5. The Gentile mission. — The call of Jesus, ' Lift up your eyes, and look on the tields, that they are white already unto harvest' (Jn 4^'; cf. Mt Q-*''-^'^), was not addressed to the disciples with reference to the coming to Him of the men of Sychar only. It had a Avider bearing. At the great harvest festival of Pentecost, which foUoAved the forty days during which He had manifested Himself to them as the Risen Lord, the Twelve made their first day's ingathering of about 3,000 souls ; and it was clearly foreshown to them by word and sign tliat those that were far oft' were to be made nigh (Ac 23.5. a. i7.3y)_ \Yg should have expected that the apostles, after having been so amply endowed and encouraged for the work of ' making disciples of all the nations,' would have proceeded to adopt measures for entering upon that work. Their delay in undertaking tlie Gentile mission has been accounted for on the ground that the giving witness at Jerusalem of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and the piloting of the newly launched vessel of the Church, engiosscd their attention. But when we study carefully the history of how the Gentile mission was started, we perceive that the Twelve, bold and resolute as the Spirit of Jesus had made them in the face of Jewish opposition, were far from being well qualified for immediately under- taking it. Their question at the Ascension (Ac 1") sliowed that they did not share tlie wide outlook of Jesus ; their mental horizon was still limited by their national feelings. They liad, as the event proved, to count but loss much that at present ap- peared gain to tliem, before they could go out into the world and build a Church in which there should be no middle wall of partition. The terms on wiiicli Gentiles were to be received had not been 3xplicitly laid down by Jesus in His parting com-
mission : that He had given the apostles other important directions besides those wliicli are re- corded is an idea that we cannot entertain. He had made them fully acquainted with the nature of the work to be done, and had promised them the guidance of His Spirit. But the guidance of the Holy Spirit was not intended to sujjersede the use of their own understanding, or the knowledge that they Avere to gather from the teaching of events, as to the practical form which this new departure should take.
This is best illustrated by the case of Peter. The lirst thing that seems to have shaken his Jew- ish prejudices Avas the sight of Avhat the grace of God ett'ected among the Samaritans through the gospel (Ac S'""") ; the next, the miraculous conver- sion of Saul the persecutor (9-^* ^^). We may con- jecture that to have time for meditation upon Avhat the latter event meant for the Church Avas one purpose of Peter's residence at Joppa ; and there, Avhile he gazed from the house-top over the Avaters of the Mediterranean, he received his singular vision, and heard the Voice that interpreted it, ' What God hath cleansed, that call not thou com- mon.' But, having baptized Cornelius and other Gentiles, he did not proceed a step further in the direction pointed out by the Voice Avhich he had heard ; the discouraging reception Avhicli his admit- ting a Gentile met Avith at Jerusalem may partly explain this. Philip the evangelist's baptism of a Gentile had preceded Peter's ; Ave cannot help Avon- dering Avhether some connecting link existed be- tween Peter's visit to Cornelius of Ciesarea and Philip's residence there (Ac S^''"'*" 2P).
As far as Ave can make out, it Avas not till eight years after Peter's vision that some unknown Cypriote and Cyrenian JeAvsof the Dispersion took the momentous step of ' preaching the Lord Jesus ' to the Gentiles at Antioch (Ac 11'", Avhere"EX\r;i'aj is the true reading). The Gentile mission is thus for ever bound up Avith the very name of ' Chris- tians'; for 'the disciples Avere called Christians first in Antioch ' (11-^). We hear the decisive hour of this mission strike in Ac 13'"* : these four verses are among the most important that St. Luke ever Avrote.
The Avork in 'the third city of the Empire' had been greatly blessed. The question Avas, Could it be extended ? Ought the Christians of Antioch to make a serious ettbrt to propagate the gospel in the lands beyond Syria, in Asia Minor and the islands ? Barnabas and Saul Avere Avell aAvare that the Lord designed them for a Avider mission than that in Avliich they Avere now engaged ; had the time for it arrived? They referred the matter to the congregation, hoping that an expression of the Divine will Avould be given through one of their gifted prophets. This hope Avas fulfilled. The Holy Ghost said : ' Separate unto me Barnabas and Saul for the Avork Avhereunto I have called them.' The way Avas then clear ; uncertainty Avas at an end. Another meeting of the congregation Avas held, probably on the next Lord's day, at Avliich, with fasting and prayer, and by ' the laying on of hands' — the already 'familiar and expres- sive sign of benediction' — the two apostles Avere solemnly set apart for the mission ; and, having been ' let go,* or ' bidden God speed,' by the Avhole con- gregation [airiXvcrav ; Ramsaj^ St. Paul, p. 67), they immediately set forth on their new enterprise. ' So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, AA'ent down to Seleucia, and from thence they sailed to Cyprus' (Barnabas's island, to Avliich he Avould naturally feel that missionary Avork Avas lirst of all due). The Creator-Spirit, AA-ho Avith His Divine breath called the Church into being at Pentecost, thus proclaimed Himself to be the Author of missions and the Patron of missionaries, signifying