Acts 28:15

THE PAST AND THE FUTURE

‘Whom when Paul saw, he thanked God and took courage.’

Acts 28:15

After many perils and long delays, St. Paul had set his foot on the Italian shore, and was journeying towards Rome along the Appian Way. His heart was oppressed with sadness, and his spirit darkened by the shadow which seemed to overhang the future. But God provided for him a glad surprise, which, acting on his sensitive nature, had the effect of cheering him up, and sending him forward with new energy. When he reached Appii Forum, he was met by a company of Roman believers who had come all these forty-three miles to salute and encourage him; and at the next stage, ten miles nearer the city, another band was found waiting to bring him on his way. It was to St. Paul as if Jesus Himself had again appeared to him. The friendship of the disciples, pleasant in itself, was doubly prized as assuring him of the presence and the help of the Master.

I. The Christian attitude toward the past.—‘He thanked God.’ The Apostle had been in many tribulations; he had suffered much; he was at this very moment a prisoner; yet ‘he thanked God.’ God had been with him, sustaining and delivering him. The very perils through which he had been brought had been turned by his Master into means of usefulness. The shipwreck had secured for him the friendship of the Roman centurion under whose care he had been placed, and furnished an opportunity of preaching the Gospel both to his fellow-passengers and to the inhabitants of Malta. His bearing under danger prepared a way for his reception and usefulness at Rome. So, he thanks God for trial as well as blessing—for blessing in trial and blessing as the consequence of trial. Looking back upon the past, is there not much to impel our gratitude?

II. The Christian attitude toward the future.—‘He took courage.’ St. Paul did not know all that was before him; yet he was stronger for anything that might come, because the unexpected kindness of Christian friends had reminded him anew of the favour and protection of Jesus. Now, similarly, the recollection of past blessings encourages us to exercise stronger confidence in God for the future. Of the future much is hid from us. We do not know what may be in store for us, whether severe trial, or difficult duty, or painful afflictions, or temporal calamity. In mercy to us God has kept all these things from us. They are known to Him, but they are uncertain to us. In regard to future events, the past, brightened to us as it is by the evidence of God’s faithfulness, bids us take courage. Is there severe trial before us? Then we have already proved that if we be only anchored within the veil we may safely outride every hurricane of temptation. Are we called to advance upon arduous duty? Then the past declares to us that difficulties lessen as we approach them, while God is near to help us in emergency. Must we pass through painful affliction? Then we know from experience that His grace will be sufficient for us, and that as our day our strength shall be. Is temporal ruin coming upon us? Then we have God’s past care over us, saying to us, ‘The Lord is able to give thee much more than this.’ Thus the past, rightly interpreted, takes away all anxiety regarding the future, and enables men to go forward into it without dismay. When we sing, ‘The Lord hath been mindful of us,’ the strain is incomplete if we do not add, ‘and He will bless us’; and when raising a stone of remembrance we inscribe upon the one side: ‘Ebenezer, hitherto the Lord hath helped us,’ our gratitude is of none effect unless we can engrave upon the other, ‘Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide.’

Illustration

‘Many a man fails in a good but difficult effort because he is met with criticism when he deserves encouragement. A fireman was trying to reach from the top of a ladder a poor woman who was imploring help at the window of a burning house. A voice in the crowd below cried, “You can’t do it; come down!” Already burnt, and almost choked with smoke, he began to descend, leaving the woman to her fate, when a man exclaimed, “Give him a cheer!” The vast crowd made the air ring with their shouts, when the fireman stopped, again ascended, and brought the woman safely to the ground.’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

COURAGE

We find that our Heavenly Father, when His servant St. Paul was on his way to Rome, showed tenderness, kindness, and consideration for him. He put it into the heart of the brethren that were in Rome to go out to the Appii Forum and the Three Taverns, which was half-way on the road that St. Paul was to come—to go out there and meet him. And St. Paul knew that this was done by God to encourage him.

I. Rome was the centre of the world, the seat of the world’s government. It was also the centre from which the great roads of trade went out in different directions. Ships were always coming to Rome, bringing merchandise from all parts of the world. The merchants had their houses and their agents in Rome. And people were living in Rome agents for this business, and that business, and the other, who had friends and relations in every part of the world. And, of course, in this great city there were always the contrasts of great wealth and great poverty. There were the marble palaces of the rich, and the wretched lodgings of the very poor. And there was always plenty of excitement in Rome; processions, amusements, exhibitions of every kind. There were wonderful specimens of art and statues, some of which have come down to our own day. And now for this great city St. Paul was bound.

II. And what was it that now led him thither?—Was it one of those motives that so often take people to visit great cities? Was it to obtain some advantage for himself, or to better himself in the world? Was it love of pleasure, or curiosity to see this great city? No! it was not any of these causes. Well! we remember St. Paul was a bishop, and bishops then, as now, had to go to this place and that to confirm those who had not yet received confirmation. And St. Paul himself wrote in his Epistle to the Romans, that he wished to go to Rome for that very purpose. ‘I long to see you, in order that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift; and in order that you may be established,’ or confirmed. And yet it was not for this reason only that St. Paul was going, but simply and solely because it was the will of God. The will of God had called him to witness for him in several other places, and made him shape his course for Rome.

III. But we have to remember how St. Paul was going.—Not the way he might have wished for himself, at the head of a band of missionaries going there to preach the Gospel. No! he was to go as a prisoner. He had to stand his trial before the most cruel and unjust man that ever lived. And as if that were not enough, he had just been shipwrecked, and gone through all kinds of hardships on the sea. Starving, wet, cold, and all those other human hardships might have been enough to damp down the spirit of St. Paul. Well might he be dejected and cast down with all that he had lately gone through, with this doubt and uncertainty of what might happen to him! But as he plods his way towards the city, just by the roadside he sees a company of people standing to meet him: a company of brethren divinely sent out to meet him. And as he sees them, he thanks God, and takes courage. God is gracious to him. He feels that One Who has taken care of him in all perils and dangers through which he had gone beforetime will not desert him, and that even in this great city he has friends. He shall not be alone even there; not without sympathy and support and service. And St. Paul, seeing the brethren, ‘thanked God, and took courage.’

Life is full of temptations. And alas! our natures are so sinful that sometimes we are inclined to meet temptations half-way, inclined and ready to plunge into sin if it were not for the grace of God, which uses, as one of the means to keep us from sin, the example and the desire to obtain the good opinion of our own companions and friends. Is it not something that each one here should know that he is not alone, that if he does anything to disgrace himself, even here there will be those that sorrow for his fall; that it will be something for him to lose here these warm hands that now greet him, the brotherly help, the sisterly encouragement, which he will forfeit through wrong-doing? Will not this be something to assist him in keeping from temptation?

Bishop Watkin Williams.

Illustration

‘There is a stirring story of Sir Colin Campbell when taking his Highland brigade into the battle of the Alma. He had a lot of men who had never seen a battle, and, of course, he did not know how they would behave. There might possibly be a few cowards among them; and he spoke to his men before they went under fire. “Now, lads, remember this! if one of you, not wounded, falls out of the ranks, and goes not on with the others; whatever excuse he may give, I will send his name home to be put up in his own parish church. His own neighbours and fellow-townsmen, the people of his own village, shall know him as a coward.” And whether there were fearful ones among them or not, certain it is that such a threat was worse than being shot a thousand times. And there was not one who did not do his duty manfully.’