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to instruct him before he baptized him. The fact that the man had found and received Jesus as the Messiah and the Son o f God, was all that was necessary to fit him for baptism. This was the usual cus tom o f the Apostles and other workers in the early church (cf. Acts 16:33). Philip’s work is now done and the Spirit takes him away. It sounds, if we take the words in their connection, as if Philip were caught away by a hurricane (cf. 2 Kings 2:16), but it will not do to dogmatize about that. The reason for the catching away o f Philip was that the eunuch might learn to look directly to Jesus Himself. Oftentimes the man who helps us into the light becomes a hindrance to us by standing between us and Jesus Himself, and in that case it is better for us that he be taken away and we thus taught to look directly to the Lord Himself. The eunuch had learned his lesson well, he did look to the Lord. He no longer asked for Philip, now that he had found Jesus. He went on his way “ rejoic ing” with a hew found joy, a joy that those only know who have received Jesus. It is clear from this story that one can learn and accept all one needs to know about Jesus in order to be baptized and saved in a few hours. Great indeed is the simplicity of the way o f life in Christ Jesus (cf. ch. 16:33), Philip on his part made his way from city to city, proclaiming the glad tidings in every city he entered. He was very unlike our modern evangelists, and his methods were entirely different from ours. He did not think that it was neces sary to have committees to work up the meetings, nor to have elaborate arrange ments for gathering the “ free-will” offer ing when he had finished. He just preached Jesus wherever he came, and left the mat ter o f his support with God. That was the New Testament idea o f an evangelist (cf. ch. 21:8); Is out modern conception o f the evangelist and his methods any im provement on the New Testament idea? Sunday, December 3 . Acts 9 : 1 , 2 . Saul o f Tarsus was, perhaps, the most
dangerous enemy that our Lord Jesus and His cause ever had on earth. He was filled with intense and bitter hatred of Jesus, and o f all who belonged to Him. His intense anger against the Lord and his disciples was not a matter o f a single hour; he breathed an atmosphere of threat ening and murder. The word translated in the A. V. “ breathing out,” literally trans lated would be “breathing in,” and the thought is that every breath he drew was a breath o f “threatening and slaughter,” and that “threatening and slaughter” was the very atmosphere in which he lived and which he breathed. “ The “threatening and slaughter” were “against the disciples of the Lord.” He hated then» because they belonged to the Lord, and his hatred of Him whom he could not get directly at was exhibited in his attitude toward them that belonged to Him. The reason why many today slander and otherwise injure Christians, is because they hate the One to Whom Christians belong. The extent to which Saul carried out his hatred o f Christ in action is seen in ch. 22:19, where we are told that he shut many o f the saints up in prison, and that when they were put to death he voted in favor o f their murder, and that he punished them often times in every synagogue, and strove to make them blaspheme. In all his acts o f violence against the disciples o f Jesus, and so against Jesus Himself, Saul had per suaded himself that he was doing right (ch. 26:9). He had convinced himself that Jesus’ claim to be the Messiah and the Son o f God was false. He sincerely believed that Jesus was an impostor, and therefore he sought conscientiously to de stroy his cause. In this we have a striking illustration o f how one who in tends to be thoroughly conscientious can be thoroughly and awfully wrong. In the deeper depths o f his soul the thought would sometimes arise that he was wrong, especially when he was present at the death o f Stephen and heard Stephen’s wonderful dying testimony, but he would not listen to these deeper convictions, but
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