Acts 27:20-26

And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared.

Spiritual darkness

I. There are many ways in which we may account for this state of mind.

1. It may be due in part to nervous and physical exhaustion. To the speed of modern life we do not add an increased proportion of rest. And to all our haste, telling on the finely adjusted nature with which God has endowed us, there comes inevitable reaction. The liver, or digestion, or nervous system, suddenly collapses under the exacting strain, and refuses to perform, or performs sluggishly, the behests of the will. It is at that time that one is apt to lose the vision of the unseen. Elijah, overtired, asks to die.

2. It may be due to mistakes in the previous education of the soul. Suppose we have received our religion simply upon hearsay or on tradition from our fathers, without much of that inner experience which authenticates it to the soul; or suppose we have mistaken creeds, formularies and acts as constituting religion, thinking when these are assailed or shown to be valueless, that we have lost the essence of religion; or suppose we have suddenly come into collision with the ruthless spirit of criticism, which, in the professed interest of truth, tears asunder the most delicate flowers to learn the secret of their manufacture, and refuses that we should enjoy a flower unless we can tell exactly how it came to be. In any of these cases the soul arrested in the enjoyment of unquestioning faith, and unable in the tumult to discriminate between the transitory and the eternal, the form and the substance, cries out as if it were bereaved of everything, when in point of fact it is only shedding the cerements of the grave as it passes into the fuller life, and leaving its baby clothes for those of youth and developing growth.

3. It may be due to moral declension. Only as the eye is single is the body full of light. Only the pure in heart can see God, Only those who do His will know. It is not always so, of course; but more often than not it is they who yield to the spell of Circe and are turned to swine, that lose the power of recognising the true Man, and appreciating those subtle influences from the unseen and spiritual world, which proves its existence no less certainly than did the spice-laden breath of the land, bearing in its current the land birds, prove to Columbus that the continent of his dreams was about to break on the vision of himself and his discontented sailors.

4. It may be due to the direct temptation of evil spirits. Often Satan, unable to secure his object by solicitations addressed to the senses, directs his attack on some of the nobler attributes. Sometimes he arouses the senses to hold the spirit in thrall, as some slave girl, with castanet and dance, may subjugate a Caesar to her will. At other times he suggests through days and months together, that there is no need for the spirit to maintain its upright attitude, because there is no eye watching it, no hand waiting to reward it. “There is no God.” Why, then, be so careful? Eat and drink, tomorrow you will die and end as a brute.

5. Sometimes it is due to the necessity for that preparation of the soul to help others, which can only be acquired through the discipline of trial. So often God has to wean us from our sensible enjoyment of Him, that we may learn to live by faith. God permits thee to go this desolate path in order to explore it and become a Greatheart, beneath whose guidance Mr. Fearing, Miss Much-afraid, and Mr. Despondency will come safely to the celestial city.

II. What should we do under these circumstances?

1. Be of good courage. Do not begin to say either that there is no such thing as truth, or that you will never behold it again. Do not get into a panic. If you walk in darkness and have no light, stay yourself on God; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart. Wait: be strong, fear not.

2. Go on obeying the better impulses of your soul. Go on doing what is right, because it is right. Be pure and sweet, gentle and true, unselfish and forgiving, keep your hand upon the thread of conscience, it traverses the darkest mines, and leads out into the perfect day.

3. Keep your difficulties to yourself. There is nothing gained by talking of them; and you have no right to sow the seeds of your own difficulties in the hearts of others.

4. Put away all known evil. There is a mote or a beam in your eye that must come out, ere you can see clearly. Be cleansed in the blood of Jesus, and delivered by the power of the Holy Spirit.

5. Put your will on God’s side. Keep your face towards the east. Struggle through the slough to that further side which is next the celestial city. Remember how Thomas, though he seemed fast closed against faith, mingled with the rest in their gatherings in the upper room, as if he could not abandon the precious hope of seeing the risen Lord. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

Ancient navigation

A compass was, of course, not included in the outfit of an ancient Oriental ship; and, in that respect, modern Oriental navigation resembles the ancient. Except in cases, increasingly more frequent, where the principles of Western European navigation have been adopted, the Oriental coasting vessels carry no compass; but the sailors are dependent upon sun and stars, and upon their knowledge of the characteristic features of the coast, to guide them in their voyage. The typical Oriental captain is a man skilled in weather signs, familiar with the limited range of coast along which he plies, and somewhat too ready to run his craft into a safe inlet at the approach of a storm. The captains of the grain ships plying between Egypt and Rome were men of more capability; but even they had hardly any resources when they were out of sight of land, and sun and stars were long hidden. (S. S. Times.)

All hope that we should be saved was then taken away.--

Wrecked, but not reckless

I. Sometimes I have been glad to hear that cry. Multitudes of persons are sailing in what they think to be the good ship of self-righteousness: they are expecting that they shall get to heaven in her. But she never did carry a soul safely into the haven, and she never will. Now, this vessel manages to keep on her way against all the good advice of Scripture. I am glad, therefore, when some terrific tempest overtakes this vessel; and when men’s hopes through their own doings and their own feelings are utterly wrecked. It must end in destruction, and it is therefore a thousand mercies when they find it out soon enough to get another and a better hope of being saved rather than this. Yet it is really wonderful how self-righteous persons will do their best to preserve their self-righteousness as long as they can. Like these mariners--

1. They have got a boat behind the vessel. There are some who have not only good worlds enough, but a few to spare. They have hauled this in very soon under stress of weather, and got the boat on deck for fear of losing it altogether. “If we cannot be saved by good works,” they say, “we will get under the lee of some church and get ceremonies to help us out.” And when the hurricane has blown them out to sea, and they have found that there is no defence for a soul in ordinances; that only the precious blood can cleanse away sin, and even that must be applied through the Holy Ghost by faith to give the conscience peace--alas! poor souls, their hope of being saved has become more slender than before.

2. They undergird the ship; gird their self-righteousness together; pray more, read the Bible more, go to a place of worship oftener--by any means they will endeavour to keep together the timbers that the storm has begun to loosen. But the storm blows too severely; the vessel cannot be preserved by such appliances as these.

3. They cut down all that might hamper them. They cry, “We cannot boast any longer; we acknowledge we have transgressed in some respects, but, Lord, accept our confessions; put away our sin, because we have repented of it.” They have given up a good deal, but they still cling to the old ship as long as they can. She must go to pieces, or you cannot get them out of her; so the Lord sends the wind, and the storm again breaks over them.

4. They go to the Word of God for comfort, but, like the mariners, they get no food, for there are no consolations for those who can save themselves.

5. We find that the sailors with Paul laboured hard; they tried to pump the vessel. Meanwhile, neither sun, nor moon, nor stars appeared. They were all in the dark: and that is just the condition of a self-righteous soul when the Spirit of God blows with His rough north wind upon it, and it comes to see that “By the works of the law there shall no flesh be justified.” It is an awful condition to be in, in some respects; it is a most blessed one in others. Oh, for such a storm as would that vessel wreck which is sailing under the flag of self-righteousness, that all hope of being so saved might be taken away from you.

II. Sometimes I have deplored it. I have heard some such lamentation as this from men who had no self-righteousness certainly, but who had fallen into despair, or had been guilty of stifling conscience, or had grown careless while hearing the Word, and they had gradually wrought themselves into the belief that they must be lost.

1. I am sorry for these reasons.

(1) I am afraid that you will go and do something very wrong. “Because there is no hope,” says the man, “I do not care what I do. As well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb.” Despair has been employed by Satan to lead many men into desperate crimes. Some have taken their own lives. Do not believe what Satan is telling you. The hope that you may be saved is not altogether gone.

(2) I fear that you will leave off hearing the gospel. I have met with some who said that they would never go any more to the house of God because it was no good. They had seen a great many converted, but it had never touched them, and therefore it was no use; they were only adding to their responsibilities. Don’t give up hearing, I pray you. I would sooner you came here and went to sleep, for perhaps when you woke up a saving word might get in somehow or other.

(3) For you will keep on coming out of custom, but you won’t listen with any attentions because you will feel “It is no good.” I have heard of a boy who was noticed to lean forward to catch every word of the preacher; and his mother said to him, “William, what makes you so very attentive?” “Because,” said the boy, “our minister said that if there was a sentence in the sermon that was likely to do us good Satan would try so that we should not hear it, and therefore I want to hear all that is said in the hope that God may bless me.” I do believe, if you were to hear like that, you would get good one of these days.

2. But you must not give way to that feeling that there is no hope.

(1) It is quite contrary to Scripture. Do you find the passage there that says there is no hope for you? You find this: “Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out.”

(2) It is opposed to all fact. There are many here present who were sinners and seekers like you now are, and they have found peace. Now, if they have been delivered, why should not you?

(3) It is to insult the great Father who always receives the prodigals that come back to Him. Say that He cannot save you? why, you deny His omnipotence and distrust His mercy!

(4) It is to grieve Jesus. Do you think His blood cannot cleanse you? What, is there some new sin come up that Jesus did not know of?

(5) It is to do injury to the Holy Ghost, for there is nothing which the blessed Spirit cannot move out of your way which is now an impediment. If thy heart be like the millstone, He can turn it into wax. If you cannot believe, He can give you faith.

III. I have sympathised with it, because many a time have I felt the same. Children of God do not always find it smooth sailing to heaven. Even in the good bark of Christ crucified there are storms. Christ may be in the vessel, but He may be asleep, and the ship may be tossed with the tempest. I have introduced this subject because there are many young believers who get into such a squall, and do not know what to make of it. They say, “Why, had I been a child of God, I could not have drifted into this frightful tempest.” How sayest thou so? Did not David go through it? He said, “All Thy waves and Thy billows have gone over me.” You cannot expect to be upon these seas and not have tossings to and fro sometimes. The strongest faith that ever was in this world has sometimes faltered. The old story tells us of Caesar in the storm, when he said to the trembling captain, “Fear not! Thou carriest Caesar and all his fortunes!” Now, Christ is in the same boat with all His people. If one of His members perish, He must perish too. “Because I live ye shall live also.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)

God’s dealing with man in his extremity

I. He begins by aggravating the distress (Acts 27:21). You have brought all this distress upon yourselves. How would this reproof aggravate for the moment the agony of that dark hour! It would call up conscience. When a man is made to feel that his suffering is not merely a calamity, but a crime, it comes on him with new intensity and weight. Thus God ever deals with men. The first thing that He does to help a world in misery is to convince it that its misery is self-produced. “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself.” And He goes on to convince it of sin, righteousness, and judgment.

II. He proceeds to mitigate the distress (Acts 27:22). After the wound comes the salve. After sinners have experienced the workings of genuine repentance, there comes the message of Divine comfort. After the tempest the still small voice.

III. He does both through His servants (Acts 27:23). Three things are here to be noticed.

1. The essential character of God’s servants. What is indispensable in the character of a true servant?

(1) A practical consciousness of God’s absolute claim to our being. “Whose I am.” I am not the proprietor, but the trustee of myself.

(2) A constant working out of God’s will in our being. “Whom I serve.”

2. Their high privilege. Communication from the heavenly Father. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.”

3. Their social value. “God hath given thee all them that sail with thee,” Paul was the temporal saviour of all on board. The world is preserved for the sake of the good. Every righteous man is a bulwark to his city and his country. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Paul’s voyage to Rome considered in connection with his faith

I. The perilous circumstances in which the apostle was placed. What calamity excites more painful sensations than a storm at sea?

II. The apostle is the exercise of a lively faith. His faith appears--

1. In the strength of its exercise. This was manifested in the ready regard which he paid to the testimony of the angel, although circumstances at the time seemed directly opposed to its fulfilment.

2. In the support which it yielded to his mind. While the tempest was so awful that despondency took possession of the crew, the apostle came forth to cheer their hearts, as his own was cheered, by declaring that no man’s life should be lost.

3. In influential connection with the use of the ordinary means of safety and success (Acts 27:10; Acts 27:21; Acts 27:31). Unhappily for us, we carry the feelings of presumption into our religious concerns to an extent unknown in our worldly occupations.

4. In its promotion of the glory of God. There was no attempt to magnify himself by concealing the source of his prophetic assurance. He attributed nothing to his own wisdom or power; he ascribed the honour entirely to God.

Conclusion: The subject may teach us--

1. The tender care which God exercises over those who love and serve Him, and sometimes over others for their sake. Not only was the apostle saved himself from the threatened destruction, but the crew also.

2. When under the mysterious dispensations of Providence not to think that the purposes of God are changed. If we make present appearances the rule or index by which we judge the love of God, we shall often be deceived and perplexed. A lengthened trial, therefore, a dark and awful calamity, should not be viewed by a Christian as implying a change in God’s intention to do him good, but as involving various, and some of them painful, means by which that good is to be effected.

3. The necessity of the possession of solid peace and hope, of our being what Paul denominated himself, “a servant of God.” (R. Burls.)

Paul in the storm and his celestial visitant

Certain spots will be forever sacred as places of contact between earth and heaven. Bethel, Penuel, Midian, Sinai, Bethlehem, Jerusalem. But except those spots made holy ground by contact with our Lord, none surpass in sacred associations this unknown spot in the Adriatic. I see three dazzling rays gleam from it.

I. Earthly sublimity. A storm at sea; a crowded ship driven helplessly; provisions gone; all hope taken away from 276 souls. While we shudder at it, let us think of the more sublimely fearful scene around us. It is a stormy voyage we are making from port to port between the two eternities. If the storm has not struck us in the calm harbour of youth, we know that the sea is treacherous. After this disappointments drench us; great billowy griefs go over us; sudden temptations almost capsize us; we go into the trough of the sea in wretched habits and circumstances; we see daily some rock on which someone is wrecked. We undergird our lives with expediencies--property, friends, culture, formalities of religion. But soon the crash comes. The ship of earthly estate is lost. One event cometh alike to all. Thank God if the soul--the man in the ship--be saved. But alas! the shores are strewn with not only waifs of fortunes, of reputations--the lumber and cargoes of life--but with soul wrecks.

II. The celestial sublimity. A light shines through that black storm, and above the howling a supernatural voice is heard by one man. What did it signify? Have you elevation of mind sufficient to believe that the angel of the Lord stands by our storm-tossed humanity? The sailors knew not where they were; but the angel knew. So when we are shut down under the hatches of perplexity and despondency, the Lord knows where we are. He found Hagar in utter despair. To Abraham, when his faith wavered, He came with promise. To Jacob, when his resolution faltered, He came with strength and confirmation. To Moses, seeking light for duty, He came in a flame. To Joshua, David, Christ. The sublimity deepens as me hear the infinite voice--“Lo I am with you alway,” etc.

III. The human sublimity. One alone is undismayed. The sailors’ experience and the officers’ skill gave them no such confidence as his. He cries to the crew, “Be of good cheer,” etc. The angel has filled him with his own bright spirit. I have seen a few such men who have a solar radiance, a partial transfiguration, as if Christ lived in them.

1. They are sinners, but they have heard the voice of the angel saying, “Thy sins are forgiven thee.”

2. They have been sorely bereaved, but they have heard the angel saying, “Be of good cheer: I have overcome the world.”

3. They are nearing dissolution, but they have heard “I am the resurrection and the life.”

Conclusion: Have you heard the voice?

1. Faith is hearing. “I believe God.”

2. The secret of the angelic assurance was “Whom I am and whom I serve.” He was the Divine protege, because he had given himself to the Divine keeping. (J. M. Ludlow, D. D.)

Religion in a storm

After all true religion is not a thing to be sneered at. That which could make a landsman calm and confident in the midst of a storm which overwhelmed the oldest sailors must have been something more than fancy; and that which could make a man talk and act as Paul did must have been something more than blind enthusiasm. Note--

I. Faith’s composure in the midst of life’s tempests. “I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.” This after “all hope that we should be saved was taken away.” Think of the contrast on board that ship. There were old sailors there; veterans who had fought in the foremost ranks of Rome; merchants who had travelled through many lands; but of all the “two hundred threescore and sixteen souls” there were none who could with composure look this danger in the face, save the prisoner and the one or two Christians who were companions with him in his bonds. He stood alone, amid all that hopeless company, and declared his confidence; and he, who knew the ground of his own composure best, said it was because he believed God. If nautical experience could have inspired such fearlessness, then, surely, the sailors should have been more composed than Paul; and if it had been merely a question of nerve or temperament, then the soldiers, who had dared a thousand deaths, ought certainly to have been as cool as the tentmaker. As it was on board that ship, so it is in the voyage of life. Amidst the surging waters, faith alone can keep us steady. With the sailors we may have much life experience; with the soldiers we may possess a large share of natural courage; with the merchants we may enjoy much wealth and influence; but unless with Paul we can say, “I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me,” we shall be the victims of every tempest and the sport of every wave.

II. Faith’s work in the midst of life’s tempest. One man’s faith may be a means of blessing to others. “I believe God,”--“wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer!” One chief end of our mission is to seek each other’s happiness. How can this be done? Paul did it--

1. By declaring the Word of God! Paul did not begin to calculate and explain the ship’s position, neither did he try to weigh the probabilities of escape by this or that procedure; but he assured them, on the strength of what God had spoken, that “not an hair should fall from the head” of any of them.

(1) Let the “strong men” in the Church make Paul their example in this particular. “Jonathan arose, and went to David in the wood, and strengthened his hand in God.” This is what we want now.

(2) Consider, you “fathers,” what those words are upon which you have been taught to hope, and, by a repetition of them to the fainting, “Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.” Don’t forget that the Church abounds with “little children,” and that your word about “Him that is from the beginning” may be a source of comfort to their hearts.

(3) Let me remind you “little faiths” of what our God has said. He says, “He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of His eye.” But Paul did not fail to give them both sides of the truth. The ship was to be lost, and he was to “stand before Caesar”! It was not all blessing that the angel predicted. “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

2. By avowing his own faith. “I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.” Don’t profess that which you don’t possess; but if you want to do good in the world, don’t go about theorising and philosophising as to whether or not God has spoken, or whether or not He is likely to do what He has said! Either be silent altogether, or declare your unbounded faith in God’s Word.

3. By setting a good example. To make others happy, you must yourself wear a cheerful face. It is useless to cry, “Be of good cheer,” when, to your own soul, you are crying, “Why art thou cast down?” True faith will be detected no sooner by the emphasis of your word than by the genuineness of your smile. “Rejoice in the Lord always!”

III. Faith’s honour in the midst of life’s tempests. What honour faith confers! It makes the child a man, and it makes the man a very giant. When Paul stepped on board that vessel no man was more despised than the great apostle; but when the Euroclydon beat upon the ship, and all hope of being saved was gone, he arose a prince amongst men. Faith made him the master of the ship; and though a prisoner in charge of Julius the centurion, Julius the centurion sought the advice and obeyed the commands of his own captive. And true faith will ever thus assert itself. A ship was on her beam ends in the Atlantic, and all hope was taken away. The captain had warned his men to prepare for death. But there was one clinging to the shrouds who saw no danger, and the praying cabin-boy became the champion of faith in the midst of the tempest. “God will save us yet, sir,” said the lad; and, while hanging to the helpless vessel he sought to cheer the crew, his youthful prayers were heard in heaven. Soon after a tremendous sea came rolling on towards them, which they quite expected would carry them down, but, to their astonishment and joy, it so struck them as to “right” the ship, and they continued their voyage, and entered New York in safety. “Them that honour Me I will honour.”

IV. Faith’s support in the midst of life’s tempests. “There stood by me this night the angel of God,” etc. “O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted,” read Paul’s narrative. What Paul had to comfort him, that every child of God has.

1. Paul was remembered all through the storm. Unbelief often says hard things about God when darkness and tempest for a long time distress. “Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me,” etc. But what saith the Lord? “Can a woman forget her sucking child,” etc.

2. Paul was watched all through the storm. Though the sun and the stars had not been able to pierce the storm clouds, the eye that never slumbers had watched over Paul, and the angel of Adria knew just where to find him. “I will guide thee with Mine eye.” “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them.”

3. Paul was sustained all through the storm. All through that trying time God’s word was a source of unspeakable consolation; but that special love visit of the angel raised him to the highest pitch of Christian happiness. And thus God comforts His people by His word still. (W. H. Burton.)