work 11ny energy or ludividnamy, we shall ijOOn have persons opposing, misrepresent- Ina and hindering ue. Here, in the very outset of St. Pa.ul's missionary career, the inH~1once of the "unbelieving Jews" ie indicated, and this fanatical Jewish party persistently followed up the apostle wherever he went, trying to destroy his work and create prejudice 11gninst him. It m11y be said-What great things St. Paul would have accomplished If he had not been checked by these hinderers ! But a dP,eper view of tbo influence permanently exerted on ~he Ch~rch by St. P~nl's life and writings woulrl rather lead us to say-What sublime thmgs St. Paul did accomplish in spite of the hinderers, and even out of the very impulse excited hy their opposition; for in this, too, God made "the wrath of man to praise him" I More and more clearly is it now seen that a man's moral nobility is gained, not by silent, unresisted growths, but by the steady, persistent, often imperilling, conflict with adverse influences anrl open foes. And that which is true in the individual life is true of the composite Church life. We may thank God that he has overrnled, for the Church's permanent good, the hinderers, the opposers, the persecutors. We may consider (1) the sources whence hindrances coI!le, getting illustrations from the older times, and making applications to our own; (2) the influences which hinclrances may have upon the mind and feelin~ of the workers; and (3) the influences which they have upon the growth and progress of Christ's Church. I. THE SOURCES WHEN0E COME THE HINDRANCES •ro CHRISTIAN WORK. They have always come both from without and from within the Church; but our thought is now chiefly confined to hindrances coming from without. Hinderers are generally : 1. Persons of antagonistic disposition, who always take "the other side," are quick to imagine some evil in everything attempted, see no good in anything with which they are unassociated, and have a sort of natural horror of things that are new. 2. Or persons who have strong religious prejudices, which they feel the fresh thing tends to under- mine, and for which they consequently fight as if they were the truth of God. 3. Or persons who cling to doctrinal forms or to ceremonial rites, and fail to see that God may send forth floods of new life, too mighty to be kept within their prescribed river- banks, and so they vainly try to hold back God's floods. 4-. Or persons who have no faith in the future, and cannot trust God to oversee and overrule the future, even as he does the present and has done the past. 6. Or persons whose temporal condition may be injuriously affected by the new enterprise; as illustrated by the shrine-makers of Ephesus. The phases which these hindrances take in modern life need to be carefully observed and thought out. IJ. THE INFLUENCES 'WHICH HINDBANOES MAY RAVE UPON THE lllIND AND FEELING OF THE WORKERS. Those influences, of course, differ according to the disposition of the workers. We may divide them into these classes. 1. Hindrances will dishearten and depress some. It is characteristic of some that they are sunshine workers, and give up easily when the least cloud-shadow passes across. These are usually weakly in body and nervously sensitive, and they need encouraging and the frequent kindly word. 2. Hindrances will keep up in some a" dogged persistency." This expression is not the most graceful one, but no other so well expresses their condition of feeling. Like Nehemiah, they simply keep on, let other men talk, send messages, or do what they will; and if they say anything to the hinderers, it is only this, "We are doing a great work, therefore we cannot come down." 3. And hindrances arouse some to new and nobler activity. The spirit of the soldier is in them, and the very presence of a foe, and the very difficulties of an enterprise, touch and awaken the noblest within them. Direct application to present-day Church-workers should be made, and the duty of resisting the undue influence of hinderers pressed home. Ill. THE INFLUENCES EXERTED BY HINDRANCES ON THE GROWTH AND PROGBESS OF CHRIST'S CHURCH. Apply to: 1. Internal growth in spirituality, in development or doctrine, in practical application of principle to details of life. 2. External progress. Hinderers give publicity to the Christian Church, calling the attention of m&ny who would otherwise not hear of it. Hinderers waken the natural sympathy of men for a resisted and persecuted thing. 3. Hinderers increase the evangelizing and aggressive fervour of the Church, and so, by means of the hinderers, Christ's kingdom steadily advances. Illustrate by the persecutions of the early Church, the history of English Protestantism, and the tale of Christi&n life in Madagascar. The Church (51 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. [OIL UV, 1-28.
may have "many adversaries," but she learns how to make their very enmity her inspiration.-R. T.