THE KING’S BUSINESS
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Sunday, May so. Acts 28 : 7 - 10 .
of human fellowship and sympathy. No judgment could be wider of the mark. It is true that if men did desert him, he could cast himself upon Christ and be brave and steadfast (2 Tim. 4:16-18). But no man ever craved human fellowship and sympa thy more than he, and no man appreciated it more when he had it (cf. Acts 17,:15; 18:5; 2 .Cor. 7:6; 1 Thess. 3:1, 2; 2 Tim. 4:21). Paul Was an intensely human man and not at all what many people think him to have been, a cold dogmatist and heart less logician. It is true that he was a mas ter of relentless logic, but he was one of the most loving and tenderhearted men that ever lived. This went no small way toward making up his greatness. The pic ture that we have of Paul in the verses before us, seeking out the brethern where- evër he went on this momentous jour ney, and thanking God and taking courage as brethern 1 came to meet him and converse with him, is a most beautiful one, and should be deeply pondered if we desire to know the real Paul. There is in it also an impressive illustration of the kind of man that every ambassador of Jesus Christ should be, a man of loving and tender heart, a man rejoicing in human fellow ship, a man eagerly desiring and rejoicing in the fellowship and sympathy of human friends. Tuesday, May 22 . Acts 28 : 16 - 20 . Paul is at Rome at last. Long had Paul’s face been set Romeward. (Rom. 1:10-13). Little did Paul understand, as he longed and planned to go to Rome, the devious ways by which God would bring him there at last. The promise had been given that he should see Rome, but years of imprisonment at Caesarea, conspiracies against his life, storms, shipwrecks, viper’s bite, and other things had intervened, God’s promise, however, had held good through it all, and Paul is at Rome at last, and is there to preach the Gospel as he had longed to do (cf. Rom. 1:14-16). Paul loved his people, no matter how. bitterly they hated- and how persistently they persecuted him.
It was a fortunate thing for the house hold of Publius that “Paul entered in”. A man who knows God and has power with God is a greater blessing in any household in times of sickness or of any need, than all the physicians of earth. If people were cold, Paul was willing to build fires to warm them; if they were sick, he was ready to pray and heal. The one question with him was, “What do people need of me, humble work or earnest prayer? What ever they needed, that he supplied accord ing to his ability. Paul knew how to pray so as to get what he needed. He was mighty in prayer: fever and dysentery are stubborn complaints, but they are no match for the prayers of a man like Paul. There was a physician in the company, but Paul’s prayers were of more value than Luke’s physic. The hand that had been so recently delivered from the viper’s venom was a good hand to lay upon the body of another who was in the Serpent’s power (cf. Mark 16:18). “When this was done, the rest also which had diseases in the island came, and were cured”. When one man is act ually healed, he is a living testimony to God’s healing power, and others will come and be cured. So where one is actually and visibly saved, others will come for salva-' tion and be saved. . Oh, that there were such healing, saving power in our work that it would need no other advertisement than its manifest results, and that all who were diseased and lost would come for healing and salvation! Paul’s ministry of helpfulness was greatly appreciated; and brought honors and gifts, not only for him self, but for those who were with him. Monday, May si. Acts 28 : 11 - 15 . Luke, who was with one of Paul’s com panions on this journey, is very explicit in details, even to the telling of the name of the ship, “The Twin Brpthers”, in which they sailed. It is quite common to regard Paul as one of those self-centered and self- sufficient men who is entirely independent
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