A Model Christian

Peter’s vision at Joppa introduced a new era in human history. To the fishernian-apostle, as he kneeled at his noontide hour of devotion, was revealed the glorious truth that God is no respecter of persons. This was not only the “gospel of democracy” for every land, leveling up all castes and classes into a common brotherhood before God; it was a gospel of foreign missions which proclaimed that the Gentile had as good a right to the offer of eternal life as the children of Abraham. That vision of Peter’s opened the way to the evangelization of western Asia as Paul’s vision at Troas opened the way to the evangelization of Europe.

The persecution which arose on account of the heroic martyr Stephen “scattered abroad” manynew converts from Jerusalem, even as a sturdy blow of the blacksmith’s sledge scatters the fiery sparks from the anvil. Some of them enter the maritime coast of Phoenicia; some of them cross over to the luxurious and licentious island of Cyprus; others move northward to the superb city of Antioch. These early pioneers of the cross were not commissioned by “boards” or other missionary organizations. The book of The Acts is mainly the record of individual efforts for the conversion of individual souls. The souls thus evangelized were in great centers of influence like Jerusalem, Ephesus, Rome, and Antioch.

The American tourist who visits now the shrunken and miserable hamlet called Antdkia can form but a poor conception of what Antioch was in the days of its flashing splendor. It was the queen of the Orient, the capital of Syria, the third city in influence on the globe. Its population was about equal to that of Chicago to-day. Its natural situation was commanding, with the river Orontes flowing past it and the magnificent mountains of Lebanon towering above its walls. Grecian art and Roman wealth had enriched it with gorgeous temples of heathen deities, with sumptuous baths and theaters, with elegant villas upon its hillsides, and with expensive aqueducts carried across its adjacent plains. No capital outside of Rome was more imperial in its splendor or more corrupted by wealth and sensuality.

Among the mixed population of this Oriental mart of commerce were many Greeks. Some commentators insist that the word “Grecian” in the twentieth verse describes Hellenistic Jews. But as we are told in the previous verse that some of the gospel itinerants “preached the word to none but the Jews only,” it is probable that this verse announces that the good news of salvation had begun to be offered to the Gentiles.

An immediate blessing followed. The omnipotent “hand of the Lord was with” these earnest preachers of the truth. The instruments were human, the power was divine. We pastors and Sunday-school teachers can do nothing without God, and it is equally true that in our departments God will do nothing without us. When God’s hand and man’s hand combine, then comes the spiritual harvest. The results which followed this pioneer preaching work at Antioch were of an admirable type, and a model of the best modern revivals. We are told that “a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord.” Observe this process: the inward must precede the outward — the root must be planted before we can expect the tree. The root here is heart-faith in the crucified Jesus. As the result of this internal acceptance of Christ there was a conversion or “turning” from a life of sin to a life of serving Christ. When the hand of the Holy Spirit is laid on the helm the whole vessel swings round on its keel and “heads” in the opposite direction. We have no doubt that this fleet of new converts bore the colors of an open confession of Christ at the mast-head, and were all ready to go into action for Him at once. True conversion demands prompt confession and union with the church. As soon as a lamp is lighted let it straightway shine.

Good news flies fast. Jerusalem was the headquarters of Christianity, and what was going on at Antioch could not be kept long from the mother church. According to the literal rendering of the twenty-second verse, “the tidings concerning these things” (or converts) “was heard with the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem.” In the judgment of that parent church the important work that had opened at Antioch demanded a master workman.

The man whom the Jerusalem church selected to be the city missionary at Antioch, and afterwards the foreign missionary to Cyprus, has never received the high honor through after ages to which he is fairly entitled. In our humble judgment he stands next to Paul, as the second most remarkable character who is presented to us in the roll of converts after the days of Pentecost. A gratuitous slur has been cast upon him because he afterwards had a “contention” with Paul about certain matters; but may it not be possible that in that contention Paul was as much in the wrong as Barnabas? Good men may easily differ and often dispute warmly about the best method of prosecuting God’s work.

The original name of the gospel preacher who was delegated from Jerusalem was Joses or Joseph. As the brightest light is kindled on a point that comes out of a bed of charcoal, so this light-bearer of the gospel came out of one of the darkest regions of debauchery and idolatry. He was a native of the island of Cyprus. He was of a Levitical descent, but his country was proverbial for its licentiousness, and the name of “Cyprian” is to this day applied to one who has sinned away the purity of her womanhood. But as the sun can attract heavenward pure particles of moisture from a slimy pool, so God’s grace elevates many human souls from very filthy surroundings. One of the earliest converts to the gospel of Calvary was Joseph the Cyprian; and what a thorough out-and-out work was his conversion! In our times we discover conversions of the head without a change of heart; again, we see both head and heart renovated without much perceptible influence on the purse. But Joses was the subject of a spiritual revolution that reached to the bottom of his pocket.

Make way for him as the pioneer of the noble army of generous givers for the gospel. He may be called the father of Christian beneficence, for he is the first one specifically named who, “having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.” The whole host of Christian givers — the Thorntons, the Peabodys, the Lenoxes, the Dodges, the Tappans, the Stuarts, and the Baldwins — are all the successors of this “son of consolation.” In modern days we do not often hear of Christians who sell their real estate in order to fill Christ’s treasury. The reason why there are so many stingy professors in our churches is that their hearts are not warm enough to thaw out their purses.

With his new nature Joseph receives a new name. He is christened “Barnabas,” which in our Authorized Version is translated a “son of consolation.” This would bespeak a fine character. “He who has consolation gives it, and he that gives consolation has it.”

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