The Seed of the Word Is Spread

“And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.” — Acts ii. 5-11.

IN the cotton factories of Lancashire you may see a huge piece of machinery, fifty feet in length, and containing hundreds of spindles, moving slowly, steadily, across the floor from one side of the room to another; and then, without the touch of a human hand, turning and moving as steadily and slowly back to the place from which it started. It is a great triumph of mechanical skill to insert within the machine a power by which, after it has moved a long way forward, it shall stop, and move as far backward.

I think I see a similar contrivance in the Mosaic institutes. They were calculated and fitted to retain the word of God at Jerusalem till a certain time, and then to send the word forth from Jerusalem. The very same provision that confined the ordinances to Israel until Christ came, became the means of spreading them over the world at the appointed time — when the day of Pentecost was fully come.

All the people must come to one place with their sacrifices. Year by year they made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem at the Passover and the other appointed feasts. Even after some of the people had settled in foreign lands they still obeyed this law. The Ethiopian treasurer travelled a thousand miles for this purpose, and many others from east and west and south and north met him there. This institution seemed intended and fitted to confine all worship of the true God to one place for ever. It seemed to forbid the spread of true religion over the world, and yet it became the means of carrying the gospel forth from Jerusalem, and making it known to the nations.

This law and practice brought devout J ews and proselytes from many lands to Jerusalem at the Pentecost after the resurrection of Christ. Being on the spot when the Spirit was poured out, they heard each in his own tongue the gospel of grace, and carried the glad tidings home. Thus Christ was preached in many distant countries very soon after his own ministry was closed. That word which the strangers heard at Jerusalem they carried home as seed, and from that seed an early harvest sprung.

In a still, hot, sultry day of autumn, as you walk through the fields, your atbention is arrested by a tiny sound at brief intervals, as if it were an explosion in miniature. You stand still and listen. Now and then you hear a sharp shot, and a few seconds thereafter, a shower of tiny balls falling on the ground or on the leaves of the larger plants. It is the bursting of seed-pods in the sun. The casket that contains the seed of some plants is composed of four or five long narrow staves, joined together like cooper work, but without the hoops. The staves are glued together at the edges, and the vessel thus constructed is sufficiently strong to retain and protect the seed till it is ripe. But if the seeds were retained in the vessel after they are ripe, the purposes of Nature would be thwarted. Accordingly at this stage there is a turning-point, and the action of the machinery is reversed. The very same qualities in the seed-The Seed of the Word is spread. vessels that hold fast the seed while it is green, jerk it to a distance and sow it broadcast after it is ripe. When the pods are dried in the sun the glutinous cement holds, fast, the staves of the little barrel are bent, and when at last the bursting force overcomes the adhesion, they open with a spring that flings the seed to a distance, as if from a sower’s hand.

Thus the same mechanism that secures the confinement of the seed to one spot while it is green, provides that it shall be scattered to a distance when it is ripe; so that, next year, a larger space shall be covered by its growth. By this contrivance in Nature, although no human hand were near, a whole field would soon be sown by seed from a single plant.

Thus the law in Israel that confined the sacrifices to one spot, and so brought Jews and proselytes from all the surrounding countries to Jerusalem at the Pentecost, threw the seed of the Word as by a spring out from Jerusalem into all the neighbouring nations. These Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and dwellers in Mesopotamia, were the seed-vessels, charged with precious seed at Jerusalem, and then thrown back on the several countries whence they had come. In this way the gospel was in a single season brought to regions which otherwise it might not have reached in the course of a century.

We know, in point of fact, from ancient history that the Christian Church sprang up in many widely separated regions during the lifetime of the apostles, or very soon after their death. This fact finds its explanation in the gathering at Pentecost, and the gift of tongues. Take, for example, those nations that are first mentioned in the list, and lie eastward from Palestine, in the heart of Asia. The Parthians and Medes and Elamites were contiguous and allied peoples.

Elam corresponds to Persia, and the two others were closely related to that ancient and celebrated kingdom. The Persians maintained an empire independent of Rome for several centuries after the commencement of the Christian era. In ancient times the Persians were fire-worshippers; and that portion of the race who, under the name of Parsees, are still found in Western India, adhere to the religion of their fathers. The sun is their chief god, but they worship fire wherever it occurs. Perhaps these Persians had emigrated eastward before their country was overrun by Mahomet.

We may be assured that the proselytes from Persia would experience peculiar emotions when they saw the tongues of fire, and heard the gospel in their own language from the lips of Galileans. Here is fire that really sheds light on the darkness, and kindles life where death had reigned before.

A Christian Church existed in Persia in the earliest centuries of our era. In the year 333 it endured a violent persecution, in many respects similar to that which has raged against the Christians of Madagascar at various periods in the present generation. At one time the principal bishop, with a hundred ministers of inferior rank, were put to death. The bishop, Simeon, when brought into the king’s presence for trial, refused to prostrate himself, as he had formerly done without scruple; giving as his reason that the act might have been misunderstood when he was called to witness regarding his religion and his God. Ordered to worship the sun, he refused, saying that the sun was even less worthy of worship than the king, as it was not a living creature at all. He was sent back to prison for a day, that he might have time to reflect. Next day the prisoners were all brought out for execution. The bishop and two companions were kept to the last, in the hope that the sight of so many executions would soften them, and induce them to deny Christ. He remained firm. One of his friends having manifested symptoms of fear, an officer of the king’s household, named Phusek, a Christian, said to him, “Fear not; shut your eyes but a moment, and you will open them on the light of Christ.” When this was reported to the king, he upbraided his servant Phusek; but that Christian witness replied that he would gladly give away all the honours the king had bestowed, in exchange for the crown of martyrdom. His tongue was thereupon torn out, and he died in torture.

In this persecution the common Christian people were for the most part permitted to escape, while the chiefs were sought out and put to death. It lasted, with greater or less violence, for a period of forty years.

Nothing could show more clearly than these sad events the great extent to which Christianity had spread in those early ages. A great harvest sprang in many lands from the seed that the worshippers found at Jerusalem — a great flame of spiritual life was kindled in the far East by those fiery tongues of the Pentecost revival.