Utility of suffering.—I know enough of gardening to understand that, if I would have a tree grow upon its south side, I must cut off the branches there. Then all its forces go to repairing the injury; and twenty buds shoot out, where, otherwise, there would have been but one. When we reach the garden above, we shall find, that, out of those very wounds over which we sighed and groaned on earth, have sprung verdant branches, bearing precious fruit, a thousand-fold. a.. in joyous feelings as in a constant votedness to God, and in laying ourselves out for the good of others." -Stewart. exercise of de f H. W. Beecher. of three sepa 24-27. Jews.. times, of these we have no other record. a De. xxv. 3. forty.. one, the law limited the num. to 40. thrice.. rods, b "The whip with only one mentioned in Acts. once stoned, at Lystra. which these thrice.. shipwreck, no record of any one. deep, "prob. stripes were on some remnant of a wreck aft. one of these shipwrecks."e given, consisting waters, perh. in fording them. robbers, always numerous in rate cords, and the E. countrymen, kindred, Jews. heathen, Gentiles. city, each stroke being Damascus, Jerus., Ephesus, etc. wilderness, desert. false counted as three brethren, fr. treachery, etc. in weariness.. often, mental stripes, thirteen troubles. in hunger. . nakedness, bodily sufferings. strokes made thirty-nine stripes, beyond which they never Mack went." c Ac. xvi. 22, 23. Beating with rods.—This was a Roman punishment, and was therefore inflicted by the civil authorities. Scourging, properly so called, was at this time considered far more ignominious than beating with rods. The punishment was usually inflicted by the lictors, who were in constant attendance on the principal magistrates, going before them as they went. The insignia of their d Ac. xiv. 19. office, as well as the dignity of the magistrate on whom they e Alford. attended, consisted of a number of elm rods, bound with a thong into a bundle, which they carried on their shoulder. An axe was bound up in the bundle, and its head jutted forth from it. Within the city of Rome, however, the axe was omitted, out of respect to the Roman people. The bundle, in fact, comprised the apparatus of the lictor as executioner of the magistrate's sentence. The thong served him to bind the criminal, with the rods he inflicted beatings, and with the axe he beheaded. 28-31. those.. without, outside of the personal trials. daily, entering always into my thoughts. care, matter of earnest anxiety and oversight. Churches, wh. I have planted. who.. weak? in this kind of boasting? burn, with zeal. glory.. things, yes, even of them. infirmities, in the very things that make him appear mean in the eyes of some men. the.. not, he calls God to witness to the truth of this summary of his sufferings. Glorying in infirmities. The things to which Paul applies the term infirmities:-I. Suffering-for Christ's sake-of a most painful kind and a most frequent repetition-bodily discomfort, privation, and pain. II. A keen sense of responsibility-anxiety about the welfare of the Churches he had founded. III. A most acute sympathy with the weakness of others.c The victory of the weak.-It is a lovely spectacle to behold the timid and feeble defending the citadel of truth; not with hard blows of logic, or sounding cannonade of rhetoric, but with that tearful earnestness and implicit confidence against which the attacks of revilers are utterly powerless. Overthrown in argument, they overcome by faith; covered with contempt, they think it all joy if they may but avert a solitary stain from the escutcheon of their Lord. "Call me what thou wilt," says the believer, "but| f Cony. and How i. 457; Stanley. 9 Ac. ix. 23 ff. h Ac. ix. 29. i Ac. xix. 23 ff. k Dr. Kitto. he will glory even in infir mities a Col. ii. 1. the vicissitudes we incapable of know how to dence and moderation." tarch. Plu earth grows the speak not ill of my Beloved. Here, plough these shoulders with your lashes, but spare yourselves the sin of cursing Him! Ay, let me die: I am all too happy to be slain if my Lord's most glorious cause shall live."d The Paul's escape 32, 33. Damascus [iii. 87]. governor, ethnarch, or from Damas-prefect. Aretas, K. of Arabia Petræa [i. 98, 291]. name or title of Aretas was borne by sev. Arabian chiefs or kings. basket [i. 110]. Perh. it was a "rope-basket," or net." cus a Ac. ix. 22-25. b Stanley. ceived, a regard desire of re critus. c Dr. J. Lyth. Paul delivered at Damascus.-Here is—I. Danger-imminent "It is the office-incurred in the cause of Christ. II. Deliverance-effected by of prudence to avoid being inthe providence of God-through human agency. III. Instruction jured if possible; -God protects His own against all forces-delivers them out of but after an in- the greatest difficulties.-Paul's deliverance.-How God-I. Frusjury has been re-trates the designs of the wicked. II. Delivers His own people. for our own tran- Escaping from the persecutor.-Archbishop Bancroft having quillity will pre-received information that Mr. Robert Parker, a Puritan divine, serve us from a was concealed in a certain citizen's house in London, immediately venge." -Demo- sent a person to watch the house while others were prepared with a warrant to search for him. The person having fixed himself at the door, boasted that he had him now secure. Mr. Parker, at "He only who is this juncture, resolved to dress himself in the habit of a citizen, temperate can and venture out, whereby he might possibly escape; but if he discern advant- remained in the house he would be sure to be taken. Accordages in everything; he alone ingly in his strange garb he went forth; and God so ordered it, knows how to that, just at the moment of his going out, the watchman at the discriminate by door spied his intended bride passing on the other side of the and experience, street; and, while he just stepped over to speak to her, the good So as to make man escaped. When the officers came with the warrant to search always the best the house, to their great mortification he could not be found. stantly to avoid After this signal providential deliverance, he retired to the house evil." Socrates. of a friend in the neighbourhood of London, where a treacherous "Evils in the servant in the family gave information to the bishop's officers, journey of life are who came and actually searched the house where he was; but, by like the hills wh. the special providence of God, he was again most remarkably preupon their road: served; for the only room in the house which they neglected to they both appear search was that in which he was concealed, from whence he great at a dis- heard them swearing and quarrelling one with another; one protance, but, when approach testing that they had not searched that room, and another as them, we find that confidently asserting the contrary, and refusing to suffer it to be they are far less searched again. Had he been taken, he must have been cast into insurmountable prison, where, without doubt, says the narrator, he must have the aid of reason choice, and con alarm travellers we than we had conceived."-Colton. died. CHAPTER THE TWELFTH. 1, 2. visions, things presented in a supernat. manner, and seen while awake. revelations, discov. of things unknown, by internal impressions on mind. knew, know. I know now. above.. ago, this first mention of it shows how little P. was given to boasting. whether.. knoweth, in utter loss of self-consciousness; he is not sure whether he was caught up" bodily, or only in a figure.d third heaven, the seat of God and of holy angels. 66 Paul's rapture.-I. Its different circumstances: 1. He was An P.'s ordination to Wordsworth. honoured with revelations of the Saviour; 2. These were of the c Prob. at same kind with those experienced by other men; 3. Besides these tioch; at time of he was the subject of extraordinary communications; 4. The the Apostleship. locality into which he was taken; 5. The time of the event; 6. The circumstances. II. Some reflection upon this history: 1. Or, shortly aft. his escape from Why was Paul selected for this? To make him superior to the Damascus. difficulties of his work; 2. It should confirm our faith likewise. Stanley. The Apostle caught up to the third heaven.-We have here and cf. Ac. viii. 39, account of something: I. Pre-eminently glorious, with which 40; Ez. viii. 3. Paul was favoured: 1. The designation given of the favoured in-e "The Apos.' dividual. 2. The period of the event. Consider here-(1) The rapture is all. to Apostle's humility; (2) The truth of Christianity. Paul kept the in Philopatris, thing quiet fourteen years. 3. The manner of its performance. 4. Its certainty. II. Peculiarly trying, which he endured: 1. The nature of this visitation (read to v. 10); 2. Its design; 3. The course which the Apostle adopted; 4. The success he met with. ascribed to Lu cian, c. 12: 'When the Galilean met me, with his high and high nose, bald forehead who walked through the air to the third heaven."-Stanley. f Macknight. 9 A. Clarion. h Anon. "Know ye are as The seven heavens.-The sum of Wetstein's quotations on the Rabbinical conception of the seven heavens is as follows: 1. The veil (comp. Heb. vi. 19); 2. The expanse; 3. The clouds; 4. The dwelling place (habitaculum); 5. The habitation (habitatio); 6. The fixed seat; 7. Araboth. In "the clouds" are said to be the mill-stones which ground the manna. Before the Fall, God lived on the earth; at the sin of Adam, He ascended into the first heaven; at the sin of Cain, into the second; at the generation of near heaven as Enoch, into the third; at the generation of the flood, into the ye are far from yourself, and as fourth; at the generation of the confusion of tongues, into the far from the love fifth; at the generation of Sodom, into the sixth; at the genera- of a bewitching tion of Egypt, into the seventh. Then, at the rise of Abraham, he world."-S. Rutherford. descended into the sixth; of Isaac, to the fifth; of Jacob, to the fourth; of Levi, to the third; of Kohathi, to the second; of Amram, to the first; of Moses to the earth again.i i Stanley. 3, 4. and.. man, P. thus modestly alludes to himself (v. 7). and heard Paradise [ii. 207]. heard.. words, Gk., words and no unspeakable words.b words a Ez. The communications from the dead to the living.-I. It is the 2 Co. v. 17; xi. 24; viii. 39; express will of God that we should derive our knowledge of the Re. iv. 1, 2; Lu. eternal world from the Bible. II. Were communications to be xxiii. 43. made by those who had visited the land of spirits, concerning "Expression what they had seen or heard, they would divert our minds from taken from the the Bible, our guide to eternal life. III. Had Paul been permitted secresy of the Gk. to utter his visions and revelations, it might have encouraged Stanley. others to expect such communications; and dreams and phan-c Rev. T. L. Shiptasms of the imagination would have been taken for heavenly man. visions. IV. We have no reason to believe that messengers from "Generally those the dead could give testimony more impressive than that which who most excel in we now have. Heaven anticipated. Mr. John Holland, the day before he died, called for the Bible, saying, "Come, O come; death approaches, let us gather some flowers to comfort this hour." And turning with his own hand to the eighth chapter of Romans, he gave the book to Mr. Leigh, and bade him read: at the end of every verse, he paused, and then gave the sense, to his own comfort, but more to the joy and wonder of his friends. Having continued his meditations on the eighth of Romans, thus read to him, for two hours or more, on a sudden he said, "O stay your mysteries." Divine contem plation are most oppressed with temptation. By the first, the soul is lifted up to God; by the second, it is pressed down into itself. Were it not for this, the mind would fall into pride. sition, a wonderful temperature in this subject, that the saint may There is, by the reading! What brightness is this I see? Have you lighted up Divine dispo- any candles?" Mr. Leigh answered, "No, it is the sunshine;" for it was about five o'clock in a clear summer evening. "Sunshine!" said he, "nay, it is my Saviour's shine. Now, farewell, World; welcome, Heaven. The Day-star from on high hath visited sink my heart. O speak it when I am gone, and preach it at my funeral! God dealeth familiarly with man. I feel His mercy; I see His majesty; whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth; but I see things that are unutterable." Thus ravished in spirit, he roamed towards heaven with a cheerful look, and soft sweet voice; but what he said could not be understood. neither rise too gory. the thorn in the flesh a "A metaphor taken fr. impaling or crucifying, as in Ga. ii. 20." - Stanley, whose disser. see in p. 563 of Notes on Cor. "It seems quite 5-7. myself.. glory, for he was hardly himself when the subject of these visions. for. . fool, boasting of what I know not. forbear, he would be judged of by what he was on ordinary occasions. lest measure, inflated with pride. thorn, Kóλoy, "something pointed,” a pointed stake," "palisade.' Not found elsewhere in N. T.a flesh, almost endless conjectures as to nature of this particular trial. buffet, maltreat.< 66 с The thorn in the flesh.-I. The best answer to prayer is not always the receiving of our request. II. The feeling of weakness necessary to infer is strength. III. The Apostle's lofty view of affliction.e that the Apostle! Paul's thorn in the flesh.-There are several opinions concerning alludes to some this "thorn in the flesh," held by different persons: I. That it painful and was some bodily ailment. II. That it was some opposition he tedious bodily malady, which at had encountered from his enemies, or suffering endured. III. the same time put Carnal longings. IV. Spiritual trials-faint-heartedness in the him to shame be-discharge of his ministerial duties, temptations to despair or to whom he exer- doubt, blasphemous suggestions of the devil.S fore those among cised his ministry-"-Alford. Ma. xxvi. 67; Mk. xiv. 65; 1 Pe. ii. 20. d Job ii. 7; Lu· xiii. 16. "The devil drives but a poor trade by the persecution of the saints; he tears the nest, but the bird escapes; he cracks the shell, but loses the kernel."-J. Flavel. e D. Longwill, M.A. f J. B. Lightfoot, D.D. strength perfected in weakness a De. iii. 25, 26. b Ph. iv. 13. Satan's opportunity.-No sooner was Christ out of the water of baptism than in the fire of temptation. So David, after his anointing, was hunted "as a partridge among the mountains." Israel is no sooner out of Egypt than Pharaoh pursues them. Hezekiah no sooner had left that solemn Passover than Sennacherib comes up against him. Paul is assaulted with vile temptations after the "abundance of his revelations ; " and Christ teacheth us, after forgiveness of sins, to look for temptations and pray against them. While Jacob would be Laban's drudge and pack-horse, all was well; but when once he began to flee, he makes after him with all his might. All was jolly quiet at Ephesus before Paul came thither; but then "there arose no small stir about that way." All the while our Saviour lay in His father's shop, and meddled only with carpenter's chips, the devil troubled Him not; but now that He is to enter more publicly upon His office of Mediatorship, the tempter pierceth His tender soul with many sorrows by solicitation to sin. And dealt he so with the green tree, what will He do with the dry?—J. Trapp. 8-10. thrice, i.e., often, earnestly. depart, this, bef. the use of "the thorn" was seen. said, giving both comfort and instruction. grace.. thee, my favour in special gifts and mercies. strength.. weakness,' nothing more shows Christianity to be of God than the weakness of the instruments by wh. it was first promulgated. that.. me, and be manifested by me. d Ro. v. 3; 2 Co. pleasure.. sake," since, through me, they make His grace apparent. weak, as to natural powers. strong, as to spiritual gifts. c 2 Co. iv. 7; 1 Pe. iv. 14. vii. 4. The sufficiency of grace.-I. Christ speaks of grace as being His, and properly belonging to Him. II. However great our offences may be, His grace is yet greater: 1. It justifies us before God; 2. It regenerates and sanctifies us. III. However sad our condition may be, it is efficacious to console us. IV. What ought to be the chief end of our desires to possess this grace.e-Paul's thorn in the flesh.-I. His affliction: 1. Paul was bowed down with a heavy trial; 2. The design of this affliction. II. The way in which he sought deliverance: 1. He made it matter for prayer; 2. He addressed himself to Christ. III. The happy result of this application to the Throne of Grace: 1. In due time his petition was answered; 2. The answer, though not precisely agreeable to the letter of the Apostle's petition, fully corresponded with its spirit. IV. The cheerfulness with which this result inspired him. Application: (1) Let us inquire into the cause of our troubles; (2) Let us carry them all to the Throne of Grace; 3. Let us exercise faith in Christ. e Jean Guillebert. "If any one saint needs the humility of many saints, it is he suffer. To glory in his sufferings for Christ bebut to glory in comes him well; himself for them is hateful. that is called to Не needs a quick eye hand that has to and a steady drive his chariot on the brow of so dangerous a precipice."--Gurnall. that remaineth. the signs of b1 Co. iii. 7; Ep. All-sufficient grace.-One evening, as Bunyan was in a meeting | Anon. of Christian people, full of sadness and terror, suddenly there Look upward for "brake in " upon him with great power, and three times together, the grace needed the words, "My grace is sufficient for thee; My grace is suf- now, and forficient for thee; My grace is sufficient for thee." And "Oh! me- ward for the rest thought," says he, "that every word was a mighty word unto me; as 'My,' and 'grace,' and 'sufficient,' and 'for thee;' they were then, and sometimes are still, far bigger than others be." 11-13. I.. glorying, so ye may say. ye.. me," the blame, therefore, is yours. ought, on higher grounds. to.. you, for my work's sake. for.. Apostles, in all that relates to the work, call, etc., of an Apostle. nothing, when judged aft. the flesh. signs, by their fruit ye shall know them. for.. Churches, the same argument against me as an Apostle is c 2 Co. vi. 4. against the Churches I have planted. except.. you?d as other d 2 Co. xi. 9. teachers to other Churches. forgive.. wrong, ironical. They "Faith's great would have more highly prized what had cost them more. work is to Signs, wonders, and mighty deeds.-The miracles which accom-nounce selfpany the preaching of the Gospel: I. In the world of spirit: power, and to 1. Evil spirits expelled (refer to Mk. ix. 17-27, etc.); 2. Good spirits praise the Lord (new tongues). II. In the external world of nature,-injurious things overcome, evil in life made serviceable, life triumphing over death. III. In the personal life as soul and body,-diseases removed, the restored rejoicing in a new existence. re bring in the power of God to be ours. Happy they that are weakest in themselves-most sen sibly so! That word of the Apostle is theirs, • When I am weak, then I am strong;' they The know Old-fashioned theology.-I long for a theology and I love a Gospel that has in it power to shake a man; that has in it thunder, as well as rain and dew. Those Della Cruscan teachers that are all pulp, are like thin fogs hanging over shallow oceans. old rugged doctrines of the Schools may be too sharp here or there, and they may have wrecked many a sensitive nature; but, after all, those old rugged doctrines have in them power both for condemnation and for lifting up and consolation./ 14, 15. behold, as proof of my love. third.. you, once he had actually been,a once he had purposed to go,' and now was again ready. your's, your property. you, your persons for Christ. for, etc., this relates esp. to spiritual providing. spend .. you,d I will do even more than a parent is expected to do. what it means, though it |