The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 2 — Section 94

brought before the bema of Gallio, and to hear their common praises when the con- epimcy was defeated and the apostle was eet free. We no longer wonder to read that when Paul eet sail for Syria, Aquila and I'riscilla went too (eh. xviii. 18), and all that follows follows so naturally. 'fheir labour at Ephesus as the apostle's delegates; their faithful instruction of Apollos; their patient continuance at Ephesus after St. Paul's return (1 Cor. xvi. 19); the Church in their house, both at Ephesus and at Rome (1 Cor. xvi, 9 ; Rom. xvi. 3); their unbroken attachment to the very latest moment to which our knowledge extends (2 Tim. iv. 19) ;-all is of a piece with that first holy friendship which was born in the workshop at Corinth, and nourished in the fellowship of faith. The picture leaves a deep impression upon the mind that human friendship, like all else that is good or beautiful in human life, attains its perfect growth, and pro- duces its fairest fruits, when it is laid in a. common fellowship with God, and ie fostered by a constant partnership in loving labours for the glory of Christ and for the increase of hie Church. Vera. 4-17.-17!e testimony. The kernel of the gospel is the truth that Jesus was the Christ. He was the Person spoken of by all the prophets as to come. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary, born in the reign of Augustus Cresar, and crucified in that of Tiberius; known to his contemporaries in Judrea and Galilee as a Teacher and a Prophet ; known to later ages by the Gospels which record his life and death and resur- rection from the dead; is Gou's Christ. He came into the world, in accordance with the eternal purpose of God, to be the Teacher, the Saviour, the Judge, the Lord, the King of the whole earth, the Head of the human race. He fulfilled in his own person all the predictions of the prophets; he accomplished by his work all that God had in store for the redemption of the sons of men, Whatever the Holy Ghost spoke of the Godhead, ~f the priesthood, of the sacrifice, of the reign, of the glorious kingdom of Messiah, has its fulfilment in the Lord Jesus. The truth, therefore, that Jesus was the Christ is the kernel of the whole gospel. But further, this is either a fact or it is not a fact. There is no cloudlandof uncertain existence, no matter of doubtful disputation or of fluctuating opinion, Those who have told us these things are witnesses of what they knew, not disputers about what they thought. What they have delivered to us is their testimony. We must either accept it as true or reject it as false. It has met with both treatments in the world, and, whether believed or disbelieved, has been a potent factor in men's behaviour. When believed, it has made the kind of man that Paul was, the kind of men and women that Aquila and Priscilla were. It has made men pure, holy, upright, patient, meek, kind, unselfish, self-denying, labouring for the good of others rather than for their own gain; with affections set on heavenly more than on earthly things; con- scientious, true, faithful to their word ; to be trusted and relied upon ; great benefac- tors to their race, full of love to mankind. When disbelieved, it has not simply been set aside as a. thing unworthy of credit, but it has set in action the most malignant passions in the human breast. Envy and jealousy, hatred and malice, have blazed up in all their fury against the authors and abettors of this testimony. You would think, Judging by the fierce rage of the opponents, that there could not be a greater crime against humanity than to teach men to love God, to abstain from all evil, and to live in peace and good will towards one another. Judging by the rage of the opponents, you would think that a greater wrong could not be done to men than to tell them of life ind rest and happiness in the eternal reach beyond the grave, as encouragements to patient well-doing on this side the grave. Jews and heathens, so unlike one another in everything else, were exactly alike in their reception of this testimony. 'l'he Jews blasphemed and cursed and persecuted, and brought for punishment before the Roman tribunals those who gave testimony for Christ; the heathen, tolerant of every form of idolatry, let loose fire and sword and wild beast against the harmless disciples of the Lord Jesus. The accomplished philosopher, Marcus Aurelius, gave Justin Martyr to the executioner and Polycarp to the flames, with as little scruple as Nero tortured his Christian subjects nt Rome. The scornful hatred of 'l'acitus for the pestilential superstitio11 of the Christian was as bitter as the scurrilous wit of Lucian. In our own day many tongues are let loose against the testimony. New philosophers, new ~xponents of the physical laws by whir.h the world consists, new pretenders to 11uper1or wisdom and' wider intelligence in the various departments of human know-  THE AC1'S OF THE ArOSTLES. [err. xvm.1-28,