CHAPTER XXV. JEWISH DISSENSIONS AT JERUSALEM. ACTS xxiii. 1-15. Rulers as before-Date, according to Lewin, May 24th, A.D. 58. ST "Is naked truth actable in true life? I've heard a saying of thy father Godwin, Men would but take him for the craftier liar." TENNYSON'S "Harold." T. PAUL no longer appears in our history as a missionary, free to go whither he pleases. He is a prisoner in the hands of the Romans, and remains a prisoner in honourable captivity to the end of our history. The character of the record therefore undergoes an important change, and we must look to the word of inspiration now for a noble example of patient constancy and faith under constraint and suffering. Above all, we shall find that St. Paul does not give us a faint picture of merely patient, passive suffering, but that he will never forget, under any circumstances, Whose he is and Whom he serves, and will lay hold of every occasion to preach the Gospel, whether by public utterances or by the silent but powerful influence of the private example of an irreproachable life of active Christian work, doing good wherever and whenever the opportunity offered. In the hurry and confusion of the scenes of which we are now endeavouring to obtain a clear idea, it is not difficult to form a mental picture of the extraordinary spectacle called up by the simple narrative of St. Luke. Paul is alone; alone amongst enemies; scarce a friendly face in sight. It recalls at a remote distance the awful spectacle of the desertion of our Lord upon the Cross, until His mother and the women came. The isolation is something terrible, and imparts an element of sublimity to the constant faith of the great Apostle, whose steadfast soul never wavered in its resolution, even if it did for a moment, as some suppose, err in judgment. Claudius Lysias the Chiliarch was perplexed, and could not well decide what was best to be done with his prisoner, of whose alleged guilt he knew nothing. He was by no means the dull, witless fool that Renan is pleased, for the sake of effect, to make of him. Roman officers were always gentlemen, and were selected for their capacity and knowledge of their duty. The plan which commends itself best to his judgment is to call together the famous Council, of whose powerall that part of the world knew,-the Sanhedrim, which in the declining state of national power, he, a heathen ruler, had authority to call, for he commanded (ékéλevoev) its assembling just as he commanded his soldiers, and was as promptly obeyed. He might certainly have satisfied himself from the mouth of his prisoner; but his official pride forbade this kind of confidential communication; perhaps, also, it was contrary to his sense of justice; and he had concluded it would be right to endeavour to ascertain from the Jews themselves what was their complaint against St. Paul. This assembly, once so august and powerful, now shorn of its dignity by the loss of its independence, still consisted, as before, of seventy-two members, although called "The Seventy;" namely, twenty-four chief priests, twenty-four elders, twenty-four scribes and doctors. They had formerly sat in the outskirts of the most sacred precinct of the Temple, in the hall called Gazith; but as it had been granted to the Jews that the punishment of death should be inflicted on any heathen who trespassed within the sacred line (see p. 489), and it was deemed unsafe to allow the Council to assemble where they might not be overlooked and kept under armed control, the Sanhedrim now was constrained to meet in a less revered court just within the Temple. Hither St. Paul was brought unfettered, free to speak his whole mind. The chief captain stood near, not as in the speech on the castle stairs, an unintelligent hearer, but a listener, though for a very short space, to an address in the Greek language, which was used chiefly on his acNo other Roman was near; but many martial figures appeared on the frowning battlements of the massive tower which overshadowed the Temple precincts as the symbol of departed sovereignty. count. What a strange scene lay before Paul! not one friendly, sympathizing countenance to encourage him; but at the higher end of the hall, the forms and harsh countenances of many men, not all strange to him; for had he not sat on those benches himself as a judge whence he now looked for sentence upon himself? Ananias the high priest, son of Nebedæus, Paul knew well. He sat there in the midst, vested in white linen. There too sat the two sons of his old master Gamaliel, named Symeon and Gamaliel. Here, too, he might recognise the aged Caiaphas, who had doomed the Lord of Life; and Theophilus, the late high priest. With these Paul once had sat as their equal and conferred as a colleague; now all those countenances were turned upon him with sternness. What must St. Paul say to such an assembly? It is evident that a sermon similar to that which had failed in the end the day before would not succeed on this occasion either. It is difficult to tell what he would have said; for, for the second time, he was rudely interrupted, but on this occasion much sooner. Fixing his eyes earnestly and intently on the assembly, and, perhaps through defective eyesight or the dimness of the chamber, unable to see clearly* who were his judges, or perhaps remembering the days when he sat as their equal, he addresses them not as before as "brethren and fathers," but as "brethren" only, an address which he repeats in vers. 5 and 6: "Brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day." This is a very natural way for an honourable man, conscious of his integrity, to commence a speech to a hostile and unsympathizing audience. It is a pathetic appeal for a sympathy of which there seems but small hope. Besides, it was characteristic of St. Paul. It was not boasting, but that honest pride and confidence in God's grace, which prompted him afterwards to say before Felix, “I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and men" (Acts xxiv. 16); and again to Timothy, "I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with a pure conscience" (2 Tim. i. 3). Why? Because he knew he could say from his heart, "By the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Cor. xv. 10). But how does this glorying apply to the time before the conversion? Will the affirmation of his good conscience cover that period too, when he was, according to his own confession, a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious, and the chief of sinners (1 Tim. i. 13-15)? Yes, for then he was still obeying the voice of conscience. But a man's first care should be that that conscience be rightly informed and pure and good. A man may be moved with a hearty desire for God's glory, and yet—such things have been known-tell lies and apply torture; for he has not assured himself that his conscience is conformed to God's will and is regulated by His law.† * In Dr. John Brown's "Horæ Subsecivæ," second series, he argues with great ingenuity, perhaps to entire satisfaction, that St. Paul's infirmity in the flesh was some severe complaint of the eyes. + See Sanderson's Lectures, De Conscientia, ii. and iv. But of all things a profession of honesty and uprightness would be most unpalatable to an audience a stranger to such motives. Ananias fired up in an instant. The stings of a conscience ill at ease moved him with an unresisted impulse of spite and malice to order the bystanders to strike him on the mouth, according to the cruel Eastern fashion, with a slipper or a stick. The Lamb of God had endured as much (John xviii. 22); and Jesus had meekly answered, "If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why smitest thou Me?" But Jesus was divine, and Paul was a man, and no more than a man. Let us see how he will behave under an affront similar to that endured by his Divine Master. The savage command was obeyed, and, smarting with the pain and the undeserved indignity, not knowing from whose lips the cruel command had come, so quickly did the execution follow upon the order, only knowing that it proceeded from some one of the white-robed officers before him, he cried with pardonable indignation, "God will soon smite thee" (TÚπteiv σe péλλei ó eòs), “thou whited wall." "Thou whited wall!" a term of bitter scorn, in allusion, perhaps, to his vestment of spotless white, and the wickedness which it covered; as the white-washed walls of graves hide the mud and plaster that cover the abode of death and corruption (Matt. xxiii. 27). I feel it impossible, with some, to attempt to pronounce a judgment upon St. Paul as having spoken hastily or unadvisedly. They were angry words, it was irascible language, but it was a just and well deserved sentence. The words contained an inspired prophecy; and, whatever weak sentimentalists may say, there can be no thoroughly manly virtue or Christian grace without the element of righteous anger, scorn, and indignation at unmerited insults and base injustice. Not long after this Ananias fell ignominiously by the hands of assassins, who had dragged him from the foul hiding-place |