The Gladness That Barnabas Experienced
“Who, when tie came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad.” — Acts xi. 23.
II. T)AENABAS “was glad” when lie saw the blessed J3 effects which the gospel had already wrought in Antioch. Incidentally this throws light upon the character of the commissioner himself. Tell me what gladdens or grieves a man, and I will tell you what sort of a man he is.
The prosperity that made him glad was moral and spiritual, rather than material. Men of such an eye and such a taste are greatly needed in our modern commonwealths. We are carried away in a mighty tide of material progress; and although moral worth is gracefully owned as indispensable, there is a tendency, strong and constant, to give it only a secondary place. The vastness of a nation’s wealth and power will only make its fall more terrible, if it is rotten at the root. Physical resources, even when directed by cultivated intellect, do not insure the happiness or the safety of a people. Man has been made with a side for God and a side for the world: if the side that lies toward eternity loses its life, then, however actively the side toward time may perform its functions, the whole body is paralysed. We have railways, and telegraphs, and ships; and these, in their present measure of perfection, are new acquisitions made by our own generation; but the gospel is a more precious treasure, and our ancestors possessed it in its fulness long ago. I rejoice in the recent attainments of my country, for they are good; but I rejoice more in “the grace of God” that reigns in the hearts of my fellow-Christians, for it is better.
The grace or virtue that made Barnabas glad was possessed and exercised by others. There is not a finer feature in any man’s character than the capacity and tendency to rejoice in a neighbour’s prosperity. This is the mark of a true Christian, for it is a mark that belonged to the Master. Christ’s command is, “Love one another, as I have loved you.” Another law of the spiritual commonwealth is, “Put off the old man, — put on the new man” (Eph. iv. 22-24). When the old man is put away, his essential and characteristic affections go with him. Selfishness and envy are cast off, and a generous self -forgetting love springs up in their room. “Charity envieth riot.”
But the fruit in which this evangelist rejoiced not only grew in other hearts; it was planted, too, by other hands. It is easy for a minister of the gospel, if he be a true man at all, to be glad when he sees his own work prospering. It is a lawful and a pure enjoyment. The apostle John experienced it: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” It is pleasant employment for Paul or Apollos to come back to the garden which his own hands have planted or watered, and find the trees all laden with ripened fruit. But a deeper humility and a loftier faith are implied when an evangelist rejoices to see another man’s garden prospering, while comparative barrenness broods over his own. Indeed, there is scarcely any weakness into which even sincere ministers of the gospel are more liable to fall than into that species of jealousy which consists in rejoicing less heartily over fruit which another hand has cultivated. In recent times a spirit of more enlarged charity has been poured upon the Church. True workers rejoice in each other’s success. Of late, Christians have frequently been called to visit scenes of revival, and have learned to be glad, like Barnabas, over a more vigorous and devoted spiritual life in some hitherto heathenish Antioch, than they had ever witnessed under their own inspection in a privileged Jerusalem. The Sovereign Lord is still teaching us that converting power does not reside in an arm of flesh. To him every knee must bow; to him every tongue confess. He may, for wise purposes in his administration, employ in his work a feeble instrument, and lay the stronger for awhile aside. Some unknown, ungifted refugees may successfully found a Church in Antioch, while the greatest apostles seem to be spending their strength in vain.
Although only the gladness of this evangelist is recorded, we know well that a great grief lay beside it in his heart, as he paced the streets of Antioch. He saw the evil as well as the good. The good shone more brightly in his eyes by contrast with conterminous evil; and the evil seemed blacker because the good was beaming so near. This is a feature that adheres to all the delight of Christians in the present world. Such is our condition here that we cannot open our eyes to look on purity without perceiving impurity lying near. It is even by the dark shade of contiguous wickedness that we are able to trace the features of holiness among men. As a painter fills his background with darkness, deeper and deeper according as he desires to project his central figure more vividly into view, so, by the necessary conditions of our present state, the beauty of the new creature implanted by Divine grace in true disciples is brought more brightly out by the surrounding of sin in which it is set. The sadness that sat silently on the heart of Barnabas while he was making his inspection did not destroy, but rather enhanced his joy. The heaving sea of I wickedness that stretched on all sides as far as the eye could reach, made more lovely the green islands that were projected above its surface and seemed to lie upon its breast.
The gladness of this deputy from the Church at Jerusalem was not a sentimental emotion terminating in the person who enjoyed it. It was an active, outgoing, operative passion. It was a spark that lighted up a flame within the man; and that flame quickly spread over surrounding objects. A selfish joy is an ignoble thing. The gladness that goes no further than the childish exclamation of the ancient idolaters, “Aha, I am warm!” as they sat round their fire, is a matter that belongs to man in common with the brutes. But the joy which thrills in a Christian’s heart at the sight of “grace” in the life of men, makes its higher nature known by its instant, energetic action. When a true Christian is made glad by seeing some grace, he forthwith begins to labour with all his might for more. It is a well-known law, operating both in the temporal and the spiritual spheres, that while the heart is hopeless the hands also hang down. The desponding cannot work any deliverance. Glad hope that makes a man happy, makes him also useful. Had Barnabas seen no good in Antioch, he would probably have done no good there. There were many adversaries, but there was a door of hope. With the unerring instincts of a true disciple, when he gets encouragement, he both gave himself to the work and enlisted others. “Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus for to seek Saul: and when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves with the Church and taught much people.”
There is no enjoyment stronger or sweeter within our reach in time than that which rilled the hearts of these evangelists at Antioch; but those who do not share their zeal are strangers to their joy. Those who do not keenly desire to see Christ’s kingdom coming, experience no delight when it comes. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. They who wait for the Lord, as lonely night-watchers wait for the morning, are sure of their reward; for to them that look for him he will appear, and his coming will be like the morning. If I long to see the likeness of Christ in the life of my neighbours, I shall certainly be made glad one day. This desire is a vital seed, which will bear its fruit of joy either in earth or in heaven.
The man who rejoiced in the grace of God as he saw it struggling through hard soil, beneath ungenial skies, in the young believers of Antioch, looks on brighter fields to-day. By this time he has asked in astonishment, with the beloved disciple, “Who are these that are arrayed in white clothing, and whence came they?” The man who has an eye to see and a heart to love true believers, marred by many imperfections on the earth, shall look, ere long, upon the saints made perfect. The eye that glistens now at the sight of grace, will be permitted soon to gaze on glory.