The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 2 — Section 203

(Paxton). Compare the excitement of the multitudes assembled in the Ephesian the11tro (eh. xix. 29-84). I. TIIJll PERILOUS INFLUENCE 011' POl'ULAR SENTIMENT. Masses readily take up prejudices 11nd give w11y to mere feeling, and so are led to do terrible things. Jllus- tmte from the riots of country towns in the older election-times, when the people were excited by political sentiment; or by the violent scenes of the French Revolution. It is usually true of all mobs that " the more part knew not wherefore thr,y were come together." Sentiment is valuable as giving tone and feeling to action, but sentiment alone can never be allowed to decide and control action, because it tenrb to make a man at once passionate and weak. There is no wise decision, no calm judgment, no definite purpose, no solid strength of will, and so sentiment leads men to <lo things of which they are afterwards ashamed, to forget the reasonable claims of others, and to commit great social wrongs. The Christian man~s duty, wherever his lot may be cast, is: 1. To strive against yielding to popular sentiments on (1) social, (2) political, O) religious subjects, as injuriollB to his own spiritual life, and likely to make him unj11st toward others. 2, To use his influence to check public excitement, and to disseminate right principles. In religious spheres, yielding to ''.sentiment" has often been the cause of public and private persecution. In common life, reason is the proper check ot sentiment. In religious spheres, the revelation given us in God's Word, and the direct illuminations of God's Spirit, are the proper checks. Illustrate how, in religious spheres, untempered sentiment has often developed into "mania." II. THE RESPONSIBILITY 011' ALL POPULAR LEADERS. They gain their power by appeal to sentiment. Illustrate from the incidents of the text. The leaders of the Judaic party knew perfectly well that they had no case against the apostle, but they appealed to the prejudice of the people, and excited their feeling into passion, which might have led to St. Paul's deo.th within the temple courts. OpportWlity is here given to speak of the valuable work done by the revivalist and the missioner, and at the same time of the responsibility of such workers, in the influence they gain over masses of people. So far as their work is merely an appeal to sentiment, it can exert but a passing, and only too possibly a mischievous, influence. So far as they become teachers of the truth and persuaders of men to duty, their work will be permanent and blessed. The Crusades illustrate the sway of the masses by sentiment; the Reformation the away of the masses by truth. ' III. THE HOPELESSNESS OF BEABOh""ING WITH EXCITED CBOWDS. St. Paul tried, but he found it vain: they were carried away by the mere sound of the word "Gentiles." Compare the scheme of the town-clerk at Ephesus. Excited masses can only be interested Wltil their passion dies down, or dispersed by physical force. Reasoning is of no use until men have become reasonable. Show that Christ never works upon the mere crowd. He and his servants :make their appeal to men who have their power of reason. They use emotion and affection, but in subordination to reason. They work by the enthusiasm of numbers, but subordinate this influence to the enforcement of the saving truth.-R. T. Ver. 25.-Times to suffer, and time, to gel relief from suffering. This subject is suggested by the fact that, although the apostle's plea of his Roman birthright woulu have always stood him in good stead, he only used it occasionally; from which fact we may assume that he sometimes felt it was his duty to submit to su1feri.ng, and that, at other times, he equally felt it his duty to re&at su1fering. Probably a careful estimate of the circumstances connected with each case led to his decisions. Here we may see that no special testimony could be made by his patient enduring of suffering, seeing that he was among strangers, who knew nothing of him or his mission, so he felt at liberty to secure relief from indignity and pain, and appealed for h1s rights as a Roman citizen. The apostle spoke as they were preparing to scourge him. According to the Roman custom, he was stripped to the waist, and tied with leather thongs to tho column, or whipping-post, which was used within the fortress for this kind of torture. "It was unlawful to scourge a Roman citizen in any case; it was an aggravation so to torture him as slaves were tomired only as a means of inquiry" (see eh. xvi. 37). Remember the familiar passage, Eccles. iii. 1-8. I. CnrusT's OALL TO sung~ Of St. Paul Obrist hi1,d 11aid, "l will Rhow him huw 4'Pl'B--X.. f 210 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. [OB. xxn, 1-80.