The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 280

were led t-0 speak, freely and bravely, all they knew of Christ's resurrection and power to save. At first their witness was rendered in Jerusalem, and they waited on Providence for further F(Uidance. The way for more extended work presently opened but it was in vory strange and unexpected ways. Out of seeming disaster and dis~ comfiture came the plai □ indication of what their missionary work was to be. I. I'ERSONAL PERIL ou.ra. 'l'he Revised Version gives the better reading of ver. 1: " There arose on that day a great persecution." It would seem " that the crowd which sto~ed Stephen ?1,tside the gate rushed back with its blood up, or, as Calvin says, like a wild beast which has once tasted blood, and threw itself there and then upon the company of brethren who, perchance, had met to pray secretly in their upper room for t~e bi-o~her who before men was playing so well his honourable and perilous part." The mid thmgs which an excited mob will do have received abundant illustration in all ages, and recent illustration in the partial destruction of Alexandria. But the Christian disciples had more than this to fe&r. Such riotings of mobs last, at the most, but a few d~ys. The Sanheclrim had now determined to persecute, and, if possible, destroy, the ~azarene sect; and from their systematic efforts, the disciples could only gain safety by flight. "A favourable juncture had come for the bigots," but it was, in the ordering of God's providence, the favourable juncture for commencing missionary work. We must always seek to judge, not what peril, suffering, persecution, or the arresting of onr work may seem to be, but what they prove to be, when they have come fully nuder tbe Divine overrulings. II. EscAPE FROM THE PERIL SCATTERED THEM. Broke np the daily meals and the life in common; made the apostles hide away out of reach; and drove the disciples into the count,ry districts-into Samaria, where Jewish fanatics would hardly venture, and even away as far as Damascus, where we subsequ1>ntly find Ananias. It is remarkable that at this time the persecution does not seem to have reached the apostles, an<l it has been suggested that it was directed against that section of the disciples which followed Stephen, and attacked, in greater or less degree, the Mosaic system. Dean Plumptre says, " It was probable, in the nature of the case, that the Hellenistic disciples, who had been represented by Stephen, should suffer more than the others." Missionary records contain many illustrations of persecution making opportunity. The scattering was limited at first to the neighbouring districts, but it started the missionary idea, and then the whole world was felt to be the sphere for the missionaries of the cross. Show how travel, migration, and commerce have scattered men over the world, and made providential openings for Ch1istian works. "'!'here is that scattereth and yet increaseth " is illustrated in these early disciples. III. Tm;y TOLD OF CHBIST WHEBEvmt THEY WENT, The persecution opened their mouths, made them bold, filled them with fervour and zeal; the silent ones now preached the glad tidings. Persecution puts new life and energy into the persecuted. 'l'hings die out if left alone, that grow into power if we attempt to crush them. Men learn to value things which others would forcibly pluck from them. The weakness of our modern witness to Christ is mainly due to the general acceptance of our message. We should speak it nobly if we had to suffer or to die for it. Then the "lips of the dumb would speak." Trouble and calamity and difficulty made the first missionaries, and it has made the best ever since. Impress that the Christian law is this-wherever the providence of God may lead you or drive you, be there/or Ohrist.-P.. T. Ver. 8.-Inteme agaiMt Christ may become intense for him. The indications given in thiB verse of Saul's intensity should be noticed; he added personal cruelties to judicial :;everity, manifested almost an insane ferocity and wanton brutality, as he 11fterwardB acknowledged (eh. xxvi. 11). The grounds of Saul's prejudice against Christ and Christianity should be carefully traced, as the nature of his mistaken sentiments helps to explain the entire change of his thoughts and conduct when Christ spoke to him from heaven. A Pharisee such as Saul would have a genera:I offence against Christ (1) as having deluded the people, and led them away from the1r proper teachers; (2) a:; daring to claim the Messiahship, when he was known to be only a poor Nazarene carpenter. But he would have further and deeper grounds of offence in the facts (3) that Jesus had openly opposed and endeavoured to discredit the P ~ el.as~ w wblcb he belonged; (4) tha~ Jesus was proved to have wrought aham oil, VIiI, 1-40] THE A.CYl'S OF Tlll!J APOSTLES. 271