Some Fell on the Wayside, Some on Good Ground
“And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them. Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.” — Actsxvhi. 32-34.
ON the Areopagus, as elsewhere, Paul would have more fully opened the gospel of Christ if the proud audience had been willing to hear him. But when he reached his favourite theme, the resurrection of Christ, they lost patience, and raised an uproar. They rudely shut the preachers mouth, and so shut the door of mercy against themselves. It is instructive to observe wherein the offence of the cross specifically lay in those times and for those people; it lay in the resurrection of Christ, which implied also his death as an atonement for sin. The Athenians could bear the cutting remarks of the stranger on their own ignorance, as confessed in the memorable altar-inscription; they could bear the exposure of their own inconsistency in acknowledging God their Father, and yet paying homage to a marble statue; they could bear the announcement of a great assize in which the whole world must stand before a human judge, Divinely appointed to distribute rewards and punishments; but when Paul proceeded to declare the central fact on which the hope of men must hang — the atoning death and the glorious resurrection of the man Christ Jesus, — their philosophy and politeness could not bear them further — they broke out into scornful interruptions, and the speaker’s voice was drowned in the tumult. This is the offence of the cross to-day. How significant in this aspect are the words of the Lord: “Blessed is he who shall not be offended in me.”
Paul departed from among them doubtless with a heavy heart. It seemed to him at that moment that his labour was lost. Not long after, however, he learned that some of the good seed had fallen into broken ground. Even on the hard soil of the Areopagus, where he had scattered his seed weeping, he gathered sheaves with joy.
That congregation of Greeks was divided into three distinct parts. The descriptions are given with great distinctness. Paul rightly divided that day the Word of truth, and the Word divided the hearers into distinct and
Some fell on the wayside.
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well-defined groups: into mockers, hesitators, and cleaving believers. Examine them one by one.
1. The mockers. When the preacher spoke of the resurrection of the dead, a portion of the audience loudly jeered him. Paul told the story of the cross: how the Son of God took our nature, and in it suffered death for our sin; that through Divine power he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven; and that all who accept him as their Saviour will rise to reign with him for ever. It was at this point that a portion of these volatile Athenians began to make sport of the preacher. These, whether socially higher or lower, were in spirit the hardest and coldest of the company. They were fast and free livers. Probably they belonged to the sect of Epicureans. They enjoyed life, and kept the thought of death away. They made no apology to the distinguished stranger; they did not take the trouble of making a hypocritical promise to consider the subject and call again. Nor were they content with simply neglecting the message. They made sport of the preacher and his theme in presence of the assembly. They went away laughing at the truth of God and the God of truth.
If our voice could reach the modern representatives of these jolly Greeks, we should affectionately and solemnly suggest to them that if God is, their laugh will not make him cease to be; that their destiny is long, but their view at present short; that they have not made sure that when we are dead we are done; that it is a fearful thing for a scoffer to fall into the hands of the living God. What if the very intellect that enables you to entertain the question whether there be a God, be conclusive evidence that there is a God who gave it? What if this “No God,” a judgment pronounced by an intelligent self-conscious spirit, be itself evidence that God is? If God had not been, there could
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have existed no creature capable of entertaining the question whether there be a God.
2. The hesitators. “Others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.” They listened respectfully to the public address; and when the hubbub caused by the scorners had subsided, they approached the speaker and politely excused themselves for not complying with his invitation. These men were between two opposites, and perhaps found themselves in a strait. On the one side, in a group that clustered round the preacher, they might observe gushing tears and other symptoms of broken hearts; and on the other side, they might see the smile of scorn curling on the lips of scoffers as they descended the steps into the forum again. Perhaps these men were really perplexed, and meant to reconsider the subject. Convinced in their ‘consciences that the testimony of the apostle had all the air of truth, they did not dare to scoff; but wedded to their own ease and pleasure they were not willing to take up the cross and follow Christ. Accordingly they adopted an intermediate course. They made a respectful apology to the preacher and went away. Counting the time of closing with Christ an evil day, they put it as far off as they could. They did not venture to say Never; but they went the length of saying, Not now.
This intermediate class is very numerous in our own age. They are a very large flock; and in their present condition it is not the Father’s good pleasure to give them the kingdom. They do not erase the gospel from their creeds; but they will not permit it to reign in their hearts and mould their lives. They are willing to possess a religion; but not willing that religion should possess them. They will wear it as a very becoming ornament; but they will not flee to hide in it as their life. They will keep near the door which it opens, that they may run into it at any moment when their case becomes desperate; but they will not press through it now, lest some right arm should be torn off in the passage, and the presence of Christ within should cast a damp over their vain pleasures. They would fain hope that Christ will stand ready to open the door of heaven for them on that day; but they are not willing to open the door of their hearts for him this day. They slumber while the Bridegroom passes; alas! it is to be feared the Bridegroom will refuse to open when at length they begin to knock and cry.
We have reached deep waters at last, after passing the noisy foam and the deceitful shallows. After passing in review the scorners and the procrastinators, we have come to —
3. The believers. “Howbeit, certain men clave unto him and believed.” First of all, it is instructive to observe the relations in which the Athenian believers stood to Paul the minister on the one hand, and to Christ the Redeemer on the other. They clave — they were glued to the preacher. As iron under the influence of the magnetic current cleaves to the magnet, their hearts held to the man who made the Saviour known. To the stranger Jew who told of Jesus crucified and risen, those Greek citizens, including one at least of the ruling class, fondly, firmly clung as to their life. Strange; and that too at the moment when their quick-witted countrymen were making merry with the outlandish opinions and speech of the foreigner. A principle more secret and more strong than magnetism had been generated in their hearts by this preacher’s word. By an irresistible law of the new nature they were drawn to the man who made known the Saviour of sinners. But, tender though their love was to Paul, through whom the word came, it did not terminate on him. They cleaved to him and believed; that is, while
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this man’s lips were the channel through which the word of life reached them, the ultimate longing of their hearts — their ultimate grasp — reached and rested on Christ crucified, whom Paul preached. They cleaved to Paul, but they believed in Christ.
No wonder that these newly converted Greeks cleaved to the skirts of Paul. He was already a strong man. He had reached full stature, and was more vigorous in faith and hope than others, because his graces had all been greatly tried. They were little children, and the world a treacherous sea; it was natural that they should cling to their spiritual father, as if for their life.
An artist has painted a marine scene at the crisis of a heart-stirring event, and the group is constituted thus: Prom the rigging of a distressed ship on a wild sea a stout rope hangs over the side. In the lower extremity of that rope a solitary seaman, evidently a volunteer in the business, his strong limbs and stronger heart going into it with all their might — a solitary seaman hangs. To the seaman clings a mother, and to the mother, seen dimly through the drifting spray, clings an infant. The cry, “They’re saved,” rings out that moment from the eager spectators, who watch the crisis from the deck. The seaman was the child’s saviour that day; yet the seaman touched not the child; the child touched not the seaman. The mother was sustained by that hero’s strength, and the child hung upon the mother. It is in some such way as this that Christ was the Saviour of those Greeks, although they grasped Paul, as if they were glued to his person. The apostle served at the moment as a link between them and the Lord: “ministered by us.”
We know that this minister was faithful. He was zealous for the honour of his Lord and the safety of his brethren. If he had seen that those Greeks were making him their idol, lie would have shaken off their grasp with livelier loathing than that with which he shook the venomous reptile from his hand into the fire at Malta. If he had seen that they were superstitiously looking to him for help, he would have rebuked them as he rebuked others with that terrible demand, “Was Paul crucified for you?”
There is a world of meaning in this cleaving — this glueing of themselves to their instructor. The danger is great, the time is short, the struggle is hard. Christianity is not a pleasant dream; it is a real warfare. The corresponding expression in Peter’s exhortation throws light on the eager cleaving of our text. “The righteous,” he intimates, “are scarcely saved.” It is a close run, a hair-breadth escape, like the escape of Lot from Sodom when the angels laid hold of him and dragged him away from doom. It is the salvation of one who strips off not only his wealth and his pleasures and his ornaments to escape through the narrow gate as poor as he was born, but of one who strips himself off — the old man with his deeds — and enters life as he was born again — the new creature only. I think I see groups of sinners saved, assembling immediately within the gate, telling each other of their dangers and escapes, every heart beating with the recent tumult, but every eye beaming with unspeakable delight. Through fire and water they have been brought; but now they are in a wealthy place.
Let none be surprised when they see the anguished earnestness of awakened souls. Be surprised and suspicious rather when the matter is taken coolly.
The first sensations of this cleaving are beyond measure sweet to a missionary at home or abroad. He has toiled in the ministry for a series of years, wearied, and almost wearied out, by a dreary alternation of Paul’s first two Athenian experiences — the scoff of the mockers, and the heartless.
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soulless apology of the worldling as he turns his back. When he is at the point of giving over in despair, he is startled by an unwonted, almost unexpected sensation. Surely the line that he has held dangling loose over that dreary sea for so many nights was tightened a little. It is even so. The line is tight and heavy. His heart leaps for joy. The missionary feels living souls cleaving to his own, that he may help them to Christ their life. This cleaving to the servant is a symptom of believing in the Lord.
Although Christ alone is the Saviour, the ministry of man holds an important place. How tender are these relations in time! How happy in eternity!