Revelation in Common Life

‘I went up by revelation.”’ — Gat. ii., 2.

PAUL means to say that his going up to

Jerusalem was providential. Man sent him for one purpose; God had in view another. He came up just at the right time. He did not know it was the right time. God led him bya human motive — a secular motive. Paul thought he was only carrying a private subscription. He never dreamed that he was coming into the very heart of a great church-council; if he had, I do not think he would have come. He was very anxious to be deemed independent of his Jerusalem brethren, and would naturally have shrunk from meeting them. Therefore God drew him by a secular motive, a financial motive. He tempted him up by circumstances — by commonplace circumstances. Though he did not at the time know it, these circumstances

were really a Divine revelation. He came afterwards to see that they were so — that they had been his messengers crying, “Come”; in looking back he is not afraid to say, “I went up by revelation.”

Even so, my soul, has it often been with thee. Often hast thou gone up to thy Jerusalem for what seemed a trifle. Thou hast gone up grudgingly, unwillingly. There has come an invitation from a friend which it has not been thought kind to refuse, yet whose acceptance has seemed a waste of time. And so thou hast gone, almost against the wishes of thy heart. And that unwilling visit has been the tide of thy fortune — the wave that has wafted thee into prosperity. There, in the streets of that Jerusalem, thou hast met thy destiny. While bent on other business, while intent on other aims, thy fate has found thee. And ever since, that trifling cause which drew thee to Jerusalem has been hailed as the voice of God. In looking forward, thy saying was, “I am going up by invitation”; but in looking back, thy words will ever be, “I went up by revelation.” Saul’s father sent him on an errand one day; on the road he received a kingdom; and ever afterwards he knew that the errand had been God’s errand. And henceforth to thee, my soul, there will be nothing common or unclean; all seeming trifles will be possible revelations. Thou wilt uncover thy head before the commonplace; thou wilt bow reverently in the presence of the passing hour. Every village will be a possible Bethlehem; every feast will be a possible Bethany; every pool will be a possible Bethesda. Walk solemnly on the dusty road to Emmaus; who knows but that the stranger to whom thou talkest may be thy life’s revealer! Tread softly the way through despised Samaria; who knows but that the Lord is resting on the well! Move seriously through the prosaic duties of Nazareth; who knows but at thy side the Christ may be working too! The doors that to-day seem to open only into the street may be found to-morrow to have opened into Paradise. On all of them your inscription yet may be, “I went up by revelation.”