'Then had the Church rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and
Samaria.'
The principal persecutor had just been converted, and that would
somewhat damp the zeal of his followers. Saul having gone over to the
enemy, it would be difficult to go on harrying the Church with the same
spirit, when the chief actor was turned traitor. And besides that,
historians tell us that there were political complications which gave
both Romans and Jews quite enough to do to watch one another, instead
of persecuting this little community of Christians. I have nothing to
do with these, but this one point I desire to make, that the condition
of security and tranquillity in which the Church found itself conduced
to spiritual good and growth. This has not always been the case. As one
of our quaint divines says, 'as in cities where ground is scarce men
build high up, so in times of straitness and persecution the Christian
community, and the individuals who compose it, are often raised to a
higher level of devotion than in easier and quieter times.' But these
primitive Christians utilised this breathing-space in order to grow,
and having a moment of lull and stillness in the storm, turned it to
the highest and best uses. Is that what you and I do with our quiet
times? None of us have any occasion to fear persecution or annoyance of
that sort, but there are other thorns in our pillows besides these, and
other rough places in our beds, and we are often disturbed in our
nests. When there does come a quiet time in which no outward
circumstances fret us, do we seize it as coming from God, in order
that, with undistracted energies, we may cast ourselves altogether into
the work of growing like our Master and doing His will more fully? How
many of us, dear brethren, have misused both our adversity and our
prosperity by making the one an occasion for deeper worldliness, and
the other a reason for forgetting Him in the darkness as in the light?
To be absorbed by earthly things, whether by the enjoyment of their
possession or by the bitter pain and misery of their withdrawal, is
fatal to all our spiritual progress, and only they use things
prosperous and things adverse aright, who take them both as means by
which they may be wafted nearer to their God. Whatsoever forces act
upon us, if we put the helm right and trim the sails as we ought, they
will carry us to our haven. And whatsoever forces act upon us, if we
neglect the sailor's skill and duty, we shall be washed backwards and
forwards in the trough of the sea, and make no progress in the voyage.
'Then had the Church rest'--and grew lazy? 'Then had the Church
rest'--and grew worldly? Then was I happy and prosperous and peaceful
in my home and in my business, and I said, 'I shall never be moved,'
and I forgot my God? 'Then had the Church rest, and was edified.'