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VOL. LXXXVII. RICH
The Chained
Vaul expected to do a great work in Rome. A
great soldier of the Cross, he saw there the strategic
point of supreme importance. He was not
ashamed to preach the gospel there, lor he knew
it to be the power of God unto salvation to every
believer. Rome was the fountain-bend of influence
for the known world. Thence went forth the
legions to the various quarters of the earth, and
thence were sent to the subdued peoples the rulers
who were to administer Roman law and to
strengthen the ties which bound all to the central
power. Impulses given at Rome were felt in the
distant provinces of the empire, and the glorious
gospel proclaimed there would resound in ever
widening echoes among the nations.
Writing to the Roman believers he said, "So. as
much as in me is, I am ready k preach the gospel
to you that are at Rome also," and tells them how
anxious ne naa neon to ao tnis uciore, out nau
been prevented from going co them. He assured
them that he had prayed that he might have "a
prosperous journey by the will of God"' to come
to them.
In how strange a way was this prayer answered!
At Jerusalem, he was assaulted in the temple, and
cruelly beaten by his own countrymen. Forty of
them, after he was rescued by the Roman soldiers,
bound themselves by an oath to kill liiin. He was
imprisoned and tried as a criminal at Caesarea.
Felix, the Roman governor, though assured of his
innocence, kept him in prison for two years, hoping
to obtain a bribe for his release.
Festus, who succeeded Felix as governor of
Judea, also, though convinced of his innocence,
was induced by the Jewish authorities to consent
to send him to Jerusalem for trial, they intending
to effect his assassination by this arrangement.
Paul, a? a Roman citizen, then took advantage of
his right, and pronounced the words which every
T?i\m?n -inrlrro in t!io cmnivn wnu hminrl tn hpftll.
"""""" I ""O^ " ?"v v?f"v
"I appeal unto Caesar." Then the voyage to Rome
followed; and what a journey it was! On leaving
Crete, against Paul's advice, a most terrible
storm buret upon the Mediterranean and raged
with unabated fury for two weeks. Shipwrecked
on the shores of Malta, after a detention of three
winter months there, he was brought a prisoner to
Italy, and might have been seen by travelers along
die queen of roads, the Appian Way, led by his
guards toward his long wished-for destination,
Rome. It would eeem that he did not have a
"prosperous journey" to the haven of his longings
and aspirations. Let Dr. Stalker describe it:
"His road lay along that very 'Sacred Way'
which many a Roman general passed in triumph
to the capital, seated on a car of victory, followed
by the prisoners ami spoils of the enemy, and surrounded
by the plaudits of rejoicing Rome. Raul
looked little like such a hero. No car of victory
carried him; he trod the causewayed road with
way-worn feet. No medals or ornaments adorned
his person; a chain of iron dangled from his wrists.
No applauding crowds welcomed his approach; a
MOND. NEW ORLEANS, ATLANTA. J
Ambassador
few humble friends formed all his escort. . . .
It was not to the capital his steps were bent, but to
a prison."
in the prison he stayed, chaiuied to *'u soldier
that kept him," for "two whole years," and afterwards,
it would seem, ins imprisonment wus not
"in his own hired house," as at tirst, out in tiie
Mamestine, or some other Komau prison. So the
end of the journey seemed no more favorable to
the objects for which lie had long wished to come
iu xiouie man tiie progress of it had been.
Yet, he was aii ambassador?au ambassador
from the King of kings. Though chained and in
prison, he was I Lis ambassador. So lie does not
spend time in bemoaning his fate and giving up
to despondency. Within the first week of his imprisonment?"after
three days"'?lie had the leaders
of the Jews in his prison house to explain the
situation to them. "To the Jews first" was the
commission. He had adhered to this order in his
active ministry; and now iu his imprisonment, an
ambassador in chains, he seeks "the Jews first."
On 11 H?v nnnfiinta^ Kir
_ ?. M|/|;V?UVbU 1JJ IllICUl ^ bliclu cuiiiu muiiy
unto him into ins lodgings, to whom he expounded
and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them
concerning Jesus, both out of the Law of Moses
and out of the prophets, from morning till evening."
When, after much disputing among themselves,
the Jews refused to accept the gospel, after the
most solemn of warnings, instead of giving up to
despondency, he announced, "the salvation of God
is sent to the Gentiles." He was chained to one
of them, it .would seem, according to the Roman
rule, night and day. How many messages from
the King he presented to one soldier after another
we may judge from the fact that he tells
the Philippians, "My bonds in Christ are manifest
in all the palace" (the barracks of the Pretorian
guards at Nero's palace). He tells them at the
close of his epistle, "All the saints salute you,
chiefly they that are of Caesar's household." He
assures his dear people at Fhilippi, his "joy and
crown." that, after nil, the fact that he was a chained
ambassador had proven a help rather than a
hindrance in his work for his Lord and King:
"Many of the brethren in the Lord waxing
confident by my bonds, are much more bold to
speak the word without fear."
When his "hired house" had been exchanged
for a cell, one might think, "now lie surely is to
cease the great work of his embassy" in Rome. Oh!
look at those "Prison Epistles" that were not only
fountains of blessings to distant churches, the care
of which came upon him daily there in the dungeon,
but streams of the water of life that have
poured with vitalizing efficacy down the ages to our
own times, widening and increasing, till now the
most distant nations are stooping to drink, and
drinking, find that the water of this gospel is in
them a well of water springing up unto everlasting
life. What an influence these epistles have been
In our sad and sinful world!
WESTERN PRESBYTERIAN
?al Presbyter/an <t
tnern presbyterian
!ULY 30, 1913. ' NO. 36- "i|
By
Rev. Parke P. Flournoy, D.D.
Let us hear Dr. Stalker again:
"Another man thus arrested, and immnned
ill prison walls might have allowed his niind to
stagnate in sloth and despair, llut l'aul behaved
very differently. Availing himself of every possibility
of the situation, he converted his one room
into a center of far-reaching activity and beneficence.
On the few square feet of space allowed
him, he erected a fulcrum with which he moved
the world, and established within the walls of
Nero's capital a souvereignty more extensive than
his own."'
What a lesson we have here for all of us who are
''ambassadors for Christ"! Perhaps all of us are
"chained" in one way or another, and feel that we
cannot do what we once thought we could. Those
who are in rather contracted surroundings, and
are confined to a ministry to a few, when they have
wished that they could reach the ears of a multitude
with the message of their King may be tempted
to lament their limitations. But let such of us
remember that the mnst nwinuu ...... 1 1
v..v wji-?uo nuiio aiu naiiupicked,
and take advantage of the absence of the
multitude for more earnest, confidential, personal,
'persuading" of the few. Paul's prison congregations,
like Christ's at the well, often consisted of a
single individual.
The mother, chained by home duties to one
place may often say to herself. "0, if 1 could only
get out into a larger sphere, as so many women
are doing in our day, how much social service and
Christian work I might accomplish!" But perhaps
Christ has made her His ambassadress to a
very little but very precious audience. Let her
remember her "jewels," and strive to polish and
make them fit for the King's crown.
Another may have to say, "1 have no jewels,
I am a poor helpless one, bound by the chains of
x- - - -
uisense 10 my room, and much of the time to a
sick bod." Forty years, and move, ago there was
such an one, a daughter of a good Presbyterian
elder in Txmisville, whose earnest love for her
Saviour, and those for whom he died, made her
chamber of suffering a choice place of privilege
for her friends, and moved her hands to many
good works for the suffering poor, while her deeds
of lovilior Iwnpflfionon ?-iL 11
. 0 iHKjiiicu mniijf wiui me same
spirit of service : and it came about that Miss Jennie
Cassedav probably helped, and led others to
help, more helpless sufferers than any one else in
the city.
Whatever our chains, let us pray and strive that,
like those of the chained ambassador, they may
he "for the furtherance of the gospel" and the
?a*? " * 1 -
niu!li|?iii"anon ot us messed fruit9.
Bethesda, Md.
You can never drive out the uncleanness of
evil except by pouring in the clean wholesomeness
of Christ. Try it, you who want to break
loose from the shackles that you know are keeping
you away from the great blessing of God
and from the pure sweetness of his free and
holy life.?Robert E. Speer.