The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 2 — Section 109

is sufficient for theee things?" But what is overwhelming responsibility from one point of view is holy joy of service from another point of view. Who wm;ld not will- indy stand with Chri~t, and feel how "he bare our infirmities and carried our sorrows"? "It is enough for the servant that he be as his Lord." II. Tim RESPONSIBILITY OF THE BEARER. It may be 81\id-Is it not better to have th~ people without the knov,ledge of the truth, if such knowledge increases their responsibility and final juclgment? 'l'he answer is: (1) We must preach the gospel, whatever may prove to be the issues of our work. (2) Bearing responsibilities and lifting ourselves to meet them well, are the conditions of moral growth. No ma~ can reach a full manhood sa.ve under the pressure of responsibilities. Those of the hearer are : (1) To listen to the teacher of Divine truth. (2) To reco~nizo the personal relations of the truth he hears. (3) To decide for himself the accept.ance or rejection of the message. ( 4) To bear all the present and future consequences of whatever decision he may ma'ke. Impress that the most painful thing about the woe of lost souls will be the conviction that they were themselves to blame. "Their blood was upon their own heads."-R. T. Vers. 9, 10.-God's grace in tim& of depression. The point of this gracious and comforting manifestation of God to his servant is that it came at a time of much per- plexity, anxiety, and depression. It told of the Divine care of the earnest and faithful apostle, and gave him the restful assurance that, however men might oppose and trouble him, God accepted his service, and would surely guard him from all evil until his work in that city was complete. We may compare the proverbial assurance which has often brought comfort to our hearts, "Man is immortal till his work is done." It was one of the marked peculiarities of the Divine dealing with St. Paul, that at the great crises of his life special visions were granted to him. At the time of his conversion, he had seen and hea.rd the Lord (eh. ix. 4-6). When in a trance at Jerusalem, he heard the same voice and saw the same form (eh. xxii. 17). When on the ship, during the great storm, an angel form appeared to him with a gracious and assuring message (eh. :xxvii 23, 24). When called to appear before his judge, he seems t.o have had an unusual sense of Christ's nearness, for he says," Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me" (2 Tim. iv. 17). And he gives a full account of his remarkable uplifting to see unspeakable things in 2 Cor. xii. 1-7. But all who are so sensitively toned as to have such seasons of spiritual elevation are singularly liable t.o answering moods of depression. They who can thus rise high can alsu sink low; and St. Paul did but tell of actual and painful experiences when he said, "Without were fightings and within were fears." At Corinth circumstances greatly troubled him. Some measure of success attended his preachiog, but he seemed to make more and worse enemies than ever; he separated the Christian disciples from the synagogue in the hope of getting some quietness and peace, but the prejudiced Jews of the synagogue continued their persecutions, until St. Paul's spirit was well-nigh broken, and he had almost made up his mind to leave Corinth, and seek for other and more hopeful spheres. And yet he felt that this would be running a.way from his work, and forcing God's providence, seeing that no directions for his removal from Corinth had been given to him. It was just at this period of anxiety and depression that the comforting message came to him. illustration of similar moods of feeling, in other servants of God, may be found in Elijah (1 Kings xix. 4-14); in Jeremiah (Jer. i. 6-8; xv.15--21); and in John the Baptist's sending from his prison to Jesus,asking, " Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?" Having this incident and its surrounding circnmstances well before us, we may consider two things : (1) what the incident tells us of St. Paul; and (2) what the iocident tells us of the Lord Jesus Christ. L WHAT THE INCIDENT TELLS os OJ' &r. PAtJL, It intimates: 1. That he suffered from bodily frailty. A burden of physical weakness coostantly oppressed him and &lfected his spirits. Compare Richard Baxter or Robert Hall, men whose holy labours were a continual triumph of will and of heart over pain and weakness. Show the subtle connections between bodily conditions and apprehensions of Divioe truth. It is mosL eomforting to be 1U1sured that God "knoweth our frame, and remembereth that we are dust." 2, That he was naturally of a most sensitive aud nervous constitu- 011. xvm. 1-28.] THE AOTS OF THE APOSTLES. 111