The Congregationalist

For The Congregationalist.
PAUL AT MILETUS.

It was a short call, but most important in its bearings and results. On his way to Jerusalem, he here turns aside to meet the elders of Ephesus, a city more than a day's journey distant, and once the scene of his own successful labors. He might have met them in their own city, and been welcomed to their houses; but the numbers who had there derived benefit from his ministry would wish to greet him, and hear his counsels; and thus temptations to delay might be multiplied. He must be at Jerusalem on a certain day. He would also see the elders of Ephesus, and encourage them to fidelity and perseverance in their work, and to watchfulness over their hearts and circumspection in their walk. It was better for them to come to Miletus, than for him to be hindered on his journey by going to Ephesus. They obeyed his call and came. His interview with them as recorded Acts xx., 17-35 is one of the most striking passages in his instructive history. It exhibits to advantage the elevated and excellent spirit by which he was actuated, in his arduous and perilous labors for the salvation of men. It shows, too, how his work enlisted the purest and strongest emotions of his heart, and tasked all the powers of his gigantic mind. Altogether it is a delightful specimen of ministerial tact, fidelity, and industry; in the extremity of which, the care of the heart, and the rule of the spirit are not overlooked. One representation of his to the elders of Ephesus demands a thought from all preachers of the gospel: Ye know from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you. At all seasons serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears and temptations which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews; and how I kept back nothing that was profitable, but have showed you and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying, both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. He preached plainly. I have showed you and taught you. He dwelt on the plain truths of the Gospel in an understanding and convincing manner, and kept aloof from speculations and lofty notions and expressions. He did not have much to say about " the nature of things," moral government and " the decisions of human philosophy." Testifying. He preached as one under oath and was fully convinced of the truth of what he preached. Paul did not make much use of the subjunctive mood, and it is not meet that they who preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ should. They are not concerned with suppositions and probabilities. It is a well-defined message which they have to proclaim unfold and enforce. It is the same now that it was then, unchanged and unchanging. Both to the Jews and also to the Greeks. He preached with impartiality. Neither national prejudices, nor sectional views, nor rank, nor station, ever led him to shrink from his duty. He was eminently an evangelical preacher. He did not plunge into philosophical explanations and doubtful theories. He let statesmen manage politics while he went about preaching faith and repentance, the two great doctrines of the Gospel. He dwelt on their nature, necessity and obligations, and urged them on all occasions, and in all places, and before all auditories. He did not declaim on these duties. He reasoned, he pressed them home with argumentation. And if he had not told them, and called them from Ephesus to Miletus to hear it, we might have gathered from almost every part of his history that his constant aim was to exhibit, not himself but Christ in his preaching.

Another representation of his to the elders of Ephesus, deserves to be pondered. I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men; for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. A noble declaration this; made in the conscious integrity of a heart warmed with love to God and to the souls of men. He had declared unto them all the counsel of God, with the nice balancings of a disciplined mind, and the docility of a heart that submitted itself entirely and cheerfully to the revelations of God, he had " gone over a body of divinity among them"; he had unfolded, and set in a clear and strong light, the doctrines, as well as the duties of the Gospel. It was not necessary for Paul to form a system of mental philosophy before he took up and taught a system of divinity. He begun with the truths of the Gospel, and treated them with method, that they might see them in orderly connexion, and in mutual dependence. He had not shunned to do this, either on account of the requisite study and labor or on account of its bearing on his popularity. It was a part of his duty, and he fearlessly performed it. He had not failed to preach those doctrines when he knew they would be irritating to the watchful enemies of the cross. Though self-righteous Jews demurred, though philosophic Greeks reviled, and though careless professors were displeased, he would proclaim these doctrines as he received them of the Lord. He would declare all the counsel of God whether men would hear or forbear. And thus he kept himself pure from the blood of all men.

But his language implies, and that strongly too, that he had preached to them nothing except the counsel of God. He had not embodied in his preaching, any inventions or theories of his own, or of those with whom he had studied. He preached only what the Lord had bidden him preach, and in this respect was a workman that needed not to be ashamed. He divested no revealed truths of their point and edge. As he kept back none he softened down none. He sought not to make the truths of the Gospel palatable to the natural heart by a mode of statement which would warp their obvious meaning. It was his constant aim to secure love for these truths, in the purity and dignity in which they were revealed, and not in any modified forms of presentation. He preached " the glorious Gospel of the blessed God" without attempting to take from it or add to it. Its glory and excellence were concealed from the natural man and could be spiritually discerned only by those who were renewed in the spirit and temper of their minds. Under his preaching many were renewed who cordially loved and highly prized the system of revealed truth in all its parts,

s. s.