The Defence

Tar by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. A.V,

So that through me the proclamation might be made in full, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was rescued out of the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil work, and will bring me safe into His kingdom, His heavenly kingdom: to whom be the glory unto the ages of the ages, Amen. WE are still watching the scene in the great Basilica, 2 Tim. iv. probably one of the many structures which crowded 17, 18. with their magnificence that space so curiously The Scene. narrow, compared with what it once contained of both material and moral importance, the Forum of Rome. The accuser, the accomplished barrister, has spoken, and called for a sentence adverse to the prisoner. We seem to hear the movements and the suppressed talk of the audience, as the tension of listening is over; possibly even exclamations of hatred and alarm are breaking out, directed towards this forsaken old man yonder at the bar.

But now he speaks, his own counsel in his own The Accused defence. It was not an easy matter to win complete SPe#sattention; an angrily prejudiced multitude is no good listener: And here was a person whose nationality, age, and supposed antecedents, were all greatly against

2 Tim. iv. his speaking with success. Moreover, as we gather

17, 18.

He deals
with the
Charges.

from certain Letters of his written years before, he had some special physical difficulties to contend with, such as to give embittered opponents a certain excuse for saying that ‘his bodily presence was weak and his speech contemptible’ (2 Cor. x. 10).

He begins; we seem as we listen to hear him uttering at first his phrases with an accent of labour. But as he proceeds the voice gets power, and the fire of a strange eloquence burns in the sentences. This is very far from his first public address under accusation; he has spoken before, on the steps of the castle at Jerusalem, and at the tribunal of Festus at Cesarea; and then certainly his ‘speech’ was not ‘contemptible.’ He is one of those who on common occasions may be troubled by nervous weakness, but in a great hour, not least in a formidable hour, rise above themselves, or rather rise to their true and full selves as God has made them. And besides — there is that wonderful Friend at his side, ‘giving him power,’ touching his whole being with a divine magnetism for this one last effort in His own beloved Name.

At first, we may suppose, the old Apostle dealt — for the honour of the Gospel, and of the Lord, yes, and for his own fair fame as a true man; for no man is asked by grace to treat lightly his own moral reputation — with the charges that day urged against him. And his own words here enable us to say that he did so with victorious effect. Partly by convincing appeals to fact and to reason, but also surely by the mighty logic of the manifestation of a personality true and great throughout, he appears to have

The Defence

secured, even at that tribunal, where, let us 2 Tim. iv. remember, even under Nero, the Roman reverence 17; 18. for law was not quite absent, a favourable award.

At least there was a suspense of judgment. It was impossible to condemn him then and there. He ‘ was rescued out of the lion’s mouth,’ — as we should say, out

of ‘ the jaws of death,’ a death only postponed, to be

sure, yet postponed long enough to let him witness

yet awhile, if only in this last precious Letter, till the

hour not of Nero’s will but of the Lord’s should strike.

But then this was not all, nor nearly all. His ‘The defence was a minor matter. He recognized that azar here was given him one more opportunity, one last ‘open door,’ wide and wonderful, for that ‘testimony of Jesus’ for which he had lived so long. And he seized it with all his soul, and ‘the Spirit gave him utterance. ‘The proclamation was made in full, and all the Gentiles heard.’ O for a report by faithful Luke of that great ‘ proclamation,’ spoken — and so spoken that a dead silence gave it way — before judge, and assessors, and accusers, and the crowds of listeners in nave, and aisle, and gallery, and apse! But of its main burthen we may be quite sure, with the Acts and the Epistles before us. It was CHRIST JESUS, in all His sacred glory of Person, Work, and Love. If Paul was named at all it was only as the monument and example of His mercy. Curist was the theme; and the awe-struck audience passed away at last, in instances uncounted, to think of Him and to feel after Him. ‘That day’ shall shew the fruits of that last great bearing of the

2 Tim. iv. Name, before the Gentiles and their kings, by the

17, 18.

Chosen Vessel.

As for him, he was carried back once more to prison. But it was in an inward liberty more large and full than ever. ‘The ages of the ages’ were before him, and through them all his Redeemer would love him and would keep him, and ‘the glory’ should be His.