THE KING’S BUSINESS
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in prisons more abundantly and frequently than they (cf. Acts 16:23). In his loyal service for Christ he had felt the lash above measure (cf. vs. 24, 25). He had been in deaths, face to face with death frequently (cf. ch. 1:8; 4:10; Acts 9:23, 29; 13:50; 14:5, 19; 17:5, 13; 19:24-31). Paul’s ene mies had little indeed to set up against a record like that, j In a similar way, a way o f empty pretension, the destructive critics o f today assume that they have all the scholarship and that those who hold to the conservative views are persons o f no account. Now and then it seems necessary to show that these lofty pretensions o f the enemies o f the truth today have as little foundation in fact as the lofty pretensions o f the enemies o f truth in Paul’s day. The greatest Semetic scholars are not on the side o f the destructive critics, but on the side o f conservative views. The same is true o f the greatest archaeologists. Yet the destructive' critics persist in asserting that “all scholars agree” in the support o f their positions. Their assertions are bald and unqualified falsehoods, though many of them are so ignorant o f what real scholar ship teaches that they do not know that their assertions are false. vs. 24-27. “ O f the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. (25) Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; (26) in jour neyings often, in perils of waters (rivers), in perils of robbers, in perils from mine own (omit, own) countrymen, in perils by the heathen (from the Gentiles), in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; (27) in weariness and painful ness (labor and travail), in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and naked ness." Here Paul gives us a somewhat detailed account o f what he had suffered for the name o f Christ as Christ’s minister. Well might he say to those who opposed him, “Are they ministers o f Christ? I am more.” Where has this glorious record ever been equalled? How small the hard
ships we have to suffer compared with these. How petty the things one suffers for the name o f Christ today, if he is a faithful minister, are, compared with the things this great minister suffered. But as numerous and great as were his sufferings, Paul earlier speaks o f ,them as “our light affliction” (ch. 4:17; cf. Rom. 8:18). W e will do well to read again and again this catalogue o f sufferings endured for Christ. It is evident from the details o f this cata logue that Paul endured much more than is recorded in the book o f Acts.. There we have the account o f but one scourging (Acts 16:23), here we have eight. The stoning is recorded in Acts 14:19. The three shipwrecks mentioned here were prior to the one described in Acts 21. The night and the day which he mentions as having spent in the deep must have been spent in swimming or clinging to a spar, or in an open boat. In regird to the “jour- neyings often,” it should be borne in mind that they were not carried on with the comforts o f modern travel, but with very great hardships and constant peril. The “perils o f rivers” were the perils o f swollen streams so common in that land, and in which many lost their lives. Even to this present day many lose their lives in that way in the countries through' which Paul travelled. The road between Jerusalem and Antioch over which Paul went so fre quently, is crossed by currents that rush down from Lebanon, sweeping things before them. In regard to the “perils of robbers” the countries through which Paul journeyed, notably Pisidia, were infested with robbers. Some o f the cities in which Paul faced perils from plots and mobs and other causes were Damascus (Acts 9:23-25), Jerusalem (Acts 9:26-29), Ephe sus (Acts 19:22-31). One o f the great needs o f the present day is missionaries at home and abroad who take delight, as Paul did' (ch. 12:10), in labors, sufferings and hardships such as these for Christ’s sake. Too many today, though they say they were “ Divinely called” to the work, will not undertake it unless a comfortable sal-
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