The Expositor's Bible: The Acts of the Apostles, Vol. 2Stokes, George Thomas
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Acts of the Apostles, Vol. 2
Stokes, George Thomas
Bible. Acts -- Commentaries; Bible. Acts -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
marvellously they have been restrained from courses which would have
been fraught with evil, how strangely they have been led by ways which
have been full of mercy and goodness and blessing. Thus it was that
St. Paul was at length led down to the ancient city of Troas, where
God revealed to him in a new fashion his ordained field of labour. A
man of Macedonia appeared in a night vision inviting him over to
Europe, and saying, "Come over into Macedonia, and help us." Troas was
a very fitting place in which this vision should appear. Of old time
and in days of classic fable Troas had been the meeting-place where,
as Homer and as Virgil tell, Europe and Asia had met in stern
conflict, and where Europe as represented by Greece had come off
victorious, bringing home the spoils which human nature counted most
precious. Europe and Asia again meet at Troas, but no longer in carnal
conflict or in deadly fight. The interests of Europe and of Asia
again touch one another, and Europe again carries off from the same
spot spoil more precious far than Grecian poet ever dreamt of, for
"when Paul had seen the vision, straightway we sought to go forth into
Macedonia, concluding that God called us for to preach the gospel unto
them." Whereupon we notice two points and offer just two observations.
The vision created an enthusiasm, and that enthusiasm was contagious.
The vision was seen by Paul alone, but was communicated by St. Paul
unto Silas and to St. Luke, who now had joined to lend perhaps the
assistance of his medical knowledge to the afflicted and suffering
Apostle. Enthusiasm is a marvellous power, and endows a man with
wondrous force. St. Paul was boiling over with enthusiasm, but he
could not always impart it. The two non-apostolic Evangelists are
marked contrasts as brought before us in this history. St. Paul was
enthusiastic on his first tour, but that enthusiasm was not
communicated to St. Mark. He turned back from the hardships and
dangers of the work in Asia Minor. St. Paul was boiling over again
with enthusiasm for the new work in Europe. He has now with him in St.
Luke a congenial soul who, when he hears the vision, gathers at once
its import, joyfully anticipates the work, and "straightway sought to
go forth into Macedonia." Enthusiasm in any kind of work is a great
assistance, and nothing great or successful is done without it. But
above all in Divine work, in the work of preaching the gospel, the man
devoid of enthusiasm begotten of living communion with God such as St.
Paul and St. Luke enjoyed is sure to be a lamentable and complete
failure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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