If Paul had been the kind of Christian some of us are, he would have had
a much easier time of it. However, that was not what he looked for. He
did not want his heaven in this world, and so he had a rough time. Depend
on it we are not going to have too much heaven down here, if we are to be
crowned with immortality some day. There were in Paul's day not a few
who escaped peril by being polite to the devil and all his crew, but that
is something you and I cannot afford to do. John Wesley might have
become a "College Don," and have flourished at Oxford, and perhaps if he
had been strong enough of body, become an authority as to the quality of
port wine. Who knows? There was a suit of purple and fine linen for
him, if he would have worn it, instead of the rusty black cassock he was
obliged to wear. But, then, he chose affliction with the people of God,
and won by hard work a place among the four-and twenty elders who sit
nearest to the Lamb.
And it holds true yet that if we will only be quiet and give Satan a bit
of peace he will let us alone. Why could not Paul have been still, he
would have kept out of that doomed ship; and so with thee my brother,
thou mayest have a quiet life if thou wilt only pray less and be content
to allow sin to have its own way. What are you most like? A barge or a
brig? For there are some Christians whose course through life is like a
canal-boat's path, smooth and level, with nothing more exciting than a
lock, while others have to put out to sea and run the risk of tempest and
wreck. Yet who does not feel that there is a nobility about a sailor
which a bargeman cannot claim? Besides there's no room for promotion
aboard a "flat," no more than there is the likelihood of a storm.
As we read this story we feel that Paul was the true master-mariner that
day. His angelic visitor lifted him to command, and this leads us to
say,
"STORMS CANNOT SEPARATE US FROM HEAVEN."
"The angel stood by me." He made no mistake, he flew to the side of the
real Commander, and it is sweet to know that come what will, nothing can
come between us and the God we serve.
What a different man Moses was when he stood by the Red Sea, to what he
was when he was before the burning bush. Here are the sheep patiently
and quietly browsing, there is the angry mob crying out "Were there no
graves in Egypt?" Here there is the sign of God from whence comes the
voice, "I have surely seen the affliction of My people," but yonder is
the pillar of cloud shewing the way over the waves of the yet undivided
sea. How much more noble is the Moses of the people than the Moses of
the sheep! It is true that he had to encounter the storm, but then there
was the triumph waiting to succeed the tempest. He who fears the contest
should not covet the crown, but let the man who means to wear the
conqueror's diadem know that in the fiercest part of the struggle the
Lord Himself shall cheer His man! Besides,