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heads", he adjourned to the house of one Justus, "whose house joined hard by the
synagogue." Then we read:--
"And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his
house. . . . Then spake the Lord. . . . Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace,
for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee".
Throughout all the blaspheming opposition, and murderous plotting, the Lord had not
seen any necessity to speak in a vision for Paul's encouragement, but the sudden
conversion of the chief ruler of the synagogue is immediately followed by the word of
encouragement. The apostle's fear of being "set upon by man" shows that he was of like
infirmity as ourselves. The apostle does not leave Corinth, however, without being the
subject of a Jewish insurrection (18: 12). The synagogue witness of the apostle comes
to a conclusion at Ephesus (a fitting place), for it was to the elders of Ephesus that he
explained his twofold ministry (20: 17-27), and to that church he wrote the epistle of the
mystery some years after. Although the apostle had entered the synagogue for the last
time, he had not finished with Jewish opposition. Chapter 20: 3 tells us that the Jews
laid wait for him as he was about to sail to Syria. At Cęsarea the prophet Agabus took
Paul's girdle and bound his own hands and feet, and said:--
"Thus saith the Holy Spirit, so shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth
this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles" (Acts 21: 11).
Like his master before him, Paul had to set his face stedfastly toward Jerusalem, with
some knowledge at least of what awaited him. When the apostle did arrive at Jerusalem,
no fellow-apostle opened his door to give him brotherly hospitality or recognition,
Mnason of Cyprus, an old disciple, had that honour. The suggestion made by James and
the elders that Paul should purify himself in the Temple, led to his recognition by some
Asiatic Jews who had come up to Jerusalem to keep the feast; again the apostle's life was
endangered, and the Jews only left beating Paul when they saw the Roman soldiers
running toward them. The Jews waited with patient hatred through the two years of
Paul's imprisonment under Felix, and when Festus took his place, they approached him
on the subject, thinking he might be more likely to hand Paul over to them and send him
to Jerusalem. Festus prevented this attempt to obtain hold upon Paul, and the apostle was
finally delivered from the Jews by his appeal unto Caesar.
Thus far we have considered the attack upon this devoted servant from one quarter
only, yet how great was the opposition to the apostle's ministry toward the Gentiles, and
how great the grace given that enabled him to triumph over it all, and to be able to write
after such incessant and implacable hatred:--
"My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved" (Rom. 10: 1).
We in our small spheres find the opposition of those who are our own kin trying in the
extreme, and often this opposition is enough to deflect us from the purpose of our lives.
May we take heart at seeing the courage and the stedfastness of the apostle of the
Gentiles. Other methods of attack were used by the evil one, which we must consider in
another paper.