CHAPTER XXI. 12, 13.

THE DEVOTEDNESS OF PAUL-A LESSON.

"AND when we heard these things, both we, and they of that place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus."

We have seen that a prophet, probably a true one, named Agabus, predicted that Paul was destined to suffer at Jerusalem; and that he should be bound and delivered over into the hands of the Gentiles, where those that heard the prophecy probably supposed he would meet with little sympathy or mercy. When they learned this, Luke, the author of the Acts, and those that were with him, besought Paul that he would not go to Jerusalem. They looked only at the danger, and overlooked altogether the duty. If there be danger in a place, and if duty do not call us there, it is right and proper either not to go, or, if there, to escape from it; but if there be the highest possible danger in a place, and if duty calls us and demands that we should be there, it is worse than cowardice, it is crime to flee from it for wherever duty summons us, there we should be found; and in the long run, probably, the greatest safety is where our first and holiest obligation lies. The

affection of the friends of Paul anticipated peril, and they laboured to dissuade him from facing it; his conscience, however, looked only at the duty, and trod down every contingent peril in his earnest efforts to fulfil it. And therefore he told them that so far from being dissuaded by the prospect of danger, or even the loss of life, from fulfilling the sacred obligation that had devolved upon him, he was grieved that they should grieve; he was not insensible to pain and to the disruption of tender and strong ties, for they almost broke his heart; but he says, "I am ready notwithstanding to be not only bound, not only to be a prisoner, if such should be the permission of God; but also to die at Jerusalem, if required to do so, for the name of the Lord Jesus." These are unquestionably the words of one whose whole heart and soul were absorbed in the great work that was committed to his hands. Nobody can mistake Paul as a thoroughly earnest man; nobody can fail to see that his whole mind, and soul, and heart were bent upon the fulfilment of that Divine mission entrusted to his hands; and that neither life nor death, nor principalities nor powers, would be able to deter him from exerting all his influence, and all his eloquence, and all his energy in winning souls and giving glory to his blessed Master.

From these words, too, and from the way in which he spoke, we gather that Paul was deeply persuaded of the truth of those things which he taught. You have only to read what he says and what he writes to infer that he thoroughly, out-and-out, believed all those great truths of which he was the eloquent preacher. You can see at once that Christianity was not, in the apostle's mind, a loose conventional adoption, but a

deep, inward, living conviction; that he had adopted it on the strongest grounds, that he held it with the greatest tenacity; and that he was deeply convinced of the truth of those things that he taught. Whether he was right or wrong, I do not now stop to inquire; but you can see that he was as thoroughly convinced of the truth of those things that he taught as it is possible for any man to be of any one fact, or subject, or system upon earth. His earnestness upon the one hand, and the thoroughness of his convictions upon the other, are so obvious, that no one reading these chapters can fail to detect it.

You will notice too, in the next place, in the apostle's mind, a high appreciation of the value of what he thus earnestly proclaimed and heartily believed. He did not regard Christianity as a splendid speculation, as a beautiful abstraction, very brilliant as a theory, but very worthless as a practical prescription. You can see at once that he regarded it as of infinite excellence, of instant use, of immense practical value; that it had its origin in God, its issue in God, and its object the salvation of souls. You can hear ringing, as the undertone in every sermon that he preached, in every epistle that he wrote, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." Now, if anybody should say that it is possible for a man to be in earnest-it is possible for him thoroughly to believe what he is in earnest about—it is possible for him to be deeply convinced of the excellence of what he preaches and believes, and yet it may not be truth that he believes,-Paul had talent, and ability, and opportunities enough to enable him to judge of the truth of what he believed and taught. He was a man of com

manding intellect, of a vigorous and powerful judgment, able to sift, discriminate, and separate; and if any mind upon earth could be selected to examine the claims of Christianity, to penetrate all its depths, unravel all its intricacies, and weigh with the greatest accuracy what seemed difficult and sometimes even conflicting evidence, that man was unquestionably the apostle Paul. He was no fool; he was no weak-minded zealot; but a man of vigorous, powerful intellect, trained in the best discipline, tutored at the feet of a celebrated master, schooled in no ordinary university; and therefore, what he thus thoroughly believed, thus earnestly taught, he had first most accurately weighed, sifted, and examined.

Paul, in using these words, so expressive of deep and great feeling, had some experience of what he taught and believed, and thus earnestly held fast. He was not a novice; his creed was not the adoption of yesterday. When he thus expressed himself, he had before now made his defence before the judgment-seat of Felix, and Festus, and Agrippa: and he had since that been in perils by land, in perils by sea, and in perils among strange brethren. He had tasted the sweetness of the Gospel; he had felt its power in the day of his weakness; he had realized its grace sufficient for him; he had some acquaintance of a personal and practical kind with what it was worth, with what it could do. And therefore, when he thus expressed himself, he not only had an intellect that could weigh evidence, but he had an experience of the results of that system which, added to the convictions of his intellect, made him say, as man never said since, "I know in whom I have believed; and that he is able to keep what I have committed to him against that day."

But when Paul thus made up his mind not only to be bound, but to die at Jerusalem if needs be, for the name of Jesus, you must not suppose that he was merely a man of intellect and experience, but you must see from this passage that he was a man of deep and tender sensibility. He says, "What mean ye to weep and to break my heart?" And therefore it was not the insensibility of the Stoic that prepared him for being the martyr; but it was in spite of the acutest sensibilities, of the rupture of the deepest and strongest attachments, that he was ready to go up to Jerusalem, and not only to be a prisoner, but, if needs be, to die for the name of the Lord Jesus. I think it is impossible to contrast Saul with Paul, and the conclusions to which he came, and the grounds on which he came to them, without being deeply persuaded that in his conversion we have the most powerful proof of the divine origin, the inspiration, and the truth of Christianity.

Having looked at the preacher, willing if needs be to be the martyr, let us look at the object for which he undertook all this—namely, for the name of the Lord Jesus. What was implied in that name? What in it is so precious that the apostle was prepared for its sake, if needs be, to die? He felt that it was the password of the universe, identified with the forgiveness of sin and the salvation of the sinner. He felt that that name alone could open the gates of glory wide to all believers; he recognised in it an infinite value. He saw souls perishing, passing to the judgment-seat without God, without Christ, and without hope in the world; and he saw in this name that sublime Sacrifice by which sin is forgiven, that perfect Righteousness in which the guilty may be clothed, that