The Faithful Pastor

“I’m not ashamed to own my Lord,

Or to defend His cause,
Maintain the glory of His cross,
And honour all His laws.”

“‘Benjamin shall raven as a wolf. In the morning he shall devour the ‘prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.’ This prophetical character, Tertullian, and others after him, will have to be accomplished in our apostle. As a ravening wolf in the morning devouring the prey — that is, as a persecutor of the churches — in the first part of his life destroying the flock of Cod. In the evening dividing the spoil — that is, in his declining and reduced age, as doctor of the nations, feeding and distributing to Christ’s sheep.” — Life of St Paul, by William Cave, D.D., Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty. London, 1676.

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M ‘F you look at the twentieth chapter of the Acts I PV of the Apostles, and first verse, you will find a very short account, given by St Luke, of the next nine or ten months of Paul’s life: — “He departed for to go into Macedonia. And when he had gone over those parts, and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece, and there abode three months.” Although the evangelist, in his narrative, says little about this important period of the Apostle’s history, we may gather, from Paul’s own Epistles, much that is interesting regarding it. From these, we find that he went from Ephesus to Troas, probably by sea, — his two Ephesian converts, Tychicus and Trophimus, most likely accompanying him. Aquila and Priscilla had meanwhile returned to Rome, — the edict of Claudius, which banished them, being now removed.

You may remember his former hurried visit to Troas, when he was called so suddenly away elsewhere by the vision of the man of Macedonia. Now he remained a longer time; not so long, however, as he had intended, in consequence of Titus not making his appearance with tidings about the church at Corinth. Titus was sent thither by Paul from Ephesus, not only to make a collection for the poor Christians in Jerusalem, but also to discover what effect his own letter had produced upon them. The Apostle seems to have waited, week after week, in great anxiety for the return of his younger brother. Days passed heavily away without any tidings of him. He was greatly disquieted because of the delay. “My spirit,” he says, “had no rest because I found not Titus.” * During his stay in Troas, he had much encouragement. “A door was opened to him of the Lord,” and he very soon after came back again to carry on the good work which he had now commenced.

Meanwhile he set sail for Macedonia, expecting to meet Titus the sooner, who was coming to Troas by that route. Landing at Neapolis, he went thence to Philippi. From his Philippian converts he had received more kindness, and less cause of distress, than from any other church. He never uses towards them a word of censure. They were a poor people. He speaks of the “depths of their poverty;” and yet, three several times, when he was at Thessalonica, Corinth, and Rome, they forced him to take money

* 2 Cor. ii. 13.

THE FAITHFUL PASTOR. 21 t

they had collected for his support. “The Philippians are in the Epistles what that poor woman is in the Gospels, who placed two mites in the treasury. They gave much, because they gave of their poverty; and wherever the Gospel is preached throughout the world, there shall this liberality be told for a memorial of them.”* Their example proves that it is not the wealthiest church which is always the most liberal in the cause of God; but that wherever there is a willing and bounteous heart, there will be a generous and giving hand.

We may imagine Paul’s feelings when once more among his much-loved, I was going to say, his mostloved church. Six years had passed since he was last there. The remembrance of the shameful treatment he had then experienced — the lictors’ rods — the cruel stocks — the dark dungeon, — must all have come vividly to his mind; but his sorrow was now turned into joy, in finding himself among homes and hearts so cherished. The load, however, was still on his spirit; Titus had not arrived, and he could not help feeling great uneasiness about the state of the church at Corinth. He knew, indeed, at this time, that not the Corinthian church alone, but all the others, were in no small peril. This was principally on account of those Jewish teachers who were jealous of their old national privileges, and who wished Christianity not to be the great religion of the world, but a mere branch and offshoot of Judaism. We can understand, therefore, how the “care of all the churches” was no slight matter to a mind like that of Paul; and with what anxiety he waited to hear how his remonstrances had been received

* See Conybeare and Howson, vol. ii. pp. 89, 124.

by a body so influential as that of the believers at Corinth.

At last, his time of painful suspense terminates, — Titus arrives. “God, who comforteth them that are cast down, comforted me by the coming of Titus.”* He brings much more joyful intelligence than the Apostle expected. The far greater number of the Corinthians had submitted with meekness to his rebukes, and had cast out from their communion the offender who had been special cause of trouble. They longed for the Apostle’s presence among them again, and were deeply affected at the thought of having cost him so much pain. Still there remained, however, a small party of these Judaising Christians, who were doing what they could to sow the seeds of dissension. They had ranged themselves under some designing ringleader, who had probably been sent by the sect in Jerusalem. He had come in as a wolf into the fold, doing what he could to undermine the Apostle’s authority, and even turn his outward appearance and impaired eyesight into ridicule.t It is needful that we keep in mind these two parties into which the church at Corinth was now divided, in order to understand aright the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, which the Apostle now wrote. This was sent back to them by the hands of Titus, accompanied by two other deputies, who were proceeding, at any rate, to renew the collection for the Jerusalem Christians.

You remember, I daresay, how unwilling Titus was, on a former occasion, to go to so wicked a place as Corinth; it is different, however, with him now. The Apostle thus expresses his happiness at the change of

* 2 Cor. vii. 6. t See 2 Cor. x. 1, 2, 10, 31.

feeling in his young brother’s mind, — “But thanks be to God, which put the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you. For indeed he accepted the exhortation; but, being more forward, of his own accord he went unto you.”* In reading the epistle for yourselves, you will find Paul addresses both parties. To the one, in the first half of the letter, he speaks in language of kindness and consolation; to the other, in words of stern remonstrance and rebuke.

After Titus left, the Apostle proceeded to visit some of the churches in the northern part of Greece. While making this circuit, he fulfilled his promise to the poor saints at Jerusalem regarding the “collection.” He seems, as you must have noted, to have been very zealous in this matter. He felt that, since the apostles of Christianity were Jews, and had ministered to the Gentiles in spiritual things, they ought to minister in return to them in “carnal things.” t The method he seems to have enforced on his converts was to lay by a sum of money every Sabbath morning (the first day of the week). The Corinthians, who were the most able to give of all the churches, had been thus gathering their contributions for a whole year, and their readiness was held up to the Macedonians for imitation — “For I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year ago; and your zeal hath provoked very many.” % The zeal of the Macedonians, however, poorer though they were, so exceeded that of the Achaians, that we find the Apostle afterwards making the less opulent churches read a lesson of liberality to the wealthy one: —

* 2 Cor. viii. 16, 17. t Rom. xv. 27. J 2 Cor. ix 2.

“Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia; how that in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy, and their deep poverty, abounded unto the riches of their liberality. For to their power, (I bear record,) yea, and beyond their power, they were willing of themselves; praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. And this they did, not as we hoped; but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.... Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also. I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love.” * AVe find soon afterwards, when the money was all collected, that Luke, and probably Trophimus, were to be the bearers of it to Jerusalem. They are spoken of as “the messengers of the churches.” t

Paul seems at present to have travelled farther west than on any of his former journeys. It is possible he may even have gone to the shores of the Adriatic Sea; for we read “that he fully preached the Gospel of Christ round about unto Illyricum.”J What the particular towns were he visited, we are not informed, as Luke was no longer with him as an eye-witness. Pursuing, in a westerly direction, the Via Egnatia, from Berea (from which town, you will remember, he was formerly obliged to take flight), he would probably come to Pella, the birth-place of Alexander the Great, and Pela-

* 2 Cor. viii. 1-8. f 2 Cor. viii. 23. J Rom. xv. 19.

gonia, the capital of that district of Macedonia. He turned his steps, probably about the beginning of winter, towards Corinth. How he journeyed thither it is also impossible to determine; whether he would take the high-road from Berea to the Isthmus, or, what is perhaps more probable, return to Thessalonica, and take vessel from that sea-port. On the Isthmian city his fondest thoughts — his hopes and fears — had been long, as you have seen, centred. We may imagine with what emotions he now approached it, as its spacious harbour opened to his view, and the rocky citadel which rose above it. His feelings, in many respects, must have been of a saddening kind as he once more trod its busy streets; and yet how much cause, too, for gratitude had he since his first visit! Then he was all alone — solitary and friendless. He had come from a disheartening visit to Athens, where a mere handful and no more had listened to his teaching. Now, he was no longer a stranger — he was on his way with some faithful companions to a house which his former visit had opened to him, — that of Gaius, — a kind and good Christian, whom, as you already know, the Apostle had baptized with his own hand, and whose many charities were known to all the churches. Though greatly grieved to think of the sins which had crept in among his converts, and the violent opposition raised by others against himself, still Paul must have rejoiced in knowing that within these walls were many warm Christian hearts — many true sons of the faith. It is, besides, a deeply-interesting circumstance, that so noble a band of faithful ministers — standard-bearers of the Cross* — were now assembled at Corinth, who had to-

* See Lewin, vol. ii. p. 530.

gether, there and elsewhere, proved mighty through God to the pulling down of Satan’s strongholds. There was Luke, the polished physician; there was the gentle and pious Timothy; there was Titus, the calm and discreet adviser; there was Jason, who had risked his life for the Apostle at Thessalonica; there was Tychicus, a faithful brother to the last, when others grew faithless; there was Erastus and Sosthenes, miracles of grace from Corinth itself; and not to make mention of others, there was the Great Apostle, a befitting chief, at the head of this noble army. How different when he approached Damascus, many years before, at the head of another band! — the haughty young Pharisee, burning with false zeal — proud of his sect and of his national descent. Now, he is poor, weary, weighed down “with the care of all the churches,” but “the peace of God,” which he himself speaks of as “passing all understanding,” is “garrisoning his heart;” though he walks in the midst of trouble, “the Lord revives him,” and a bright crown of joy and rejoicing is waiting him on “that day!”

There were, however, tidings of sorrow of another kind, waiting him on his arrival, which he did not expect. The Church of Galatia, which had promised so well at first, was beginning to be sorely affected by the doctrines and influences of these same Judaisers. They were doing all in their power to weaken the hold which Paul had over his affectionate “Gauls.” They had tried to persuade them that he was not “an apostle,” in the true sense of the word, — not one of the twelve who were appointed by the Lord Jesus, but a mere teacher, not worthy of the credit due to the others. The influence of these “false brethren” was great; they got many of the “fickle Galatians” to turn from the “simplicity of the truth.” Several underwent the rite of circumcision, imagining that it was necessary to their salvation. It was a proof of what we described them to be — a strangely fitful people! A few years before, they would gladly, if they could, have “torn out their own eyes,” and given them to Paul as a token of their attachment, and worshipped him as an angel; but now they had listened to artful seducers, who had “troubled them and perverted the Gospel of Christ.” How different to the steady, fixed Christian principle of the Great Apostle himself! They were like the waves of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed, — he, like the rock which nothing could shake. What is he to do 1 will he take vessel, once more, and go personally to rebuke them ] The distance is, for the present, too great and, besides, he has other work in hand in the disorders at Corinth; but the pen must do what the human voice cannot. He writes, from Corinth, his “Epistle to the Galatians.” In sharp and severe terms he therein reproves his converts “for being removed so far unto another gospel.” It must have been under the influence of deep feeling he could pen such words as these, — “0 foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth?” “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” *

After the messengers were sent to Ephesus with this

* Gal. i. S, 9.

letter of reproof, Paul proceeded to expel from the church at Corinth those individuals who had been the cause of so much evil in it. The “signs of an apostle” were wrought before them, in order to show the Divine authority by which he taught. He exhibited his Divine mission by the working of miracles; and by this means many who had before questioned his authority must have been silenced. But he must make an example of those who had not only so deeply distressed himself, but who had wrought such mischief in the Church of God. A solemn assembly is convened — the wicked and unholy members are cast out, no longer permitted to hold communion with their brethren. Whether they ever sincerely repented, and were again restored to the privilege of church-fellowship, we cannot tell. There is no more mention made after this of “the church at Corinth.” We have reason to hope that Paul’s present visit had been much blest to many, and that the casting out of this “unholy leaven” had not only saved, but purified the remaining lump. We have a letter remaining still, written by the same Clement whom Paul calls his “fellow-labourer,” in which he refers to the consistency, for many years at least, of their walk and conduct. “Who that visited you,” says this good man, whose name Paul tells us is in “the Book of Life,” “did not admire your sober and gentle piety in Christ? For ye did all things without respect of persons, and walked in the laws of God, obeying those who were set over you, and ye were all humble-minded, subjecting yourselves rather than subjecting others.”

The Great Apostle seems in this closing visit to have spent about three months in Corinth and Achaia, “watering the churches,” and collecting money for that great object so near his heart, to which we have so often referred.

There was one never-to-be-forgotten occupation which at this time engaged his spare moments. A wealthy lady of the neighbourhood, a widow, and deaconess of the church, whose house was at Cenchrea, was about to go to Rome. A rising and promising church of Christians, chiefly Gentiles, was already formed in the world’s great capital. Paul had long meditated a visit thither, on his way to Spain, after accomplishing his journey to Jerusalem; but being a comparative stranger personally to the members of the Roman church, he thought it would be well to send them by her a letter beforehand, to assure them of his affection, touching also on the points in which he knew they needed most direction. It was dictated to Tertius the scribe, with the exception of the closing benediction, which, as usual, was written by Paul in his own hand. .We have had again and again occasion to speak of the evil influence the Judaising teachers were exercising in the different churches the Apostle had founded. Pie seemed anxious to have some written treatise that would be serviceable in putting down their false doctrines, an& which would be regarded as a rule of faith for all his churches. The Spirit of God wisely guided him in composing that wondrous “body of divinity,” contained in the “Epistle to the Romans” where the grand central doctrine of the Gospel, what Luther called “the doctrine of a standing or a falling Church,” is brought so beautifully out — viz., Justification by Faith. It forms, indeed, a noble manual on the great peculiar truths of Christianity. Chrysostom may well call it “the golden key of Scripture;” and the older my readers become, the more they will value and admire it. It sometimes interests us to know where a great General penned his despatches, or a great poet his immortal strains; we read these with greater zest by connecting them with the spots where they were written. You may in future think of the Great Apostle, during his present residence at Corinth, seated in some quiet chamber in the house of Gaius; his window, it may be, looking out on the heights of Acro-corinthus, or on the blue waves of the Ionian sea, and with Tertius seated, pen in hand, at a table by his side, dictating to him his most precious Epistle to the Romans. It is evident from the close of the epistle that, although he himself had never been in Rome, he was acquainted with several Christian families there. The reason of this may probably be, that many, like Aquila and Priscilla, who had been expelled by the edict of Claudius, had met with the Apostle at Corinth, Ephesus, and elsewhere, and contracted a valued friendship with him. You will observe, in the messages or salutations in the concluding chapter, that he mentions two whole families, and twenty-six individuals, with some distinct allusion to their individual characters.* Although, therefore, he had never “seen their face in the flesh,” he seems to have felt no common interest in their welfare — “he made mention of them always in his prayers.” t

The time had now come when St Paul had to bid farewell to the church and converts at Corinth. His first purpose seems to have been to take ship, like Phoebe, and sail, direct to Jerusalem; but his plans

* Lewin, vol. i. p. 536. f Rom. i. 9.

were changed on discovering a new plot for his destruction, secretly concocted by the Jews, who had been greatly irritated against him ever since the decision of Gallio. What the precise nature of the plot they had laid was, we cannot tell: possibly they had hired an assassin to despatch him on the road to Cenchrea; or, perhaps, they had contrived some plan to seize him after he had embarked, and plundering him of his collection-money, to make the iEgean Sea his grave. To escape from their fury, he resolved to go round for safety by the north of Greece; this would enable him also to visit all his churches by the way — Thessalonica, Apollonia, and Amphipolis. He must have painfully felt the continual peril to which he was exposed. He could not look without fear to the future; for if the enmity of distant Jews was so great, what might he expect on reaching Jerusalem itself? He thus refers to his danger in his letter just written to Rome: — “Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me; that I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judea; and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints.“‘” The companions of this journey, we are told (in the 20th chapter of Acts, ver. 4), were Sopater, the Berean; Aristarchus and Secundus, of Thessalonica; Gaius, of Derbe, and Timotheus; also Tychicus and Trophimus, of the province of Asia. These, however, the better to effect the escape of St Paul, took ship direct to Troas, while he and Luke proceeded in has to by land to the north of Greece. When they reached his favourite city and

* Rom. xv. 30, 31.

church of Philippi, it was the time of the Jewish passover, which lasted eight days. Here the Apostle and his historian lingered, during the celebration of the old Jewish rite, now fulfilled in the great Antitype, “Christ our passover, sacrificed for us.” They then hasten to follow the steps of their friends; this more especially as Paul was desirous of reaching Jerusalem before the feast of Pentecost. Coming down, therefore, to Neapolis, they embarked on board some ship bound for Troas, — a voyage which, under favourable circumstances, ought not to have taken two days, but which, in the present instance, either by reason of adverse winds or a calm, was lengthened to five.* The Apostle’s previous visit to Troas, you will remember, was a hurried one j his anxious spirit could get no rest or comfort from Titus not being there to meet him as he expected. Now he hopes to be able to add to the church, whose foundation he had formerly laid. He seems to have arrived at an early part of the week. How he occupied it, we are not informed; we may well believe he was actively engaged in proclaiming his great message, and all the more so as his time was precious. In order to attend the feast at Jerusalem, he required to be in Palestine by the 9th of May. He evidently remained at Troas longer than he intended. His detention probably was caused by being obliged to wait the sailing of the ship, which might have taken all that time to unload her cargo and get in a fresh one; possibly he may have been retarded in sailing by adverse winds. We have an interesting account, however, left us of his Sabbath duties in this old city. The little church at Troas were convened together in a

* See Howson, vol. ii. p. 210.

small and confined upper chamber on the evening of that day. The place was intensely hot, from the dense crowd collected and the many lights burning in the chamber. The Apostle, feeling that, as he was to leave on the morrow, this might possibly be the last opportunity he would ever have of speaking to them about their souls, continued his address until midnight. Midnight arrived; but still the earnest man of God, taking no note of time, proceeded to urge his high lessons on a breathless audience. There was a young hearer seated at one of the open windows or balconies, which are common in the houses of the East, overhanging the court below. He had ventured too near the ledge; and being overcome, partly with the heat and partly with sleep, he fell down to the pavement, and was “taken up dead.” Paul immediately ceased speaking. He descended to the anxious crowd, who were now gathered round the youth; and in the spirit and power of his Master, he brought him back to life. You may imagine the joy, not only of the friends and relatives of Eutychus, but of all the other converts; for, be assured, if it had been known that a violent death had taken place in this meeting of “the Christian sect,” it would have been too good an opportunity for the enemies of the Cross to call in the authorities of the place to put a stop to all such assemblages in future. But the sorrow of the disciples was turned into joy. It was a new testimony that God was with His servant of a truth. They returned to their chamber; and after the excitement was allayed, they partook together, as was often the case with the early Christians before they parted, of the Lord’s Supper, or Eucharist, as it was called, — a word which means “joy,” or “thanks-T giving;” — and their hearts at present were doubtless full of gratitude and thankfulness for the miraculous restoration of this life. All the scene in that Troas chamber beautifully accords with the description given us of the Sabbath meetings of the early Christians, in a letter written by the younger Pliny to the Emperor Trajan, from a place not far from Troas, a century later. He says — “The Christians were wont to meet together on a stated day, before it was light, to sing among themselves alternately a hymn to Christ and God, and bind themselves by an oath not to be guilty of the commission of any wickedness;.... and when these things were ended, it was their custom to separate, and then to come together again to a meal, which they ate in common without any disorder.” * The other friends and companions of the Apostle early in the morning went on board their vessel, sailing round by Cape Lectum to Assos. Paul, however, waited behind them, remaining as long as he could with his converts, imparting to them instruction and comfort. He then set out alone on the Roman road, which skirted the base of Mount Ida on the one hand and the sea-shore on the other, on his way to Assos. t It forms a striking and pleasing incident in the history of the Great Apostle. We have him generally brought before us amid the bustle of cities, or reasoning and disputing in schools and synagogues; but here we

* See Pliny’s Letters, where a remarkable account is given of the rapid spread of Christianity in Asia Minor.

f If what we have elsewhere supposed about the Apostle’s eyesight be correct, we have here at least one instance in which he seems to have been so far recovered as to allow of his travelling alone. We have no grounds, however, for supposing that the disorder in his eyes made him at all times so helpless as to be unable to take such a journey as the present without the guidance of others.

have a glimpse of “Paul in solitude.” The scene recalls the lines of a favourite poet —

‘.’ There was a dell,
Whose woven shades shut out the eye of day,
“While, towering near, the rugged mountains made
Dark back-ground ‘gainst the sky.

Thither I went,
And bade my spirit taste that lonely fount,
For which it long had thirsted ‘mid the strife
And fever of the world.”

We see a lone figure walking slowly along amid the oak-copse of Ida.* It is an early day in spring; the groves are filled with singing-birds; the trees are feathered with green leaves; the ocean is murmuring at his right hand; the rocky heights of the sacred mountain rise on his left, glittering with a hundred jojous streams. May we not imagine him, as the sun had just risen, pausing at times at some opening by the pebbly beach, and gazing across that great and wide sea, whose waters were washing ten thousand unseen and unknown shores, — perhaps thinking of it as aii emblem of that glorious Gospel which, under the rising of a “Better Sun,” was yet to send its ripples of love and peace on every spot where the trace of human footstep could be found 1 He walked on, a distance of twenty miles. It was a season of quiet communion with his God in the temple of nature, which, we may believe, he would often recall with pleasure. These shady woods, on that spring afternoon, doubtless listened to earnest prayers, which the last eighteen hundred years have been answering.

* See the picture at the beginning of the Chapter. See also Fellow’s Asia Minor, and the description by Howson, p. 214.