_EVANGELISTIC WORK IN THE PHILISTINES' LAND._
"But an angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and
go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem
unto Gaza: the same is desert. And he arose and went: and behold,
a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace,
queen of the Ethiopians, who was over all her treasure, who had
come to Jerusalem for to worship; and he was returning and
sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet
Isaiah."--ACTS viii. 26-8.
"And it came to pass, as Peter went throughout all parts, he came
down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda."--ACTS ix. 32.
I have united these two incidents, the conversion of the Ethiopian
eunuch and the mission of St. Peter to the people of Lydda, Sharon,
and Joppa, because they relate to the same district of country and
they happened at the same period, the pause which ensued between the
martyrdom of St. Stephen and the conversion of St. Paul. The writer of
the Acts does not seem to have exactly followed chronological order in
this part of his story. He had access to different authorities or to
different diaries. He selected as best he could the details which he
heard or read, and strove to weave them into a connected narrative.
St. Luke, when gathering up the story of these earliest days of the
Church's warfare, must have laboured under great difficulties which we
now can scarcely realize. It was doubtless from St. Philip himself
that our author learned the details of the eunuch's conversion and of
St. Peter's labours. St. Luke and St. Paul tarried many days with St.
Philip at Cæsarea. Most probably St. Luke had then formed no intention
of writing either his Gospel or his apostolic history at that period.
He was urged on simply by that unconscious force which shapes our
lives and leads us in a vague way to act in some special direction. A
man born to be a poet will unconsciously display his tendency. A man
born to be a historian will be found, even when he has formed no
definite project, note-book in hand, jotting down the impressions of
the passing hour or of his current studies. So probably was it with
St. Luke. He could not help taking notes of conversations he heard, or
making extracts from the documents he chanced to meet; and then when
he came to write he had a mass of materials which it was at times hard
to weave into one continuous story within the limits he had prescribed
to himself. One great idea, indeed, to which we have often referred,
seems to have guided the composition of the first portion of the
apostolic history. St. Luke selected, under Divine guidance, certain
representative facts and incidents embodying great principles, typical
of future developments. This is the golden thread which runs through
the whole of this book, and specially through the chapters concerning
which we speak in this volume, binding together and uniting in one
organic whole a series of independent narratives.
I. The two incidents which we now consider have several representative
aspects. They may be taken as typical of evangelistic efforts and the
qualifications for success in them. Philip the deacon is aggressive,
many-sided, flexible, and capable of adapting himself to diverse
temperaments, whether those of the Grecian Jews at Jerusalem, the
Samaritans in central Palestine, or the Jewish proselytes from distant
Africa. Peter is older, narrower, cannot so easily accommodate
himself to new circumstances. He confines himself, therefore, to quiet
work amongst the Jews of Palestine who have been converted to Christ
as the result of the four years' growth of the Church. "As Peter went
throughout all parts, he came down also to the saints which dwelt at
Lydda." This incident represents to us the power and strength gained
for the cause of Christ by intellectual training and by wider culture.
It is a lesson needed much in the great mission field. It has hitherto
been too much the fashion to think that while the highest culture and
training are required for the ministry at home, any half-educated
teacher, provided he be in earnest, will suffice for the work of
preaching to the heathen. This is a terrible mistake, and one which
has seriously injured the progress of religion. It is at all times a
dangerous thing to despise one's adversary, and we have fallen into
the snare when we have despised systems like Buddhism and Hindooism,
endeavouring to meet them with inferior weapons.[158] The ancient
religions of the East are founded on a subtle philosophy, and should
be met by men whose minds have received a wide and generous culture,
which can distinguish between the chaff and the wheat, rejecting what
is bad in them while sympathising with and accepting what is good. The
notices of Philip and Stephen and their work, as contrasted with that
of St. Peter, proclaim the value of education, travel, and thought in
this the earlier section of the Acts, as the labours of St. Paul
declare it in the days of Gentile conversion. The work of the Lord,
whether among Jews or Gentiles, is done most effectually by those
whose natural abilities and intellectual sympathies have been
quickened and developed. A keen race like the Greeks of old or the
Hindoos of the present, are only alienated from the very consideration
of the faith when it is presented in a hard, narrow, intolerant,
unsympathetic spirit. The angel chose wisely when he selected the
Grecian Philip to bear the gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch, and left
Peter to minister to Æneas, to Tabitha, and to Simon the tanner of
Joppa; simple souls, for whom life glided smoothly along, troubled by
no intellectual problems and haunted by no fearful doubts.
[158] The primitive Church never made this mistake. The great
missionaries who dealt with the heathen in the second century were
profoundly skilled in philosophy, several of them being
philosophers by profession. Aristides, whose long-lost _Apology_
has just been recovered, Justin Martyr, and Tatian were Christian
philosophers in the second century, and consecrated their powers
to missionary labours. Pantænus, Clement, and Origen, profound
scholars of Alexandria, took the greatest trouble to understand
Greek paganism before they proceeded to refute it. I think that
candidates in training for foreign missions might be taken with
great advantage through a course of the second century apologists.
Clement and Origen never poured indiscriminate abuse on the system
they opposed; their teaching was no bald negative controversy;
they always strove, like St. Paul at Athens, to ascertain what was
good and true in their opponents' position, and to work from
thence. See pp. 214, 215 above, where much the same line of
thought has been insisted upon.
II. Again, we may remark that these incidents and the whole course of
Church history at this precise moment show the importance of clear
conceptions as to character, teaching, and objects. The Church at this
time was vaguely conscious of a great mission, but it had not made up
its mind as to the nature of that mission, because it had not realized
its own true character, as glad tidings of great joy unto _all_
nations. And the result was very natural: it formed no plans for the
future, and was as yet hesitating and undecided in action. It was with
the Church then as in our every-day experience of individuals. A man
who does not know himself, who has no conception of his own talents
or powers, and has formed no idea as to his object or work in life,
that man cannot be decided in action, he cannot bring all his powers
into play, because he neither knows of their existence, nor where and
how to use them. This is my explanation of the great difference
manifest on the face of our history as between the Church and its life
before and after the conversion of Cornelius. It is plain that there
was a great difference in Church life and activity between these two
periods. Whence did it arise? The admission of the Gentiles satisfied
the unconscious cravings of the Church. She felt that at last her true
mission and her real object were found, and, like a man of vigorous
mind who at last discovers the work for which nature has destined him,
she flung herself into it, and we read no longer of mere desultory
efforts, but of unceasing, indefatigable, skilfully-directed labour;
because the Church had at last been taught by God that her great task
was to make all men know the riches hidden in Christ Jesus. We have in
this fact a representative lesson very necessary for our time. Men are
now very apt to mistake mistiness for profundity, and clearness of
conception for shallowness of thought. This feeling intrudes itself
into religion, and men do not take the trouble to form clear
conceptions on any subject, and they lapse therefore into the very
weakness which afflicted the Church prior to St. Peter's vision. The
root of practical, vigorous action is directly assailed if men have no
clear conceptions as to the nature, the value, and the supreme
importance of the truth. If, for instance, a man cherishes the notion,
now prevalent in some circles, that Mahometanism is the religion
suited for the natives of Africa, how will he make sacrifices either
of time, of money, or of thought, to make the Gospel known to that
great continent? I do not say that we should seek to have sharp and
clear conceptions on all points. There is no man harder, more
unsympathetic with the weak, more intolerant of the slightest
difference, more truly foolish and short-sighted, than the man who has
formed the clearest and sharpest conceptions upon the profoundest
questions, and is ready to decide offhand where the subtlest and
deepest thinkers have spoken hesitatingly. That man does not, in the
language of John Locke, recognise the length of his own tether. He
wishes to make himself the standard for everyone else, and infallibly
brings discredit on the possession of clear views on any topics. There
are vast tracts of thought upon which we must be content with doubt,
hesitancy, and mistiness; but the man who wishes to be a vigorous,
self-sacrificing servant of Jesus Christ must seek diligently for
clear, broad, strong conceptions on such great questions as the value
of the soul, the nature of God, the person of Jesus Christ, the work
of the Spirit, and all the other truths which the Apostles' Creed sets
forth as essentially bound up with these doctrines. Distinct and
strong convictions alone on such points form for the soul the basis of
a decided and fruitful Christian activity; as such decided convictions
energised the whole life and character of the blessed apostle of love
when writing, "We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth
in the evil one."
III. Now turning from such general considerations, we may compare the
two incidents, St. Philip's activities and St. Peter's labours, in
several aspects. _We notice a distinction in their guidance._ Greater
honour is placed on Philip than upon Peter. An angel speaks to Philip,
while St. Peter seems to have been left to that ordinary guidance of
the Spirit which is just as real as any external direction, such as
that given by an angel, but yet does not impress the human mind or
supersede its own action, as the external direction does. Dr.
Goulburn, in an interesting work from which I have derived many
important hints,[159] suggests that the external message of the angel
directing Philip where to go may have been God's answer to the
thoughts and doubts which were springing up in His servant's mind. The
incident of Simon Magus may have disturbed St. Philip. He may have
been led to doubt the propriety of his action in thus preaching to the
Samaritans and admitting to baptism a race hitherto held accursed. He
had dared to run counter to the common opinion of devout men, and one
result had been that such a bad character as Simon Magus had crept
into the sacred fold. The Lord who watches over His people and sees
all their difficulties, comes therefore to his rescue, and by one of
His ministering spirits conveys a message which assures His fainting
servant of His approval and of His guidance. Such is Dr. Goulburn's
explanation, and surely it is a most consoling one, of which every
true servant of God has had his own experience. The Lord even still
deals thus with His people. They make experiments for Him, as Philip
did; engage in new enterprises and in fields of labour hitherto
untried; they work for His honour and glory alone; and perhaps they
see nothing for a time but disaster and failure. Then, when their
hearts are cast down and their spirits are fainting because of the
way, the Lord mercifully sends them a message by some angelic hand or
voice, which encourages and braces them for renewed exertion.
[159] _The Acts of the Deacons_, p. 276. This work discusses
Philip's dealings with the eunuch at very great length. The reader
desirous of seeing the spiritual teaching of that incident fully
drawn out should consult it.
An external voice of an angel may, in the peculiar circumstances of
the case, have directed St. Philip. But the text does not give us a
hint as to the appearance or character of the messenger whom God used
on this occasion. The Old and New Testament alike take broader views
of Divine messengers, and of angelic appearances generally, than we
do. A vision, a dream, a human agent, some natural circumstance or
instrument, all these are in Holy Scripture or in contemporary
literature styled God's angels or messengers. Men saw then more deeply
than we do, recognised the hand of a superintending Providence where
we behold only secondary agents, and in their filial confidence spoke
of angels where we should only recognise some natural power. Let me
quote an interesting illustration of this. Archbishop Trench,
speaking, in his _Notes on the Miracles_, of the healing of the
Impotent Man at Bethesda, and commenting on St. John v. 4, a verse
which runs thus, "For an angel of the Lord went down at certain
seasons into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first
after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole, with
whatsoever disease he was holden," thus enunciates the principle which
guided the ancient Christians, as well as the Jews, in this matter. He
explains the origin of this verse, and the manner in which it crept
into the text of the New Testament. "At first, probably, a marginal
note, expressing the popular notion of the Jewish Christians
concerning the origin of the healing power which from time to time the
waters of Bethesda possessed, by degrees it assumed the shape in which
we now have it." The Archbishop then proceeds to speak of the Hebrew
view of the world as justifying such expressions. "For the statement
itself, there is nothing in it which need perplex or offend, or which
might not find place in St. John. It rests upon that religious view of
the world which in all nature sees something beyond and behind nature,
which does not believe that it has discovered causes when, in fact, it
has only traced the sequence of phenomena, and which everywhere
recognises a going forth of the immediate power of God, invisible
agencies of His, whether personal or otherwise, accomplishing His
will."[160] The whole topic of angelic agencies is one that has been
much confused for us by the popular notions about angels, notions
which affect every one, no matter how they imagine themselves raised
above the vulgar herd. When men speak or think of angelic appearances,
they think of angels as they are depicted in sacred pictures. The
conception of young men clad in long white and shining raiment, with
beautiful wings dependent from their shoulders and folded by their
sides, is an idea of the angels and angelic life derived from mediæval
painters and sculptors, not from Holy Writ. The important point,
however, for us to remember is that Philip here moved under external
direction to the conversion of the eunuch. The same Spirit which sent
His messenger to direct Philip, led Peter to move towards exactly the
same south-western quarter of Palestine, where he was to remain
working, meditating, praying, till the hour had come when the next
great step should be taken and the Gentiles admitted as recognised
members of the Church.
[160] The verse John v. 4 of the Authorised Version has now been
relegated to the margin of the Revised Version.
IV. This leads us to the next point. Philip and Peter were both
guided, the one externally, the other internally; but whither? They
were led by God into precisely the same south-western district of
Palestine. Peter was guided, by one circumstance after another, first
to Lydda and Sharon, and then to Joppa, where the Lord found him when
he was required at the neighbouring Cæsarea to use the power of the
keys and to open the door of faith to Cornelius and the Gentile world.
Our narrative says nothing, in St. Peter's case, about providential
guidance or heavenly direction, but cannot every devout faithful soul
see here the plain proofs of it? The book of the Acts makes no attempt
to improve the occasion, but surely a soul seeking for light and help
will see, and that with comfort, the hand of God leading St. Peter all
unconscious, and keeping him in readiness for the moment when he
should be wanted. We are not told of any extraordinary intervention,
and yet none the less the Lord guided him as really as He guided
Philip, that his life might teach its own lessons, by which we should
order our own. And has not every one who has devoutly and faithfully
striven to follow Christ experienced many a dispensation exactly like
St. Peter's? We have been led to places, or brought into company with
individuals, whereby our future lives have been ever afterwards
affected. The devout mind in looking back over the past will see how
work and professions have been determined for us, how marriages have
been arranged, how afflictions and losses have been made to work for
good; so that at last, surveying, like Moses, life's journey from some
Pisgah summit, when its course is well-nigh run, God's faithful
servant is enabled to rejoice in Him because even in direct
afflictions He has done all things well. A view of life like that is
strictly warranted by this passage, and such a view was, and still
is, the sure and secret source of that peace of God which passeth all
understanding. Nothing can happen amiss to him who has Almighty Love
as his Lord and Master. St. Peter was led, by one circumstance after
another, first to Lydda, which is still an existing village, then,
farther, into the vale of Sharon, celebrated from earliest time for
its fertility, and commemorated for its roses in the Song of Solomon
(Cant. ii. 1, Isa. xxxiii. 9), till finally he settles down at Joppa,
to wait for the further indications of God's will.
But how about Philip, to whom the Divine messenger had given a
heavenly direction? What was the message so imparted? An angel of the
Lord spake unto Philip, saying, "Arise, and go toward the south, unto
the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza: the same is desert."
Now we should here carefully remark the minute exactness of the Acts
of the Apostles in this place, because it is only a specimen of the
marvellous geographical and historical accuracy which distinguishes it
all through, and is every year receiving fresh illustrations. Gaza has
always been the gateway of Palestine. Invader after invader when
passing from Egypt to Palestine has taken Gaza in his way. It is still
the trade route to Egypt, along which the telegraph line runs. It was
in the days of St. Philip the direct road for travellers like the
Ethiopian eunuch, from Jerusalem to the Nile and the Red Sea. This man
was seeking his home in Central Africa, which he could reach either by
the Nile or by the sea, and was travelling therefore along the road
from Jerusalem to Gaza. The Acts, again, distinguishes one particular
road. There were then, and there are still, two great roads leading
from Jerusalem to Gaza, one a more northern road, which ran through
villages and cultivated land as it does to this day. The other was a
desert road, through districts inhabited then as now by the wandering
Arabs of the desert alone. Travellers have often remarked on the local
accuracy of the angel's words when directing Philip to a road which
would naturally be taken only by a man attended by a considerable body
of servants able to ward off attack, and which was specially suitable,
by its lonely character, for those prolonged conversations which must
have passed between the eunuch and his teacher. Cannot we see,
however, a still more suggestive and prophetic reason for the heavenly
direction? In these early efforts of the Apostles and their
subordinates we read nothing of missions towards the east. All their
evangelistic operations lay, in later times, towards the north and
north-west, Damascus, Antioch, Syria, and Asia Minor, while in these
earlier days they evangelised Samaria, which was largely pagan, and
then worked down towards Gaza and Cæsarea and the Philistine country,
which were the strongholds of Gentile and European influence,--the
Church indicated in St. Luke's selection of typical events; the
Western, the European destiny working strong within. It already
foretold, vaguely but still surely, that, in the grandest and
profoundest sense,
"Westward the course of Empire takes its way;"
that the Gentile world, not the Jewish, was to furnish the most
splendid triumphs to the soldiers of the Cross. Our Lord steadily
restrained Himself within the strict bounds of the chosen people,
because His teaching was for them alone. His Apostles already indicate
their wider mission by pressing close upon towns and cities, like
Gaza and Cæsarea, which our Lord never visited, because they were the
strongholds and chosen seats of paganism.[161] The providential
government of God ordering the future of His Church and developing its
destinies can thus be traced in the unconscious movements of the
earliest Christian teachers. Their first missionary efforts in
Palestine are typical of the great work of the Church in the
conversion of Europe.
[161] See Dean Stanley's _Sinai and Palestine_, p. 263, where this
thought is further worked out. It is curious that notwithstanding
the preaching of St. Philip and St. Peter in its neighbourhood,
Gaza remained true to paganism longer than any other city of
Palestine. The old Philistine opposition to Israel seems to have
perpetuated itself in a pagan opposition to Christianity. Even in
the fifth century, when St. Jerome boasted that Bethlehem was so
completely Christian that the very ploughmen sang psalms and hymns
as they laboured, Gaza still remained devoted to idol-worship. The
inhabitants of Gaza, in union with those of Askelon, even rose in
rebellion in defence of paganism towards the end of the fourth
century (see Neander's _Church History_, iii., 105, Bohn's ed.).
An interesting illustration of its obstinate paganism has come to
light of late years. There were in Gaza eight public temples of
idols, including those of the Sun, Venus, Apollo, Proserpine,
Hecate, Fortune, and Marnas, dedicated to the Cretan Jupiter,
believed by the people to be more glorious than any other temple
in the world. All these temples were destroyed by the influence of
the Empress Eudoxia, about A.D. 400; the words of the edict which
overthrew the temples of Gaza can be read in the Theodosian Code,
book xvi., title x., law 16. The statue of Marnas was then hidden
by the pagans in the sand outside the city, where it was
discovered in 1880. It is now figured and described in the _Survey
of Western Palestine_, Memoirs, vol. iii., p. 254. It is
especially interesting to us Christians, as being a statue which
was almost certainly seen by St. Philip. See Selden, _De Dis
Syris_, p. 215, and Murray's _Handbook for Palestine_, pp. 271-73.
V. St. Philip was brought from Samaria, in the centre, to the Gaza
road leading from Jerusalem to the coast; and why? Simply in order
that he might preach the Gospel to one solitary man, the eunuch who
was treasurer to Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians. Here again we have
another of those representative facts which are set before us in the
earlier portion of this book. On the day of Pentecost, Jews from all
parts of the Roman Empire, and from the countries bordering upon the
east of that Empire, Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and Arabians, came in
contact with Christianity. Philip had ministered in Samaria to another
branch of the circumcision, but Africa, outside the Empire at least,
had as yet no representative among the firstfruits of the cross. But
now the prophecy of the sixty-eighth Psalm was to be fulfilled, and
"Ethiopia was to stretch out her hands unto God." We have the
assurance of St. Paul himself that the sixty-eighth Psalm was a
prophecy of the ascension of Christ and the outpouring of the Holy
Ghost. In Eph. iv. 8 he writes, quoting from the eighteenth verse,
"Wherefore He saith, when He ascended up on high, He led captivity
captive, and gave gifts unto men." And then he proceeds to enumerate
the various offices of the apostolic ministry, with their blessed
tidings of peace and salvation, as the gifts of the Spirit which God
had bestowed through the ascension of Jesus Christ. And now, in order
that no part of the known world might want its Jewish representative,
we have the conversion of this eunuch, who, as coming from Ethiopia,
was regarded in those times as intimately associated with India.
Let us see, moreover, what we are told concerning this typical African
convert. He was an Ethiopian by birth, though he may have been of
Jewish descent, or perhaps more probably a proselyte, and thus an
evidence of Jewish zeal for Jehovah. He was an eunuch, and treasurer
of Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians. He was like Daniel and the three
Hebrew children in the court of the Chaldæan monarch. He had utilised
his Jewish genius and power of adaptation so well that he had risen
to high position. The African queen may have learned, too, as Darius
did, to trust his Jewish faith and depend upon a man whose conduct was
regulated by Divine law and principle. This power of the Jewish race
leading them to high place amid foreign nations and in alien courts
has been manifested in their history from the earliest times. Moses,
Mordecai and Esther, the Jews in Babylon, were types and prophecies of
the greatness which has awaited their descendants scattered among the
Gentiles in our own time. This eunuch was treasurer of Candace, Queen
of the Ethiopians. Here again we find another illustration of the
historical and geographical accuracy of the Acts of the Apostles. We
learn from several contemporary geographers that the kingdom of Meroë
in Central Africa was ruled for centuries by a line of female
sovereigns whose common title was Candace, as Pharaoh was that of the
Egyptian monarchs.[162] There were, as we have already pointed out,
large Jewish colonies in the neighbourhood of Southern Arabia and all
along the coast of the Red Sea. It was very natural, then, that
Candace should have obtained the assistance of a clever Jew from one
of these settlements. A question has been raised, indeed, whether the
eunuch was a Jew at all, and some have regarded him as the first
Gentile convert. The Acts of the Apostles, however, seems clear enough
on this point. Cornelius is plainly put forward as the typical case
which decided the question of the admission of the Gentiles to the
benefits of the covenant of grace. Our history gives not the faintest
hint that any such question was even distantly involved in the
conversion and baptism of the Ethiopian. Nay, rather by telling us
that he had come to Jerusalem for the purpose of worshipping God, it
indicates that he felt himself bound, as far as he could, to discharge
the duty of visiting the Holy City and offering personal worship there
once at least in his lifetime. Then, too, we are told of his
employment when Philip found him. "He was returning, and sitting in
his chariot read Esaias the prophet." His attention may have been
called to this portion of Holy Scripture during his visit to the
temple, where he may have come in contact with the Apostles or with
some other adherents of the early Church. At any rate he was employing
his time in devout pursuits, he was making a diligent use of the means
of grace so far as he knew them; and then God in the course of His
providence opened out fresh channels of light and blessing, according
to that pregnant saying of our Lord, "If any man will do God's will,
he shall know of the doctrine." The soul that is in spiritual
perplexity or darkness need not and ought not to content itself with
apathy, despair, or idleness. Difficulties will assault us on every
side so long as we remain here below. We cannot escape from them
because our minds are finite and limited. And some are ready to make
these difficulties an excuse for postponing or neglecting all thoughts
concerning religion. But quite apart from the difficulties of
religion, there are abundant subjects on which God gives us the
fullest and plainest light. Let it be ours, like the Ethiopian eunuch,
to practise God's will so far as He reveals it, and then, in His own
good time, fuller revelations will be granted, and we too shall
experience, as this Ethiopian did, the faithfulness of His own
promise, "Unto the righteous there ariseth up light in the darkness."
The eunuch read the prophet Esaias as he travelled, according to the
maxim of the rabbis that "one who is on a journey and without a
companion should employ his thoughts on the study of the law." He was
reading the Scriptures aloud, too, after the manner of Orientals; and
thus seeking diligently to know the Divine will, God vouchsafed to him
by the ministry of St. Philip that fuller light which he still grants,
in some way or other, to every one who diligently follows Him.
[162] See the article "Meroë" in Smith's _Dictionary of Greek and
Roman Geography_, for a long account of the land whence the eunuch
came.
And then we have set forth the results of the eunuch's communion with
the heaven-sent messenger. There was no miracle wrought to work
conviction. St. Philip simply displayed that spiritual power which
every faithful servant of Christ may gain in some degree. He opened
the Scriptures and taught the saving doctrine of Christ so effectually
that the soul of the eunuch, naturally devout and craving for the
deeper life of God, recognised the truth of the revelation.
Christianity was for the Ethiopian its own best evidence, because he
felt that it answered to the wants and yearnings of his spirit. We are
not told what the character of St. Philip's discourse was. But we are
informed what the great central subject of his discourse was. It was
Jesus. This topic was no narrow one. We can gather from other passages
in the Acts what was the substance of the teaching bestowed by the
missionaries of the Cross upon those converted by them.[163] He must
have set forth the historic facts which are included in the Apostles'
Creed, the incarnation, the miracles, death, resurrection, and
ascension of Christ, and the institution of the sacrament of baptism
as the means of entering into the Church. This we conclude from the
eunuch's question to Philip, "See, here is water; what doth hinder me
to be baptized?" Assuredly Philip must have taught him the appointment
of baptism by Christ; else what would have led the eunuch to propound
such a request? Baptism having been granted in response to this
request, the eunuch proceeded on his homeward journey, rejoicing in
that felt sense of peace and joy and spiritual satisfaction which true
religion imparts; while Philip is removed to another field of labour,
where God has other work for him to do. He evangelised all through the
Philistine country, preaching in all the cities till he came to
Cæsarea, where in later years he was to do a work of permanent benefit
for the whole Church, by affording St. Luke the information needful
for the composition of the Acts of the Apostles.[164]
[163] Justin Martyr's _Dialogue_ with Trypho the Jew was written
about a hundred years after the eunuch's conversion. It is a good
specimen of the methods adopted by the early Church in dealing
with the Jews. St. Philip's teaching was doubtless of much the
same kind. Justin upheld the application to Christ and its
fulfilment in Him alone of the fifty-third of Isaiah, repeatedly
quoting large portions of it, in the _Dialogue_, as, for instance,
in chap. xiii. The apology of St. Stephen furnished the model upon
which all subsequent missionaries to the Jews framed their
arguments. They all dealt largely with the transitory and typical
character of the Levitical law. The apologies addressed to the
Gentiles were quite different, as was natural. They dealt with the
true nature of God, the conceptions men ought to form of Him, and
the immoralities of the pagan deities. The newly-discovered
_Apology_ of Aristides, which I have described in the preface,
dating from about 124 A.D., set a fashion which we find reproduced
in Justin Martyr, Tatian's _Oration to the Greeks_, and in
Tertullian's Apology and Address, _Ad Nationes_. The moral proofs
of Christianity and its adaptation to the soul's wants are their
leading topics. I have treated more of this point in the preface.
[164] The eunuch's name, according to Ethiopian tradition, was
Indich or Indicus. He is believed by the Abyssinians to have
converted Queen Candace, and then to have departed into India,
where he taught in Ceylon. See Ludolf's _History of Ethiopia_,
book iii., chaps. i. and ii.; and Bzovius' continuation of
Baronius' _Annals_, A.D. 1524, where there is a long
correspondence between the pope and the king of Abyssinia in that
year. The Abyssinians retain to this day a great many Jewish
customs mixed with their Christianity. The Abyssinian tradition is
incorrect, however. Modern Abyssinia is not the same as the
ancient Meroë. The conversion of Abyssinia is due to the labours
of a shipwrecked merchant in the time of St. Athanasius, and
derived its faith from Egypt. The Coptic Church retains still many
Jewish rites. See "Ethiopian Church" in _Dict. Christ. Biog._,
vol. ii.
VI. Let us in conclusion note one other point. Our readers will have
noticed that we have said nothing concerning the reply of Philip to
the eunuch's question, "What doth hinder me to be baptized?" The
Authorized Version then inserts ver. 37, which runs thus: "And Philip
said, If thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayest. And he
answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."
While if we take up the Revised Version we shall find that the
Revisers have quite omitted this verse in the text, placing it in the
margin, with a note stating that some ancient authorities insert it
wholly or in part. This verse is now given up by all critics as an
integral part of the original text, and yet it is a very ancient
interpolation, being found in quotations from the Acts as far back as
the second century. Probably its insertion came about somehow thus,
much the same as in the case of John v. 4, to which we have already
referred in this lecture. It was originally written upon the margin of
a manuscript by some diligent student of this primitive history.
Manuscripts were not copied in the manner we usually think. A scribe
did not place a manuscript before him and then slowly transcribe it,
but a single reader recited the original in a scriptorium or
copying-room, while a number of writers rapidly followed his words.
Hence a marginal note on a single manuscript might easily be
incorporated in a number of copies, finding a permanent place in a
text upon which it was originally a mere pious reflection. Regarding
this thirty-seventh verse, however, not as a portion of the text
written by St. Luke, but as a second-century comment or note on the
text, it shows us what the practice of the next age after the Apostles
was. A profession of faith in Christ was made by the persons brought
to baptism, and probably these words, "I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God," was the local form of the baptismal creed wherever
this note was written. Justin Martyr in his first _Apology_, chap. 61,
intimates that such a profession of belief was an essential part of
baptism, and this form, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of
God," may have been the baptismal formula used in the ritual appointed
for these occasions. Some persons indeed have thought that this short
statement represented the creed of the Church of the second century.
This raises a question which would require a much longer treatment
than we can now bestow upon it. Caspari, an eminent Swedish
theologian, has discussed this point at great length in a work which
the English student will find reviewed and analysed in an article by
Dr. Salmon published in the _Contemporary Review_ for August 1878,
where that learned writer comes to the conclusion that the substance
of the Apostles' Creed dates back practically to the time of the
Apostles. And now, as I am concluding this volume, an interesting
confirmation of this view comes to us from an unexpected quarter. The
_Apology_ of Aristides was a defence of Christianity composed earlier
even than those of Justin Martyr. Eusebius fixes the date of it to the
year 124 or 125 A.D. It was at any rate one of the earliest Christian
writings outside the Canon. It has been long lost to the Christian
world. We knew nothing of its contents, and were only aware of its
former existence from the pages of the Church History of Eusebius. Two
years ago it was found by Professor J. Rendel Harris, in Syriac, in
the Convent of St. Catharine on Mount Sinai, and has just been
published this month of May 1891 by the Cambridge University Press. It
is a most interesting document of early Christian times, showing us
how the first Apologists defended the faith and assailed the
superstitions of paganism. Professor Harris has added notes to it
which are of very great value. He points out the weak points in
paganism which the first Christians used specially to assail.
Aristides' _Apology_ is of peculiar value in this aspect. It shows us
how the first generation after the last Apostle was wont to deal with
the false gods of Greece, Rome, and Egypt. It is, however, of special
importance as setting forth from a new and unexpected source how the
early Christians regarded their own faith, how they viewed their own
Christianity, and in what formularies they embodied their belief.
Professor Harris confirms Dr. Salmon's contention set forth in the
article to which we have referred. In the time of Aristides the
Christians of Athens, for Aristides was an Athenian philosopher who
had accepted Christianity, were at one with those of Rome and with the
followers of Catholic Christianity ever since. Aristides wrote
according to Eusebius in 124 A.D., according to Professor Harris in
the earliest days of Antoninus Pius, that is, before 140 A.D.; but
still we can extract from his _Apology_ all the statements of the
Apostles' Creed in a formal shape. Thus Professor Harris restores the
Creed as professed in the time of Aristides, that is, the generation
after St. John, and sets it forth as follows:--
We believe in one God Almighty,
Maker of Heaven and Earth:
And in Jesus Christ His Son,
* * * * *
Born of the Virgin Mary.
* * * * *
He was pierced by the Jews,
He died and was buried:
The third day He rose again:
He ascended into Heaven.
* * * * *
He is about to come to judge.[165]
* * * * *
[165] _Texts and Studies_, edited by J. A. Robinson, M.A.
(Cambridge: University Press, 1891). There are several passages in
Justin's _Dialogue_ with Trypho which seem to be extracts from the
primitive Creed. Thus in chap. xvii. we read the following words
of Justin to Trypho: "For after you had crucified Him ... when you
knew that He had risen from the dead and ascended into heaven." In
chap. xxxviii. Trypho objects to Justin: "For you utter many
blasphemies, in that you seek to persuade us that this crucified
Man was with Moses and Aaron, and spoke to them in the pillar of
the cloud; that He became man, was crucified, and ascended up to
heaven, and comes again to earth and ought to be worshipped." The
date of the _Apology_ of Aristides is fixed by the Armenian
version of the _Chronicle_ of Eusebius at 124 A.D. The _Paschal
Chronicle_ apparently assigns it to 134 A.D.
This _Apology_ of Aristides is a most valuable contribution to
Christian evidence, and raises high hopes as to what we may yet
recover when the treasures of the East are explored. The _Diatessaron_
of Tatian was a wondrous find, but the recovery of the long-lost
_Apology_ of Aristides endows us with a still more ancient document,
bringing us back close upon the very days of the Apostles. As this
discovery has only been published when these pages are finally passing
through the press, I must reserve a farther notice of it for the
preface to this volume.
INDEX.
Abercius, St., vi.
_Acta Sanctorum_, 111, 162.
_Acts of the Apostles_, authenticity of, 11.
---- authorship of, 8, 11.
---- title of, 1.
Altus, centurion, 110.
Ananias and his wife, chap, xi., 225-228.
Antinomians, 134.
_Apocryphal Acts_, 2.
---- _Gospels_, 79.
Apollinarian heresy, 124.
Apostles' Creed, 417.
_Apostolic constitutions_, 201.
Arian heresy, 124.
Aristides' _Apology_, see Preface and 400, 419.
Aristotle's _Ethics_, 132, 298.
Arnold, Dr., 306.
Arnold, Matthew, _Sonnets_, 151, 178.
_Ascension of Isaiah, The_, 119.
Assumption of B. V. Mary, 68.
_Assumption of Moses, The_, 119.
Athanasius, St., 270, 291, 416.
Augustine, St., _Letters_, 195, 242, 386.
Barcochba, 157.
Barlaam and Joasaph, viii.
Barnabas, early life of, 218.
---- personal appearance of, 219.
Baxter, 134, 137.
Bede, _Eccles. Hist._, 294.
Beveridge, 134.
Bingham, _Antiquities_, 67, 386.
Bollandists, 111, 162.
Brady, Tate and, _Psalms_, 381.
Brownlow and Northcote, _Roma Sotteranea_, 112.
Buddhism, 400.
Bull, 134.
Bunting, Jabez, 3.
Burgess, Rev. H. W., LL.D., xiii.
Burnet, Bishop, _Commentary on the Thirty-Nine Articles_, 192.
Butler, Bishop, 18.
Bzovius, _Continuation of Baronius' Annals_, 415.
Calvin, 384.
Candace, 411, 412.
Capes, Rev. W. W., M.A., _The Age of the Antonines_, 154.
Cardinals, College of, 280.
Cato, _de Re Rustica_, 58.
Cave, _Lives of Fathers_, 219.
Charteris, Dr., 11.
Chrysostom, St., 113.
Cicero, _Tusc. Disp._, 56, 298.
Cistercians, 174.
Clarke, Adam, 3.
Clement of Alexandria, 286, 344.
Clement of Rome, 3, 273, 280, 400.
Clementine literature, 79.
Coke, Thomas, 3.
Columbanus, St., 7.
Confirmation, rite of, chaps. xviii., xix.
_Contemporary Review_, 199, 359, 417.
Conybeare and Howson, _Life and Epistles of St. Paul_, 217.
Coptic Church, 416.
Cornelius à Lapide, 242.
Court of the Gentiles, 158.
Crisp, Tobias, Dr., _Sermons_, 134.
Crispin, St., 161.
Cyprian, St., 386.
Cyprus, 216.
Cyril, St., of Jerusalem, 66.
Darby, J. N., 382.
David, tomb of, opened, 125.
Deacons, choice and work of, chaps. xiii., xiv.
De Voguë, _Le Temple de Jérusalem_, 158, 165.
_Dictionary of Christian Biography_, xi, 2, 16, 25, 32, 65, 79,
112, 120, 125, 157, 239, 257, 259, 270, 274, 342.
---- ---- _Antiquities_, 144.
---- ---- _Greek and Roman Geography_, 412.
_Didache_, 97, 139, 149, 377.
Douket, in _Rev. des Quest. Hist._, viii.
Ebionites, 120.
Emania, 110.
Egypt, 38.
_Enoch, Book of_, 25, 28, 119.
Epiphanius, _on Weights and Measures_, 66.
Ethiopian eunuch, chap. xx.
Eusebius, _Chronicle of_, vii, 65, 419.
---- _Hist. Eccles._, viii, 9, 79, 102, 156, 323, 344, 418.
Eutychianism, 48, 314.
_Expositor, The_, 359.
Fabricius, _Cod. Apoc._, 79.
---- _Cod. Pseud. V. T._, 25.
_False Decretals_, 373.
Fayûm MSS., 359.
Ferguson, Sir S., _Lays of Western Gael_, 110.
_Fingal and its Churches_, 6.
Fisher, _Marrow of Modern Divinity_, 134.
Fox, George, 185.
Franciscans, 163.
Friends, Society of, 185, 186.
Fuller, Rev. J. M., 120.
Gamaliel, 232-242.
Gate of Temple (Chulda), 158.
Gaza, 401.
Gibbon, _History_, 57.
Golden Gate, 158.
Goulburn, Dean, _Acts of the Deacons_, v., 404.
Gwynn, Dr., 2.
Hadrian, Emperor, 66.
Hall, S. C., 5.
Harnack, _Texte u. Untersuch._, x, xi.
Harris, Professor, vii, viii, 418.
Helena, Empress, 66.
Herzog, _Encyclopædia_, 137, 181, 278.
Hippolytus, vii.
Hook, Dean, 381.
Howard, John, 291.
Hyreanus, 125.
Indich, 415.
Irenæus, 13, 276, 286.
---- _Adv. Hær._, 121.
Irish longevity, 5.
Irvingites, 198.
Jason and Papiscus, xi.
Jerome, St., x, xii, 6, 110, 194, 386.
Jesuits, 152.
John, St., _Acts of_, 2.
Jortin, 232.
Josephus, _Antiqq._, 125, 174, 198, 217, 235, 236, 238,
251, 274, 354.
---- _Wars_, 125, 158, 198.
_Jubilees, Book of_, 25, 28.
Judas Iscariot, 80, 81.
Julian the Apostate, 393.
Justin Martyr, ix, x, xi, 275, 355, 400, 414, 417.
Keble, John, _Christian Year_, 21, 227, 324, 368.
Kingsley, Charles, 206.
Kitto, _Bib. Cyclop._, 25, 181, 278, 282.
Le Bas and Waddington, _Voyage Archéolog._, 270.
Le Blant, 297.
Leslie, Charles, _Short and Easy Method with the Deists_, 77.
Lewin, _Fasti Sacri_, 196, 248.
Liddon, Canon, _University Sermons and Bampton Lectures_,
55, 340.
Lightfoot, Bishop, _Apostolic Fathers_, 274.
---- ---- _Clement of Rome_, 166, 335.
---- ---- _Essays_, 268.
---- ---- _Supernatural Religion_, 239.
---- ---- _Commentaries on Epistles_, v, 195, 269, 376.
Lightfoot, Dr. J., _Horæ Hebraicæ_, 64, 84, 97, 125, 147, 158,
177, 181, 182, 233, 260, 272, 333, 335.
Lipsius, Professor, 25.
Locke, J., 402.
Lucian, 278.
Ludolf, _Hist. of Ethiopia_, 415.
Luke, St., authorship of Gospel, 10.
_Lyons, Epistle of the Church of_, 8.
Mahometanism, 314, 402.
Malalas, _Chronographia_, 342.
Marcion, 10, 270.
Marnas, the God of Gaza, 410.
Martial, _Epigrams_, 312.
_Martyrologium Romanum_, 325.
Matthias, election of, 73, 77, 78, 79.
Maurice, F. D., 206.
Mechitarites, viii.
Mede, Joseph, _Works of_, 64, 67, 84.
Meroë, 412.
Metaphrastes, Simeon, vi, 218.
Meyer on the Acts, 98, 217, 230.
Mill, J. S., _Logic_, 132.
Milles, Bishop, _Works of St. Cyril_, 67.
Milman, _History of the Jews_, 217.
Mithraism, 32.
Mivart, St. George, _Genesis of Species_, 60.
Moll, Dr. A., on _Hypnotism_, 100, 123, 230, 360.
Montanists, 154.
_Monumenta Franciscana_, 163.
_Muratorian Fragment_, 7.
Nelson, _Fasts and Festivals_, 79.
Neo-Cæsarea, 266.
Nestorianism, 48.
New Testament, Canon of, 16.
Newman, Cardinal, 381, 206.
Newton, Robert, 3.
Nicanor, Gate of, 158.
Nicodemus, 240.
Nicolas, proselyte of Antioch, 286.
Northcote, _Epitaphs of the Catacombs_, 112.
Novatianus, 237.
Novatian heresy, 237.
Novatus, 237.
Origen, 79, 101, 400.
Otto, _Corp. Apologet._, x.
Overbeck, x.
Palmer, William, 237.
Pantænus, 400.
Papias, 80.
Papiscus, xi.
Patrick, St., _Confession_, xii.
---- his family, 281.
Paul, St., _Acts of_, 2.
---- at Thessalonica, 37.
Peregrinus Proteus, 278.
Peter, St., _Acts of_, 2.
---- character of, 71.
Phelps, W. E. C., xiii.
Philip, St., chaps. xvii.-xx.
Philo, 30.
Photius, vi.
Pilate, Pontius, 250.
Pitra, Card., _Analecta Sacra_, viii, 240.
Pliny, _Letters_, 108, 180, 274, 276.
Plymouth Brethren, 133, 198, 382.
Polycarp, 3, 274.
---- teaching of, 14.
Pothinus, 9.
Powerscourt, Lady, _Letters and Papers of_, 198.
Prudentius, 158.
Quadratus, _Apology of_, vii, viii, ix.
Quaresmius, Fr., _Terræ Sanctæ Elucidatio_, 67.
Quinctilian, 298.
Ramsay, Professor, _Historical Geog. of Asia Minor_, 103.
---- in _Jour. Hellenic Studies_, vi.
Reformers, 152.
Rénan, viii, 53.
_Revue Archéologique_, 175.
Robinson, J. A., _Texts and Studies_, 419.
Routh, Dr., _Reliquiæ, Sacræ_, 81.
Salmon, Dr., _Introduction to N.T._, 2, 8, 10, 11, 69, 79, 358.
---- in _Cont. Review_, 417.
---- _Sermons_, 135.
Sanday, Dr., 10.
Savings Banks, 205.
Schaff, _Theological Encyclopædia_, v, 296.
Schwegler, x.
Scillitan Martyrs, 15.
Second coming of Christ, discussion about, 36.
Selden, _De Synedriis_, 181, 278, 295.
_Shepherd of Hermas_, 97, 382.
Shushan Gate, 158.
Simon Magus, chaps. xvii., xix.
Simony, 394.
Solomon, _Psalms_ of, 25.
Speratus, St., 15.
Stanley, Dean, _Sinai and Palestine_, 354.
Stephen, St., chaps. xiv., xv., xvi.
Sternhold and Hopkins, _Psalms_, 381.
Stewart and Tait, _The Unseen Universe_, 47.
Stillingfleet, 134, 137.
Stoics, 153, 342.
Stokes, G. T., _Celtic Church_, 111, 282, 323.
---- ---- _Norman Church_, 163, 282.
_Survey of Western Palestine_, 331.
Tacitus, _Annals_, 58, 130.
_Talmud_, 175.
Tatian, vii, 65, 400, 415, 419.
Taylor, Jeremy, _Holy Living_, 89.
Telemachus, St., 56.
Tertullian, 3, 7, 56, 109, 381, 382, 384, 386, 415.
---- _De Carne Christi_, 121.
_Texts and Studies_, viii, 419.
Theodoret, _Eccles. Hist._, 57.
Theodosian Code, 348.
Theophylact, 81.
Thomas, St., _Acts_ of, 2.
Tischendorf, _Acta Apoc._, 79.
Tractarian movement, 237.
_Transactions of the Society of Bibl. Arch._, 166, 202.
Trench, Archbishop, _Notes on the Parables_, 47.
---- ---- _Notes on the Miracles_, 405.
_Twelve Apostles, Teaching of_ (see Didache), 97, 139, 149, 377.
_Unseen Universe, The_, by Messrs. Stewart and Tait, 47.
Vatican Council, 265.
Vaughan, C. J., D.D., _The Church of the First Days_, 226, 317.
Victor I., Pope, 14.
Watson, Richard, 3.
Wesley, John, 3, 137, 291, 381.
Wilberforce, William, 291.
Williams, Dr., 134, 135, 137.
Zeller, _Acts of the Apostles_, 230, 326.