XVI.  MORE THAN A CONQUEROR
F. B. Meyer

(Romans 8:36-37)

"Servant of God, well done! Well hast thou fought
The better fight, who single hast maintained
Against revolted multitudes the cause
Of Truth -- in word mightier than they in arms."
MILTON

THESE are among the greatest words ever spoken by man, and are the more remarkable when we consider them as gathering up and recapitulating the experiences which immediately preceded their utterance.

It was towards the close of Paul's third missionary journey. About three years before, he had left the Syrian Antioch for the third time, after a sojourn of some duration (Acts 18:23). His eager spirit could not rest amid the comparative comfort and ease of the vigorous church-life which was establishing itself there, but yearned with tender solicitude over his converts throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia. He therefore again passed the Cilician Gates, traversed the bleak tablelands of the upper or highland country, stablishing all the disciples, and working towards the Roman province of Asia. This lay to the S.W., on the seaboard. He had been previously forbidden to enter it (Acts 16:6); but his steps were now as clearly led to it as they had formerly been restrained. Thus does our Sovereign Lord withhold his servants from the immediate fulfilment of their dreams, that they may return to them again when the time is ripe, and they, too, are more thoroughly equipped. The experiences of Paul in Greece were of the utmost possible service in fitting him for his ministry in this thickly-populated and highly-civilized district; which resulted in a work of evangelization throughout the neighbourhood, and in the ultimate formation of those seven churches, to which the risen Lord addressed his final messages.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XVI.  MORE THAN A CONQUEROR
F. B. Meyer

It was to redeem a pledge he had solemnly made that the Apostle at last came down to Ephesus. He had spent one Sabbath-day there previously, on his way from Corinth to Jerusalem. On that occasion his ministrations had so deeply interested the Jews, that they had urged him to abide for a longer period; but this being impossible, on account of the necessity of hastening to Jerusalem to fulfil his vow, when taking his leave of them he said, "I will return again unto you, if the Lord will." It was in fulfilment of that promise that the Apostle now visited the metropolis of Asia the Less.

A good deal had happened in the interval, in narrating which the evangelist probably gives us the clue to the former prohibition of the Apostle's visit. Apollos, the eloquent Alexandrian, had visited the city, had met there Paul's friends, Aquila and Priscilla, who were awaiting their fellow-worker's return. By them he had been led into a clear appreciation of the truth, in consequence of which his ministry had become more fruitful, both in helping them which had believed, and powerfully confuting the Jews. The strong ploughshare had turned up the heavy clods, and prepared the soil for Paul's further labours (Acts 18:24-28 ).

But Apollos had now left for Corinth, and Paul arrived to take up and extend the work so auspiciously begun. He probably but dimly realized as he entered Ephesus how long he would remain, or the far-reaching results of his residence. It was enough for him to realize, as he afterwards wrote to the Ephesian converts, that there was a prepared path awaiting him; but whether it should be smooth or rough was known only to Him whose he was and whom he served.

As a matter of fact it was a conflict from first to last. "I fought with beasts at Ephesus," was his comment after it was all over. And here, again, in enumerating his experiences, he compares them to a battlefield and himself to a combatant, crying -- "We are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter; but in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us." In these words, written to Rome from Corinth, after the close of his work at Ephesus, and whilst his experiences there were yet fresh to his thought, he gives his own conception of the entire situation.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XVI.  MORE THAN A CONQUEROR
F. B. Meyer

1. THE BATTLEFIELD.

There were several difficulties to be encountered, which must be taken into account if we would estimate the greatness of the victory achieved through the grace of the living Saviour.

In the first place there was the pressure of the strange, eager mass of human beings, whose interests, aims, and methods of thought were so foreign to his own. No one has stood alone in the midst of Benares, surrounded by that vast heathen population, worshipping on the banks of the brown and muddy Ganges, or ascending the thousand stairs of the marble temples which extend along the riverside, without a sense of loneliness and isolation. In the proximity of the great river, among those mighty and ancient pyramids of stone, beneath those facades and colonnades in which swarms the infinite life of India, how insignificant the life of the individual onlooker appears! What is he in the presence of that teeming mass! How can he hope to affect its habits of thought and life -- he might as well attempt to divert the course of the ancient stream. Did not Paul feel thus, as he spent his first weeks at Ephesus?

But, besides, there was the vast system of organized idolatry which centred in the temple of Diana. Her image was said to have fallen from Jupiter (possibly a meteorite), and it was enshrined in a temple, counted to be one of the wonders of the world. The magnificence of uncalculated wealth, the masterpieces of human art, the fame of splendid ceremonials, the lavish gifts of emperors and kings, the attendance and service of thousands of priests and priestesses, combined to give it an unrivalled eminence of influence and prestige. Sooner might some humble Protestant missionary working in a back street of Rome expect to dim the magnificence of St. Peter's, or diminish the attendance of its vast congregations, as Paul hope that his residence in Ephesus could have any effect whatever on the worship of Diana. Moreover, all the world knew that the city of the Ephesians was temple-keeper of the great Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter (Acts 19:35), and therefore keen to avenge the least slight.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XVI.  MORE THAN A CONQUEROR
F. B. Meyer

In connection with the temple there throve a great trade in amulets and charms. Each individual in the vast crowds that came up to worship at the shrine was eager to carry back some memento of his visit, and the more so if the keepsake would serve as a preservative against evil omens and spirits, of which there was a great and constant dread. The trade in these articles must have been a large one, or the artificers in silver would not have been numerous enough to fill the city with confusion, and to necessitate the interference of the town clerk. What the trade in strong drink is among ourselves, that was the business in these miniature shrines manufactured by Demetrius and his fellow-crafts-men. How impossible it seemed that one man, in three years, employing only moral and spiritual weapons, could make any difference to this ancient and extensive craft!

But still further, like many of the cities of the time, filled with motley populations -- part Oriental and part Greek -- Ephesus was deeply infected with the black arts of the exorcist, the magician, and the professor of cabalistic mysteries. The renegade Jews were foremost adepts in such matters, calling mystic names over any who were possessed of evil spirits. Even the converts to Christianity found it hard to divest themselves of their former association with these practices, and treasured their books to the amount of at least £2000. It is no child's play to turn a nation of savages from their confidence in witchcraft and medicine-men to sane views of life and Divine Providence; but how much harder to neutralize such insidious poison as wrought through a great city like Ephesus! The people fixed the days of marriage and journeying, the engagements they should make, and the business transactions on which they should enter, after an appeal to the soothsayers and magicians; and it was a formidable task to combat their rooted prejudices and habits.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XVI.  MORE THAN A CONQUEROR
F. B. Meyer

But perhaps Paul's most inveterate foe was the Jewish synagogue, entrenched in ancient prejudices and persistent disbelief. They were hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of "the Way" before the multitude. He also recalls, in his farewell address to the Ephesian elders, the trials which befell him by the plots of the Jews. When the great riot broke out, they were only too glad to show their hatred of the Christians by putting forward Alexander to disavow all connection with them.

Such were the giant obstacles that confronted the humble tent-maker, as he settled down to his trade in company with Aquila and Priscilla. But he looked far beyond the limits of his workshop to great victories for his Lord, much as Carey, who wrought at his cobbling with a map of the world in front of him. But greater was He that was for him than all that there were against him, and in all these things he was destined to be more than a conqueror, through Him that had loved him.


2. LET US VERIFY THIS ASSERTION.

Let US turn to the Acts of the Apostles, and ask if Paul were indeed more than conqueror. The answer is unmistakable. After three months' conflict with the Jews in their synagogue, the Apostle was driven to the course he was wont to adopt under similar circumstances -- he moved his disciples to the school-house of one Tyrannus, and taught there daily, as soon as noon was past, and a pause put alike on the labours of the schoolmaster and the artisan. In consequence of these ministrations, "all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks" -- a very strong statement, when we bear in mind the populousness of that crowded province. Even the silversmiths who caused the riot acknowledged that not only at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, Paul had persuaded and turned away much people; and there was great danger that the temple would be depleted of its worshippers, and Diana deposed from her magnificence.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XVI.  MORE THAN A CONQUEROR
F. B. Meyer

With respect to the trade in amulets and charms, it fell off so seriously that the craftsmen realized that unless they bestirred themselves their gains would be at an end.

With respect to the strongly-entrenched position of the magicians and exorcists, they were utterly baffled and confounded by the much greater miracles which were wrought through Paul; so much so that the handkerchiefs he used to wipe the sweat from his brow and the aprons in which he wrought at his trade, were made the medium of healing virtue as they were carried from his person to the sick and demon-possessed. So mighty was the impression that Christ had secrets superior to the best contained in their ancient books, that many of them that had believed came confessing, and declaring their deeds. And not a few of those who practised magical arts brought their books together in one of the open squares and burned them in the sight of all. So mightily grew the word of the Lord, and prevailed.

With respect to the exorcist Jews, they, too, were silenced. It would appear that the name of Jesus, spoken even by those that did not believe in Him, had a potency over evil spirits such as no other name exerted; and it had been blasphemously used by strolling Jews, who had taken upon themselves to call that sweet and holy name over some that were possessed. But in one notable instance the demon himself had remonstrated, crying, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?" and he had leapt on them, and mastered them, so that they fled from the house naked and wounded.


3. LET US CONSIDER THE TALISMAN OF VICTORY.

If we turn from his outward life to study the diary of this wonderful man, who seemed single-handed in his conflicts and victories, we find a pathetic record of his sorrows and trials. Writing during these eventful months, he speaks of himself as a man doomed to death and made a spectacle to the world; for Christ's sake, a fool, weak, and dishonoured; suffering hunger and thirst, when work was scant and ill-paid; having no certain dwelling-place, because unable to hold a situation long together through the plotting of his foes; hated, buffeted, reviled, persecuted, defamed; made as the filth of the world, and the offscouring of all things (1 Corinthians 4:9-13).
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XVI.  MORE THAN A CONQUEROR
F. B. Meyer

When he tells the story of the affliction which befell him during his residence in Asia, he says that he was weighed down exceedingly beyond his power, insomuch that he despaired even of life; that he was pressed on every side, perplexed, pursued, smitten down, groaning in the tabernacle of his body, and always bearing about the dying of the Lord Jesus. In addition to all these things that were without, there pressed on him daily the care of all the churches. There was also his anxiety about individuals, as he ceased not to admonish every one of them night and day with tears (2 Corinthians 1:8; 2 Corinthians 4:8; 2 Corinthians 11:27-28 ).

There is nothing more pathetic in the records of human suffering and patience than the story of his Ephesian experiences, as he summoned them up on the shores of Miletus, in his parting address to the elders of the church. In this passage also he quotes the old words of the Psalmist, about being killed all the day long, and counted as fit for the slaughter; and enumerates tribulation, anguish, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, as ingredients in his cup. Added to this, there was the constant suffering caused by the stake in the flesh. As the result of it all we wonder how such a man, under such drawbacks and in face of such opposing forces, could be more than a conqueror. Evidently we are driven to seek the source of his victory outside himself. It was through Him that loved. He not only overcame, but he was more than an overcomer; he overcame with ease; he brought off the spoils of victory -- and this because he was in daily communication with One who had loved, did love, and would love him, world without end; and who was ever pouring reinforcements into his soul, as men will pour fresh oxygen air to their comrade who is groping for pearls in the depth of the sea.

The only matter about which the Apostle, therefore, felt any anxiety was whether anything could occur to cut him off from the living, loving Lord. "Can anything separate me from the love of Christ?" -- that was the only question worth consideration.

Taking the extreme conditions of Being, he carefully investigates them, knowing that they include all between. First he interrogates the extremes of existence, "death and life"; next, the extremes of created intelligences, "angels and principalities and powers"; next, the extremes of time, "things present and things to come"; next, the extremes of space, "height and depth"; lastly, the extremes of the created universe, "any other creature."
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XVI.  MORE THAN A CONQUEROR
F. B. Meyer

Each of these extremes has thus passed in review, and he has eagerly peered into its depths. He is like a man proving every link of the chain on which he is going to swing out over the abyss. Carefully and fervently he has tested all, and is satisfied that none of them can cut him off from the love of God; and since that is so, he is sure that nothing can ever intercept those supplies of the life and strength of God that shall avail to make him more than a conqueror.

We strangely misjudge the love of God. We think that our distresses and sufferings, our sins and failures, may make Him love us less, whereas they will draw Him nearer, and make his love exert itself more evidently and tenderly. In the home, it is not the troop of sturdy children that so engross the mother's care, as the puny withered life that has lain in the cot for the last eleven years, unable to help itself and reciprocate her love. And in the world, death and pain, disease and sorrow, failure and sin, only draw God nearer, if that be possible. So far from separating from his love, they bind us closer.

Oh, blessed love that comes down to us from the heart of Jesus, the essence of the eternal love of God dwelling there and coming through Jesus to us -- nothing can ever staunch, nothing exhaust, nothing intercept it! It will not let us go. It leaps the gulf of space unattenuated, it bridges time unexhausted. It does not depend on our reciprocation or response. It is not our love that holds God, but God's that holds us. Not our love to Him, but his to us. And since nothing can separate us from the love of God, He will go on loving us for ever, and pouring into us the entire fulness of his life and glory; so that whatever our difficulties, whatever our weakness and infirmity, whatever the barrels of water which drench the sacrifice and the wood on which it lies, we shall be kept steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, gaining by our losses, succeeding by our failures, triumphing in our defeats, and ever more conquerors through Him that loved us.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XVII.  GATHERING CLOUDS
F. B. Meyer

(Acts 20:22)

"I know Thee, who hast kept my path, and made
Light for me in the darkness, tempering sorrow
So that it reached me like a solemn joy."
BROWNING

AFTER the great uproar excited by Demetrius was over, Paul sent for his disciples to come to his place of hiding, and exhorted them; commending them to the grace of God, and taking a sad farewell. This done, he departed to go into Macedonia by way of Troas.

For the story of the next few months we must turn to the second Epistle to the Corinthians, which is the most remarkable of his epistles for its revelation of his heart. Bengel calls it an itinerary, and Dean Stanley says that the very stages of his journey are impressed on it; while a third says that the strong emotions under which it was written make it more difficult to translate than any other.

At Troas, which he now visited for a second time, the Apostle expected to meet Titus, who had probably been the bearer of the first Epistle to Corinth -- a letter elicited by the sad story of the dissensions and disorders of the church there, which had been brought to Ephesus by members of the household of Chloe. He had dealt with the whole situation in very stringent terms, and was intensely anxious to learn the result of his words. Often since writing he had questioned whether he might not have imperilled his entire influence for good over his converts, and driven them into defiance and despair. The delay of Titus confirmed his worst fears; and, though a great door of ministry was opened at Troas, he could find no relief for his perturbed and eager spirit, but taking leave of them went forth into Macedonia (2 Corinthians 2:13).

In all probability Paul made at once for the beloved Philippi; but even there, since no tidings of Titus were to hand, his flesh had no relief. He was afflicted on every side; without were fightings, and within were fears.

At last. God that comforteth the lowly comforted him by the coming of the overdue traveller. He was glad. not only to have his friend at his side, but to learn that the effect of his first letter had been wholesome, and had led to an outbreak of godly repentance and affectionate yearning to himself. It was after conference with Titus on the whole state of affairs at Corinth that he indited his second Epistle.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XVII.  GATHERING CLOUDS
F. B. Meyer

1. HIS MULTIPLIED SORROWS.

Throughout the Epistle Paul speaks of the great anguish through which he was passing; and whilst he rebuts the many unkind and slanderous allegations made against him, he does so with pathetic references to his sufferings.

The treasure was in an earthen vessel. He was pressed, perplexed, pursued, and smitten down; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus: the outward man was decaying; many groans escaped him, being burdened, and he often longed to be absent from the body, that he might be present with the Lord.

In one of the most extraordinary enumeration of antitheses in any language, he mentions, among other sources of anguish, his spells of sleeplessness, his repeated fastings, the blows, imprisonments, tumults, toils, and pressure of his daily life. But there must have been other and deeper reasons -- perhaps that he was being so persistently maligned, and his teachings so flagrantly misrepresented; or because the love of many was waxing cold; or that the infant churches, on which he had expended so many prayers and tears, were proving themselves unworthy. But, however these things might be, the sufferings of Christ seem almost to have submerged him.

But the Father of mercies and God of all comfort drew near and comforted him. There were many notes in that sweet and tender refrain that stole on the heart of his afflicted servant. The testimony of his conscience, that he had wrought in sincerity and holiness; the divine faithfulness, which never gave sign of fickleness or failure; the light of the knowledge of God that shone clear in his soul; the thanksgiving of many to God which arose through his sorrows; the vision of the eternal weight of glory; the earnest of the Spirit in his soul, and the sure anticipation of the building of God which awaited him in the heavens; the blessed sense of being an ambassador of Christ and a fellow-worker with God. God knows how to comfort; and fountains of divine consolation arose from unknown depths for him, as they will for thee and me.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XVII.  GATHERING CLOUDS
F. B. Meyer

And thus, though the outward man decay, the inward man will be renewed day by day.

But in spite of all, this deeply suffering soul never abated for a moment its devoted labours for the cause of God. His letters abound with references to the offertory which he was raising for the poverty-stricken saints at Jerusalem from all the churches he had established. Now he stimulates Corinth by citing the example of Macedonia; and again he enumerates the precautions against the slanders of those who alleged that he was profiting by the contributions. There are indications also of his labours, not only toward the churches that knew and revered him, but in new and unexplored regions. Being ambitious to preach the Gospel where Christ had not been already named, and unwilling to build on another man's foundation, he fully preached the Gospel even to Illyricum, on the Adriatic.

Oh, incomparable man, no weights could stay the flight of thy devoted spirit! Nay, as the child's kite must be weighted to make it soar the higher, so did thy sorrows give thee new yearnings over souls, new ambitions for thy Lord! Thou hast thy reward in the love of Gentile hearts, until the sun-down of the present age, as thou hadst thy glorying in Christ Jesus in things pertaining to God. We magnify Christ in thee, for we fully realize that He wrought through thee, for the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, and in the power of the Holy Ghost.


2. HIS FRIENDS.

Some men have a marvellous power in attaching men to themselves. They possess a kind of spiritual magnetism for others, who gather to their heart and follow their lead. Paul had this power in a pre-eminent degree. He was loved as few have been loved, and he loved in return. It must have therefore been a peculiar pleasure to him, as at last he came to Corinth, to find himself the centre of a great assemblage of devoted friends.
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