Acts 9:16

Acts 9:16. For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. As in chap. Acts 20:23, when, in his farewell address at Ephesus, he tells the elders of the Church how the Holy Ghost was witnessing in every city that bonds and afflictions were awaiting him (see also chap. Acts 20:25 and Acts 21:11). The more acutely an apostle suffered for the glory of his Master's name, the more ardently he toiled for his Master's cause. Nor did these sufferings come upon these devoted men unawares; they had the inward witness of the Holy Ghost that such a lot surely awaited them: they may not, and this was Paul's experience, have been able to foresee the exact nature, or to foretell the place and circumstances of the moment of bitter trial, but the suffering seems generally before it came to have flung its dark shadow over the life of men like Paul and his companions. In this particular, in some degree, they resembled then: blessed Master in their foreknowledge of the bitter cup of suffering which would, sooner or later, be presented to them to drain to the dregs.