Acts 21:27-40

And when the seven days were almost ended the Jews which were of Asia … stirred up all the people.

Paul in the temple

1. Unholy zeal is more easily occasioned than good works (Acts 21:27).

2. Religious accusations are frequently the result of excitement, and thus liable to be unjust. Giving a new, spiritual interpretation to old rites, customs, etc., is by many stamped as desecration and unbelief (Acts 21:28).

3. Enthusiastic devotion to duty may entail misapprehension and inconvenience (verse 27-30).

4. By their endorsements of the deeds of the past men show themselves the “children of their fathers” either for good or for evil (Acts 21:36).

5. In the best of causes one may be sometimes mistaken for an agent of the worst (Acts 21:38; Matthew 12:24).

6. Political indifference may be more equitable than ecclesiastical jealousy and rancour (Acts 21:31).

7. God overrules all events in the lives of His servants for the highest purposes. (A. F. Muir, M. A.)

Paul in the storm at Jerusalem

The apostle, at a later period, had to encounter a great storm on the open sea; but that was hardly more violent than what now arose against him on dry land, within the secure walls of Jerusalem, among his own people. Yet here, as there, the almighty arm of God protects and rescues him.

I. The outbreak of the storm. Suddenly and not to be reckoned on, as often a storm occurs in nature, this storm breaks out among the people. The tempest which Paul had seen from a distance at Miletus, and which was predicted to him on the way in a more and more threatening manner, discharges itself on a sudden, and in a place least to be expected, in the temple, while Paul sought to satisfy the zealots of the law.

II. The raging of the storm. The storm of the passions increases continually, the popular fury heaves and swells as a raging sea, and threatens to swallow up the servant of God.

III. The stilling of the storm. He who formerly rebuked the wind and waves on the Lake of Gennesareth, so that there was a great calm, speaks to the raging sea--“Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther.” The Roman tribune has to open the harbour of refuge to the apostle; and he himself with calm composure beckons to the people so that they become still. (K. Gerok.)

Paul accused of the Jews

I. The accusation brought against Paul.

1. Its nature.

2. The agents.

II. Its reasons.

1. The ostensible.

2. The real.

III. Its resemblance to the charge preferred against Christ--polluting the temple.

IV. Its results. Conclusion:--Learn--

1. That there are always persons ready to attack the servants of God.

2. That these attacks are made on any pretext however slight.

3. That we should Hot be dismayed, but rely on God for protection. (J. H. Tasson.)

Paul assailed

Paul again in trouble! What a magnetism he had to draw to himself distresses. Nature felt the strange attraction, and gave him her perils, storms, and shipwrecks. All kinds of men hastened with all kinds of mischief. This trouble presents some new elements. It came not from preaching Christ, but through conciliating Jews. It took place in the temple, not in some foreign synagogue or market place. The events of this passage are the riot, the rescue, the plea. Looking for practical suggestions, we note--

I. The divisions in the Church. As we get a pitiable sort of comfort in finding that even prophets and apostles were men of like passions with ourselves, so with the failures of the early Church. We have no hindrances which they did not overcome. That fair picture of brotherly love and self-forgetfulness which we saw at Pentecost is spoiled by a clique determined to rule or ruin. The Judaising party are chargeable with Paul’s captivity in Cesarea, his shipwrecks, his imprisonment at Rome, and ultimately his death. The dangers of heresy and innovations are understood, but less is said of the mischiefs of an unwise conservatism--a dogged obstinacy in clinging to old methods and resisting those who long to bring the work of the Church to the demands of the times. Usually they are a minority who oppose; they alone have feelings to be considered, convictions to be respected; and usually they have their way, to the injury of the Church and the honour of those who sacrifice feeling and judgment to the desire for peace. Yet even peace can be purchased too dearly.

II. An overruling providence. Since God has chosen to conduct His kingdom on earth through men, He must continually be at hand to wrest some advantage out of their inevitable errors. The nation’s sin had brought it under the Roman power; but had there been only Jewish authority in Jerusalem that day there had been no rescue for Paul. Heathen Rome is under the King of kings. Its power protects His apostle, gets the gospel a hearing before rulers, and gives the preacher his desired opportunity to visit the world’s capital.

III. The strength of believers. They glory in tribulation. This whole scene rebukes the thought that we can judge God’s feelings toward us, by the ease or painfulness of our life. We want an ungodly world to act in the ways of the millennium. What are we, that when disaster comes we sit down and cry despairingly, God has forgotten me? Have we fared like the chief apostle? Have we been smitten like Christ? We are nearest the Saviour in our sorest need, and rest absolutely on the everlasting arms only when all other help has given way. Then come peace and assurance which we have vainly tried to gain in easier times. Then, too, our own resources get a fresh power. The most beset and helpless man of all here is the apostle; but do what they will to him, he is the one calm, masterful soul there. His knowledge, his experience of mobs, a bearing both courteous and dignified, give him control of the stolid and furious alike. (C. M. Southgate.)

Paul assailed

I. Suffering assault.

1. When religion degenerates into a matter of rites and ceremonies, there is manifested very great zeal for forms, and very little zeal for truth.

2. When the Jews planned to convict Paul of false teaching, they indulged in a great deal of falsehood that they might accomplish their object.

3. When the Jews merely “supposed” that Paul had brought Trophimus into the temple, they accused the apostle before the people without the least hint that they were basing their charge on a mere supposition.

4. When the people heard, they “ran together” without further invitation. Meetings called for the worst purposes usually need the least advertising.

5. When Paul was dragged out, the doors Were shut. The murderous bloodthirsty Jews were so afraid that some microscopic temple ordinance might be polluted.

6. When the mob had beaten Paul, and attempted to kill him, the tidings speedily reached the police station that something was the matter. The ancient police officer seems not to have slept as serenely as the modern police officer does.

7. When it is only a poor persecuted apostle, or street preacher, or member of the Salvation Army, who is being assaulted, it is unusual for the world’s police forces to be so quick in learning of the disturbance.

II. Suffering arrest.

1. One may wear chains, and still not be a felon or a slave.

2. One may be compelled to wear chains, not to keep him from escaping, but to help him to escape. Thus Paul wore them.

3. One may enter prison walls, and not be a convict. Paul was never convicted of anything worse than of utter fearlessness in duty doing.

4. One may be protected from two classes of enemies by their mutual hatred of one another. Thus was Paul saved from the hostile Jews by the indifferent Romans.

5. One may be hustled into safety by the very violence of the attacks upon him. Thus the mob crowded Paul, borne in the soldiers’ arms, within the castle.

6. One and the same evil cry meg the ears of the Divine Master and of His great apostle--“Away with him.”

III. Suffered to speak.

1. After the world’s police forces do learn of a disturbance, they are prone to rush out and mistake the harmless, defenceless, unresisting apostle as the dangerous leader of four thousand bloodthirsty assassins!

2. After all, the Apostle Paul is not as defenceless as he seems. He has all the resources of Christian bravery, and God is on his side.

3. After he has been roughly treated by the foes of Christ, the true disciple of Christ still shows no disposition to run away, but remains to address the rabble.

4. After a fully consecrated heart, nothing is more desirable in a Christian worker than a clear head and steady nerves.

5. After Paul had done his duty, he let God take care of the consequences, and he evidently cared more for the safety of the cause than he did for his own security. (S. S. Times.)

Paul’s arrest

Here we see--

I. The genius of religious intolerance. Three things come out which always characterise this:--

1. Cunning--indicated in the watchword, “Men of Israel, help! “ hereby naively intimating that Paul was an enemy to Israel, and that all should make a common cause in crushing him. Religious bigotry ever works by artifice and insinuation.

2. Falsehood.

(1) It fabricates false allegations (verse 28). This was all a spiteful fiction.

(a) Did Paul “teach all men everywhere against the people”? It is true he denounced their bigotry, and exclusiveness; but never their race, and their high distinctions.

(b) Did he ever disparage “the law”? He taught that its ceremonies were not binding upon Gentile disciples, nor of eternal obligation even unto the Jew; but always displayed a profound regard for it as a Divine institution, the glory of the ancient world.

(c) Did he ever speak “against this place”? He taught that God dwelt not “in temples made with hands”; but never a word did he utter in dishonour of the temple.

(d) Did he ever bring “Greeks into the temple, and pollute the holy place”? No; they only “supposed” that he did--they perhaps saw Paul walking in the streets with Trophimus, and rushed to this conjecture.

(2) But whilst all those charges are groundless, they bear testimony to Paul’s--

(a) Notoriety. “This is the man”; implying that he is well known, and that none require any further particulars. This Paul has in a few years painted his image on the imagination of the Jewish people.

(b) Industry. “He taught all men, everywhere.” Thus, they unwittingly confirmed the apostle’s own description of his labours, and also his biographer’s account of his marvellous activity.

(c) Power. Had he been obscure and of feeble influence, they would have spoken and acted differently. They felt, he was a man of such colossal influence as required the force of a whole nation to confine.

3. Violence. Religious intolerance does not argue, for it lacks an intelligent faith in its own cause. It has, therefore, ever had recourse to fraud and force.

II. The genius of a mob assembly. Men are pretty well the same in all ages. The mob gathered in the streets of Jerusalem evinced just those things which mobs show now in Paris, New York, or London. Here is--

1. Credulousness. The false charges were accepted without any inquiry. “All the city was moved.” Man is naturally a credulous animal, and this propensity gets intensity in association with numbers. Hence what even a credulous man will not believe when alone, he readily accepts from the lip of a demagogue. Men accept creeds in churches which they repudiate in private discussion. Mobs will swallow whatever is offered.

2. Senselessness. “Some cried one thing, and some another.” The mob at Ephesus (Acts 19:32) acted in the same way. A sad sight this. It is this senselessness that makes the opinions of mobs so worthless, their movements so reckless, and their existence so dangerous.

3. Contagiousness. “The people ran together,” and when they came together their hearts surged with the same common passions. One man’s thought, whether good or bad, may influence a nation. Conclusion. Note--

1. The great mixture of characters in social life. Here are Evangelical Christians, Asiatic Jews, Romans, Paul.

2. The great advantage of civil government.

3. The antagonism of the depraved heart to Christianity. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Paul at Jerusalem

Paul’s fifth and final visit to Jerusalem, a chief scene of which this passage depicts, was in the highest degree dramatic. He now saw the Jewish capital for the last time. He had come with the noble object of carrying a contribution from the Gentile Christians in Macedonia and Achaia to the poor among the Jewish mother Church. One of the three leading Hebrew festivals, Pentecost, was in progress. He now met James the brother of Jesus. He magnanimously took upon himself the Nazaritic vow. He conspicuously showed his remarkable tact in addressing a frenzied mob. In a most picturesque situation he declared his Roman citizenship. The scene with which we particularly have to do was the meeting place of Roman power, of Jewish bigotry, and of Christian consecration. The passage that we are to study introduces us to Paul when he was about completing the seven days of the Nazaritic vow, which he had willingly entered into for the sake of mollifying the prejudice against him of the believing Jews in Jerusalem. “The Jews from Asia “ had, from their point of view, abundant reason for attacking Paul. Asia, in its New Testament use, was a narrow strip of Asia Minor that bordered on the AEgean Sea. Of this district Ephesus was the chief city, and in Ephesus Paul had recently closed a most astonishing three years’ ministry. He “turned the world upside down” there. In the best meaning of the word his preaching was sensational. It was no wonder, then, that the Jews from Asia, stung by the recollection of the triumphs of that Ephesian ministry from which their ranks had so seriously suffered, were swift to wreak their vengeance upon the hated offender now that they had opportunity. This experience of Paul at Jerusalem emphasises two or three lessons of permanent value, which we shall now consider.

I. An aggressive Christianity encounters afflictions. If Jesus Christ has made anything clear it is surely this, that the loyalty of His disciples to Himself will provoke persecution. With a noble frankness, worthy of all admiration, He warned all would be disciples of this inevitable fact. “I came not to send peace but a sword.” “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.” If His precepts were thus writ large and clear in His own example, why should His disciples expect to escape? Paul followed his Lord in both teaching and precept. He wrote, “All that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” Persecution has been the common lot of pronounced ambassadors of Christ, and, with shame be it said, that persecution has in many cases had origin with the so-called people of God themselves. Chrysostom, Savonarola, Huss, Wycliffe, Luther, Wesley, Whitefield, Edwards, Hannington, the Waldenses, the Huguenots, the Covenanters, the Pilgrims: how ample was their heritage of persecution, and with what sublime heroism did they receive it! The suffering of affliction for Christ’s sake is inevitable. Why it is so Jesus clearly stated to His unbelieving brothers, as He was about to start to Jerusalem to attend the last Feast of Tabernacles in His earthly ministry. “The world cannot hate you, but Me it hateth, because I testify of it that its works are evil.” This was the real reason of Paul’s terrible treatment at Jerusalem at the hands of the unbelieving Jews from Asia, and it has been the spring of all the persecution of Christ’s followers the Christian ages through. Persecution is as irrational as it is inevitable. Those Asiatic Jews incited the multitude against Paul on wholly false charges. Listen to them. “This is the man that teacheth all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place; and moreover he brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath defiled this holy place.” Every count in this indictment was untrue. At the very moment in which they preferred it Paul’s course as to the Nazarite vow proved its utter falsity.

II. Afflictions manifest the depth of Christian happiness. God’s people are a happy people. Christ’s disciples sing for joy in the night of their tribulations, since Christ Himself, who is their Life, possessed a serene joy that no afflictions could ruffle. So strong was His faith in His Father and His love for Him, that these yielded Him a peace whose tranquil deeps the cruel and unrelenting persecution of Pharisee and Sadducee had no power to disturb. “The kingdom of God is joy and peace in the Holy Ghost.” Paul’s experience of his Lord’s love was yet so delightful that he yearned to tell the glad tidings to his very murderers, saying to the commander, “I beseech thee, give me leave to speak unto the people.”

III. Afflictions prove the strength of Christian purpose. They both put it to the test and make it evident. “Tribulation worketh patience, and patience approvedness or tried character, and tried character hope.” The crowning glory of Jesus was a glory of the will in the face of a relentless persecution that finally sent Him to the Cross. How strikingly this appears in Luke’s description of Him, “He set His face to go to Jerusalem.” Jesus’ reign over a human soul culminates in the will. Unless He is king there He is no king at all. The history of His influence over men has shown how splendidly He has commanded the will energy of His true disciples in the development of such traits of character as fortitude, endurance, heroism, those virtues which are essentially martial in their temper and make their possessors “terrible as an army with banners.” These soldierly qualities thrive under persecution. They seem unable to come to their best quality without it. Paul’s last journey to Jerusalem and its climax in the scene in the temple were among the most convincing evidences of will triumph in the midst of crushing afflictions that the annals of heroism furnish. The real heroes of the world are not the Alexanders, the Hannibals, the Caesars, the Napoleons, but Jesus, Paul, Ambrose, Augustine, Simeon, Brainerd, Carey, Mackay. These, and such as these, display the most exalted courage, confronting foes more invincible and threatening than any those great military chieftains ever faced on field s of carnage. The lesson for us of our study of Paul at Jerusalem is this: It sounds out a clarion call to the disciples of Jesus in this generation, in all Christian lands, for fidelity. In our time the love of temporal comfort is almost sovereign. Our sense life is in sore peril of becoming insubordinate by the encouraging environment in which it passes its days. Our civilisation is a selfish civilisation. It is very easy to live a luxurious life. It is very hard to live a self-denying life for Jesus Christ’s sake. The apostle Paul, that “good soldier of Jesus Christ,” thus owned his loyalty to the Captain of his salvation, “I am ready to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” (J. M. English, D. D.)

Paul at Jerusalem

Paul’s attitude towards the Jewish law must be taken into account in order to understand the reason for the tumult at Jerusalem and the injustice of those who led it. Paul spoke as vigorously as one could speak against the law as a means of salvation. At the same time Paul was a Jew with the most intense national feeling. So much did he love his brother Israelites that he could almost have wished himself accursed from God if thereby they might be saved. So far as his fellow Christians were concerned, Paul held that their relation to the law should be determined by their own antecedents. If a man were born a Gentile, Paul would not counsel him to learn Jewish religious habits. If a man was born a Jew, however, there was no harm in his keeping the old law so long as it was understood not to have saving power. When Paul came to Jerusalem in the year 58 A.D., he found he had been preceded by a report that he was utterly opposed to Jewish Christians observing any of the old Jewish habits, and that he tried to turn them from them. The episode suggests study in four directions.

I. Paul.

1. He was truly a lover of his own people. Wherever he went he sought them out first, not only because strategically this was wisest, but because he truly liked to be with them. He was never above feeling satisfaction in the thought that he had been born a Jew. He loved to go to the feasts at the capital. Undoubtedly Paul had more real sympathy with Jewish religious ideas than many of those in the crowd who condemned him.

2. There was a possibility, we might safely say a certainty, that Paul’s position would be misunderstood. For while he kept up his Jewish habits it was not because he thought (as the Jews thought) that they had saving power. They were external matters connected chiefly with ways of living and ways of worshipping. They were not really essential to the religious life, but only helpful in it, if one thought them helpful and used them aright. Among Gentiles Paul did not observe them. The Jews looked upon them as necessary for all. In a certain limited sense Paul stood by Jewish habits. And yet his removing them from the class of necessaries to the class of things optional was undoubtedly the first step towards their abolition. Paul’s position thus had such complex relations that it was difficult to be understood and pretty certain to be misrepresented.

3. His immediate intention in the matter which brought him into difficulty was good. He had no intention towards the Jews. He was not trying to conciliate them. His mind was upon the thousands of Jews who had become Christians (verse 20) who were still zealous for the law, i.e., kept up faithfully Jewish habits of living. For them Paul held that this was perfectly right (so long, of course, as they did not ascribe saving power to such habits). He bad been reported as taking the position that they were wrong. In order to put himself into cordial relations with them and to reassure them concerning himself, he undertook the open performance of a vow. His design in the matter was wholly honourable and kind.

II. The disturbers.

1. Their motive was hatred towards Paul. They came down from Ephesus full of their experiences of Paul’s troubles there. At Ephesus they had been thwarted. It was not a Jewish city. At Ephesus Paul had some chance of justice, and the Jews were hopeless of thwarting him. At Jerusalem the tables were turned. There Jewish sentiment was not only enormously preponderant, it was also intense beyond words.

2. They carried out their purpose by spreading skilful misrepresentations of Paul’s position. This charge was a deft combination of truth and falsehood, For the wickedest lie is not that which is downright, for that can easily be disproven, but that which is subtly, insinuatingly exaggerative, where the admission of the innocent element of truth which lies at its foundation puts the man who is repelling it in the attitude of a culprit. Paul had not taught against the Jews by any means; he had honoured them everywhere; he had proclaimed himself a Jew. But of course he had said that being a Jew would not save one. The things alleged against Paul had back of them something which he would have had to admit as true. But it was exaggerated, misinterpreted, and supplemented by an absolute lie.

3. The strength of the attack against Paul lay in its appeal to the religious feelings of the crowd. That which was best in them was used for the lowest ends. Nothing is more awful in human nature than the possibility of crime in the name of religion; and how frequently it has darkened the page of history. And some people are so indiscriminating as to lay the blame of all this upon religion. It is as just to condemn the real coin for the existence of the counterfeit.

III. The crowd.

1. They accepted as true the lies of the Ephesian Jews. They had courts whose business it was to investigate such offences as were alleged against Paul. Without investigation, without so much as a question, they accepted as true what might easily have been shown to be false.

2. Just as readily they accepted the motives of the Ephesian Jews as honourable. What sanctity! What zeal for the temple of the Lord! And all the time the real motive of these scheming Ephesians was nothing more than vile, unscrupulous hatred.

3. They were already prejudiced against him. The words of the Ephesians, “This is the man” (verse 28), shows that Paul was known by reputation. The people had their minds already made up concerning him. They did not want investigation upon his case. Again, as often before, Jerusalem knew not the day of her visitation. In her sinful prejudice she was ready, consistently with her attitude all through history, to slay the best of her sons.

IV. The outcome.

1. God was a factor at work upon which the Jews were not counting. “Those whom neither the majesty of God nor pious respect for the temple could restrain from madness, respect for a profane man now subdues” (Calvin). And in the conduct of that man the God whom they so impiously disregarded was at work. Thus far could their madness go and no farther. His word, which can check the mighty ocean, put its restraint upon the wrath of men.

2. An immediate result for good was brought about, in that Paul had an opportunity to address the multitude. Such an opportunity he might have sought long and in vain.

3. The riot in the temple had a bearing far off in the future. The testimony at Rome was made possible by the riot at ,Jerusalem. And so the wrath of man ministered to the praise of God. The Jews sought to kill Paul, and they succeeded in giving him opportunity to hold up the Cross before the Lord of the world.

V. Final lessons.

1. Our failures as well as our successes have their place in God’s plan. Paul was trying to conciliate some of his fellow Christians when he fell into trouble. God not only exchanges our failures for success, He makes them means of success.

2. Inferences from others’ actions are always dangerous. The Jews imputed to Paul motives that did not belong to him. They were too sure of the accuracy of their own reasoning ability. Let us be careful how we put meanings into others’ conduct.

3. A multitude is a dangerous leader. It is good advice to keep always out of crowds. Beware of the multitude. Serve thou God and Him only. (D. J. Burtell, D. D.)

Paul at Jerusalem

The Church at Jerusalem sheltered in its bosom a Pharisaic faction which continually strove to turn Christianity into a sect of Judaism. A large proportion of its membership was very weak and imperfect. The law had a strong hold upon them, and they were only beginners in the gospel. They could be easily prejudiced against Paul. Hence Paul’s attempt to forestall prejudice by accompanying four Jewish Christians, who were under a Nazaritic vow, to the temple, and paying for them the expenses attendant upon the termination of their vow. As he proceeded with the four Christian Nazarites into the temple, doubtless his course was wholly successful, so far as concerned the great body of the Church at Jerusalem; but the great annual feasts attracted multitudes from every land. Many of these had known Paul as the eloquent preacher of Christ who had successfully met them in many a field of argument and won hundreds to his following. Malice and revenge are swift to find opportunity. They are not careful to learn all the facts. A great soul on an errand for God does not lose self-possession, however great the commotion. Paul at once saw the chief captain’s command of the situation and the way to his respect. He knew how to avail himself of the resources for safety in his own scholarship, his birth place, and nationality. One moment he stands before the chief captain clothed with dignity, despite his chains; the next, his frenzied murderers are hushed as he calmly looks down upon them from the castle stairs.

I. The unconscious ministry of the powers of this world. Rome knew nothing of Jesus save as a peasant disturber of the peace and something of a fanatic. It knew nothing of Paul, and cared nothing for the heroism and devotion of his splendid apostleship. Rome was bound, hand and foot, by debasing idolatry; but a bodyguard of invisible angels could not have done more to save the great apostle for continued ministry, for those inspired epistles from Nero’s dungeons, and for an honourable martyrdom which should set its seal of dignity to an unparalleled life. So, in all the years, human schemes, with a horizon wholly confined to earth, are unfailing servitors of Divine plans which span the ages.

II. Force has an indispensable place in the divine economy. What could persuasion have done with those Jewish zealots, fired with murderous purpose? They had doomed Paul to death. They are typical cases of men hurried by one passion or another beyond the pale of conscience or reason. It is well to rely upon persuasion for the most part in dealing with our fellows for their good and our own safety, as individuals and communities; but there are many times when, and persons for whom, nothing is sufficient but brute force--meaning by this a compulsion which shall be inevitable and overpowering. The Roman empire was raised up to give gospel messengers their needed safeguard until their work was done. The Church needs substantially the same safeguard today--not herself using force to bring about spiritual results; but Christ’s disciples must have civil guardianship and, in free governments, they must act well their part to provide it for themselves. Force must meet force.

III. The easy currency of false charges in time of excitement. Paul had not brought Greeks within the sacred and guarded precincts of the temple; but it was enough for the frenzied Jews that, somewhere in the outside city, they had seen an Ephesian with him. At once they jumped to the conclusion that his associates in the sacred courts were heathen. Doubtless many in the excited mob were strangers to Paul, but they had caught the contagion and unthinkingly condemned him as bitterly as long time enemies could do. How obvious the duty of prudence and deliberation when excitement blinds the populace and hardens the heart! Excitement is almost incapable of justice.

IV. The courage of a divine mission. Paul measured the deadly purpose of his countrymen far more adequately than the Roman captain could have done, and at first view we would think the security of Antonia’s inner wards would have been eagerly sought by him; but no; he faces the throng and heroically tries to capture their attention, judgment, and esteem. He was steadied in heart and cleared in thought by his conscious apostleship. He was engaged in His Master’s work. He could not despair, whatever the crisis or obstacle. The Christian warrior does not believe in mere defensive warfare; he feels the urgency of an imperilled cause, the brevity of his opportunity, and he must be on the aggressive, whatever the opposition.

V. The faith and loving perseverance of Christlike service. Why did not Paul throw over his murderous fellow countrymen as hopeless, upon whom he would not waste another word? Behind him were years of unwearied toil and sacrifice on their behalf. But, like the loving physician dealing with deadly disease, he leaves nothing undone to befriend his worst assailants as long as a fraction of opportunity remains. Here, again, the great missionary to the Gentiles is a pattern for a large following. Pastors may be requited with indifference, or worse, after most unselfish devotion; but in no case must the mission of Christ be abandoned or its continuance enfeebled in plan or spirit.

VI. Everything good in this world is only an approximation. These maddened Jews bent on murder were the outcome of Divine plans and processes for centuries. They represented people who had been in training for the glad star of Bethlehem. How great the apparent failure of prophetic vision and Divine agency! But it was not all a failure. In the early Christian Church were multitudes of Jews born again in Christ. The Christian worker will save himself discouragement and loss of energy, if he keeps in mind the insufficiency of man at his best, and copies the patience of the Divine Master workman when hedged about with difficulties and success seems meagre and imperfect.

VII. The mountains of difficulty encountered and levelled by Christianity. Is the gospel ship storm-tossed? Do obstacles tower and the future seem full of deadly peril? We need only to recall those days when, in her infancy, the Church was confronted by the powers of earth and darkness in their greatest might and hate. It comes to our notice, in this lesson, as one of the three mountains of difficulty encountered by Jesus and His followers--Roman force, Greek philosophy, and Jewish ecclesiasticism. The three were to be vanquished, and all by love’s compulsion; but, of the three, the last was not the least formidable. The momentum of ages was behind it. But Paul, like his Master, proposed the most difficult of achievements--a reform that was an apparent destruction--a new life perpetuating all that was true and good in the old life--fulfilling, indeed, instead of destroying, but causing so much of abandonment of time-honoured ritual and rich perquisites as to seem like an overwhelming deluge. To human view, how impregnable the entrenchments of Judaism! The unseen was mightier than the seen, however imposing the latter. Let church builders and soul winners take courage today. Difficulties do not cease. They take new form and enlist a strong following; but Christ’s cause now has a momentum of conquest sweeping through long ages; it has readjusted life’s economy so that worldlings unwittingly give it aid and comfort from general impulses of benevolence and enlightenment; it has so helped governments and science and inventions that they return valuable service from dictates of expediency. (S. Lewis B. Speare.)

True Christian toleration

This was, to all intents and purposes, a council; of course, not exactly what we call a council in our day, because there were no such churches then as we have now, in practice, or in organisation even. This was, however, a body composed of the authoritative men among the Christian people of Jerusalem. The elders were all gathered together. And it will amuse you to hear what the reason was. Paul was on trial for want of orthodoxy! Dr. Dwight, whom we now bow the knee to, was very much suspected, during his lifetime, of want of orthodoxy; Jonathan Edwards, whom all our theologians swear by, in his day suffered a great deal of disrepute for want of orthodoxy; every man, all the way up, who has laid the Church under obligation--Calvin, Luther, Melancthon, Zwinglius, and others--have suffered in their day as being disturbers, unsettling the belief of men. Christianity was not a new religion that came drifting against the wind, as one might say, right up to a battle with Judaism. It was not a new revelation that gradually came up to quench the old one, and take its place; as in growth, the lower stem shoots out another, which surpasses it in organisation; and gradually out of that shoots another, until we come to the blossoming top, and from that to the fruit. Now, if you reflect, you will perceive that where such a state of facts takes place, there will be a great many things in the form of antecedent beliefs and institutions, which will be only relatively important, and that the weak will stick to everything, that the unreasoning will hold on to everything which has existed in the past, simply because it has been useful; but that there will be other intelligent ones who see that the new includes the old, and a good deal besides. And all such persons, while they will tolerate the old, will accept the new. They will say, “The old was right, but it was relative. It is not superseded: it is fulfilled, and is carried, in another form, higher.” The blossoming of a stem does not destroy the plant, but fulfils it. Jesus Christ did not come to destroy the law, as He Himself said, but to fulfil it, to give it a spiritual form, a full, final growth--a free, glorious development. And when that time comes in which men are beginning go take their first steps away from the old and fixed, and towards the new, the free, and the large, there must of necessity be great division, great diversity. And here is the place where the old and new schools always set in. The old school wants to hold the old things as they were; the new school wants to hold the old things, and wants to hold them just as they ought to be. On the one hand there are influences at work which tend to drive the old school into a kind of superstitious adhesion--into a conservatism which has in it no growth and no respectability. On the other hand, the tendencies are to drive the new school entirely away from the old school into something different--something that shall not resemble it. But in point of fact, the old is the father of the new, and the new should always have filial relations to the old. Conservatism is the stalk out of which the progressive rises; and the progressive should always have a good stem under it to stand on when the wind blows, and its limber branches wave therein: Paul, standing before this council, was obliged to defend himself against the Jewish prejudices, for not believing in Moses; for not believing in the Mosaic customs; for teaching a new doctrine. It was an absolute departure from the religion of the Jews. Now, he had not wholly abandoned the system of his fathers. He believed in it enough to use it when circumstances required it; but he was set free from it in its absolute form. There are two kinds of scepticism; one is measured by the mathematical sign of “minus,” that doubts and disbelieves, and go back, and back; and the other is designated by the mathematical sign of “plus,” which disbelieves in old forms, because they are not large enough; because they are not fruitful enough. The scepticism “minus” is deteriorating; but the scepticism “plus” is ennobling. If there is to be change and growth, there must be in every generation times when men shall doubt the past in order to build larger. So Paul stood before this council, suspected of irregularity because he insisted on adapting his labour, not according to the old Jewish forms, but according to the exigencies of the work he found to do, in the providence of God, in the field s where he went to preach the gospel. (H. W. Beecher.)

This is the man that … brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place.

Polluting the holy place

When Professor Vambery came to Meshed, in the course of his Asiatic journeyings, he met, in the street, a Jew whom he had known at Bokhara. To his astonishment the Jew passed him without recognising him. Vambery called out to him; whereupon, says Vambery, “he hurriedly came up to me, and said confidentially, in a low voice, ‘For God’s sake, Haji, do not call me a Jew here. Beyond these walls I belong to my nation, but here I must play the Moslem.’” This Jew’s fear of persecution well illustrates the Oriental feeling towards those of other faiths. The presence of an unbeliever pollutes the very city whither he comes; much more so the holy place into which he might enter. It is not so very long ago that the discovery of a European in any Mohammedan mosque would have been the signal for his murder; and there are still holy places which Europeans can only visit at the risk of their lives. Vambery, disguised as an Oriental, visited several of these sacred places in Central Asia; but he saved his life only by the boldness with which he denied that he was a Frank, and by the show of indignation with which he denounced those who would call a true believer an infidel. Burton’s journey to Mekkeh was accomplished at the risk of his life; and, afterwards, when Mr. Cole, the British vice-consul at Jeddah, made a joking reference there to Button’s exploit, he found that the Mohammedans were so enraged over it, that any further allusion to it would be dangerous. (S. S. Times.)

For … they supposed.--

False suppositions

They did not know, but “they supposed,” and they wouldn’t wait to find out the facts. They were all wrong, but they acted as though there were no doubt about the case. A large share of all the misrepresentation and all the injustice in the world comes from people “supposing” that this thing, or that thing, or the other thing, has been done, when a little honest inquiry would have shown the charge or the rumour to be baseless. We “suppose” that if one public official is dishonest, another one is; that if there is an error in giving change to us, when we make a purchase, the dealer meant to cheat us; that if a friend fails to be as cordial as usual, he intends to give us a slight; that if a speaker or writer is inaccurate in any statement, he purposely lies; that if a man with a character for uprightness, or purity, or fairness, comes from any cause under suspicion, he is--“no better than he should be.” Oh, the wrong which has been done by those who “supposed” that somebody else had done wrong, and who acted on their supposition! (H. C. Trumbull, D. D.)

And all the city was moved.--

The inconsiderate mob

We see by experience that dogs do always bark at those they know not, and that it is their nature to accompany one another in those clamours; and so it is with the inconsiderate multitude who, wanting that virtue which we call honesty in all men, and that especial gift of God which we call charity in Christian men, condemn without hearing and wound without offence given, led thereunto by uncertain report only, which King James truly acknowledgeth for the father of all lies. (Sir Walter Raleigh.)

Religion as the occasion of evil

By universal consent religion is man’s greatest blessing; and water is the greatest boon of the thirsty all the world over. Yet what a confirmation both religion and water afford of the fact that the greatest good may occasion the greatest evil! Take, first of all, the illustration supplied by the water, and in the words of Oliver Goldsmith. In those burning countries where the sun dries up every brook for hundreds of miles round, when what had the appearance of a great river in the rainy season becomes, in the summer, one dreary bed of sand, a lake that is never dry, or a brook that is perennial, is considered by every animal as the greatest convenience of Nature. As to food, the luxuriant landscape supplies that in sufficient abundance; it is the want of water that all animals endeavour to remove, and inwardly parched by the heat of the climate, traverse whole deserts to find out a spring. When they have discovered this, no dangers can deter them from attempting to slake their thirst. Thus the neighbourhood of a rivulet in the heart of the tropical continents is generally the place where all the hostile tribes of Nature draw up for the engagement. On the banks of this little envied spot thousands of animals of various kinds are seen venturing to quench their thirst, or preparing to seize their prey. The elephants are perceived in a long line, marching from the darker parts of the forest; the buffaloes are there, depending on numbers for security; the gazelles, relying solely upon their swiftness; the lion and tiger, waiting a proper opportunity to seize; but chiefly the larger serpents are upon guard there, and defend the accesses of the lake. Not an hour passes without some dreadful combat; but the serpent, defended by its scales, and naturally capable of sustaining a multitude of wounds, is of all others the most formidable. Ever on the watch until their rapacity is satisfied, few other animals will venture to approach their station. Now take the illustration which religion supplies of the fact that the greatest good may occasion the greatest evil. The splendid anthem of Spohr only tells us, in beautiful music, the fact which history in unmusical language proclaims--that as the hart pants after the water, so all souls seek after God. Here, then, is admitted to be the great source of all good. How have men approached that source? Do you find peace, love, charity, and all happiness characterising their proceedings? Look at the religions of the world, with their cruelties and barbarisms; listen to the brayings of cant and the howlings and ravings of sectaries and bigots; and notice the insidious craft and poisonous malice with which some of the smooth zealots do their work! Behold how fiercely they fight among one another; how eagerly they pounce upon any who are not of their number, but whom they descry afar off, eagerly seeking after the source of All-purity; and how desperately they struggle, each with each, for the mastery and capture of the anxious, humble seekers of living water! What brings all these rampant men together, and occasions this hoarse clamour of coarse voices where we anticipated gentle forms and loving sounds? The banks of the river of life have brought them there, and by their presence they occasion the greatest evil where we have a right to expect the greatest good. (Scientific Illustrations.)

Some cried one thing and some another.--

The mob--divided though one

Unity of action does not always indicate unity of purpose. Men often work together when they have little in common. In a mob, there will be some who want to gain concessions from those in power; others who seek revenge for real or fancied injuries; others, again, who would merely overthrow the established order of things; and yet others who look alone for opportunities of plunder. And this confusion of purpose is the weakness of a mob. Men must have a common object of pursuit to be strong in a common effort. They must be united in heart, as well as in endeavour, to carry everything before them. As Bishop Hall quaintly says, “The multitude is a beast of many heads; every head hath a several mouth, every mouth a several tongue, and every tongue a several accent; every head hath a several brains, and every brain thoughts of their own; so it is hard to find a multitude without some division.”

An angry mob

A man in anger is like a chariot without a driver, or a ship in a storm without a pilot, or a scorpion which stings itself as well as others.

The persecuting spirit

1. It is an intolerant spirit (verses 27, 28). These “Jews of Asia” had refused to give careful, candid thought to Paul’s teachings, but judged them by their own narrow standards.

2. It is a perverting spirit (verses 28, 29). “They had seen … and they supposed.” These Jews deftly mingled facts with falsehoods, and cast false lights on true statements.

3. It is often a spirit of formalism (verse 30). They were a company of worshippers in the rites of service, yet they were ready to murder an unoffending man.

4. It is a spirit of cruelty (verse 31). “They went about to kill him.”

5. It is an ignorant spirit (verse 34). They could not tell why the tumult had arisen, nor what was the crime charged upon the victim. Such is the blind, unreasoning hatred in the heart of persecutors.

Notice in contrast with these Jews the traits of the Christian under persecution.

1. While they were law breaking he was law abiding. He was obeying the very laws and conforming to the very usages which they accused him of violating, at the very moment while they were seeking his life.

2. While they were furious he was calm. His perfect faith gave him perfect peace.

3. While they were cowardly he was courageous. He was brave, for only a man with a heart like a lion would have thought to address the crowd clamouring for his blood.

4. While they were full of hate he was full of love. (J. L. Hurlbut, D. D.)