"Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word- of God deceitfully: but by manifestation of the truth com- XXI. THE GOSPEL. "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ."-Rom. i. 16. THIRTY years had well-nigh passed away since the death of Jesus. During that period, the apostles, by the baptism of Pentecost invested with power from on high, had been assiduous and successful preachers of the Gospel. The call of Cornelius, and the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Gentile hearers of the word, had silenced their prejudices, and convinced them of the breadth and generosity of the purposes of God. Availing themselves of the wider range of influence which was thus shown to be accessible, they had declared "to Jew and to Greek" the unsearchable riches of Christ; and God had wrought with them mightily, confirming the word by miraculous signs, and by transforming wonders. There must be, however, a yet more signal triumph of the cross. The provinces of the Roman empire had been skirted with the tidings of redemption; - Rome itself must be visited, impregnated, and ultimately subdued to Christ. In order to this, there seems to have been a remarkable manifestation of the wisdom of the counsels of Heaven. The Apostle Paul was marked by qualification, and designated in purpose, to be the chief advocate of the truth in the imperial city. Brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, trained in the most celebrated schools, well read in the literature of the day, and not insensible to its classic beauty, having had the experience of a considerable itinerancy, having the gift of tongues, and many other spiritual gifts rarer and more valuable, filled with indomitable courage, and, above all, mighty in the Scriptures, and a firm and loyal Christian he was the very man to tell before Cæsar's seat, and to Cæsar's household, the grace of God in Christ. There seemed, however, in the way difficulties of no ordinary magnitude. From the time of his conversion until now, he had been followed by the inveterate malice of the adversary, whose usurped authority he was endeavouring to destroy. He had been, as he himself tells us, in sufferings and hunger, in perils frequent, in deaths oft. But the grace of God had sustained him; and, delivered out of them all, he went on in thankfulness and bravery. Now, however, in the moment of his extremity of peril, that grace is apparently withdrawn. He falls into the hands of his enemies, is bound with chains, impeached by his infuriated countrymen, and dragged degradingly from one tribunal to another. But mark the chain of events in their wonderful sequence and harmony. His peril was his most precious opportunity. Rescued by Lysias, the chief captain, from the clamours of the multitude, he lifted his fettered hands on the steps of the castle, and calmed that exasperated mob by his eloquent preaching of the Gospel. Brought up the next day before the council, and ordered authoritatively to answer for himself, his defence furnished him with an opportunity-too glorious to be lost for an earnest preaching of the Gospel. Transferred to Cæsarea, and arraigned at the judgment-seat there, three heathen princes were moved to shuddering and to thoughtfulness by his fearless preaching of the Gospel. Drafted on board ship, to a company of two hundred and seventy-six seamen and passengers, specimens from every nation hemmed in from the chance of escape, and forced by their circumstances to attention-there was another preaching of the Gospel. And then in Rome itself—singularly favoured to dwell in his own hired house--for two years he published to all comers the mystery of Godliness-no man forbidding him. How marvellous are the ways of God! The poor Apostle might have been unheeded and despised: the state prisoner, from the interest attached to his position, claims and receives a hearing. If he had come under other auspices, or impelled by his own zeal, the open door of utterance might not have been found; but, bound himself, he could reveal the true enfranchisement without let or hindrance. The very fact that he was within the jurisdiction of the higher court, freed him from the vexations and prohibitions of the lower. Neither Pagan priest nor Jewish scribe dared mutter opposition. He was out of their hands. was Nero's prisoner now, or rather, as he himself expresses it, the "prisoner of the Lord;" his "bonds," therefore," turned out for the furtherance of the Gospel; and those circumstances, apparently so adverse, and surrounded by such invincible difficulty, became his very mightiest instrumentalities of triumph and of power. The Epistle to the Romans seems to He |