(Scripture Reading Exercise.)

PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL.

NOTES.

1. The Acts of the Apostles: The student should regard the whole book, "Acts of the Apostles," as the book of first importance in the history of the propagation of the Gospel in the Meridian Dispensation. It gives an account of the conflicts and conquests of the Gospel from the ascension of Messiah to the imprisonment of Paul in the city of Rome (33-63 A. D.), a period of sixty years. "It is the earliest manual of Church History, and the only one treating of the age of the apostles which has come down to us from the first century." (See note Seventy's Year Book, No. I, p. 85, notes 6, 7.) "True," as remarked by Dr. William Smith, "New Testament History," "the Book of Acts contains no full account of the acts of the apostles;" for "most of them are never mentioned even by name after the list given in the first chapter;" and the history of Paul which fills so large a space in the book is not brought down to his death." Still, it is the most important book of the Apostolic age treating of the Christian origins.

2. Characteristics of the Acts: "The Acts makes prominent the agency of the Holy Spirit. He is referred to by name fifty times, or more frequently than in all the four Gospels together. The promise of the Spirit was emphasized by Christ just before his ascension. (1:5, 8.) He descended in tongues of fire on the day of Pentecost (2:1-13). Early believers (4:31) and preachers, like Stephen (6:5) and Barnabas, were 'filled with the Holy Spirit,' and the Apostles were sent forth to their work (13:4), or the elders appointed by Him (20: 28). It is a book of beginnings. The Holy Spirit begins his new and promised activity; the Apostles inaugurate their labors; churches are founded in many cities. * * * * * * * The Acts is eminently a hopeful book. It is the book of Joshua among the books of the New Testament, fresh as with the life of Spring. Old terms acquire a new significance, like 'believer,' 'brother' (9:17), 'the Way' (19:9), etc. There is no cant. Christianity goes forth conquering and to conquer, and the world is the heritage of Christ. It dwells much upon the resurrection, and looks forward with expectancy to the Second Coming. It is animate with the spirit of joy. In this respect, the Acts is set in the same major key as the Gospel of Luke. Confident of the presence of the Master and conscious of the power of salvation, the Apostles even rejoice that they were counted worthy to suffer for him (5:41). The tidings which they preach, like those the angels brought, are 'good tidings' (13: 32). Paul and Silas sang in prison (16:25), and the acceptance of the Gospel is everywhere attended with great joy (8:39; 13:52; 15:3; 16: 34, etc.). It is a book of missionary activity. Intensity of purpose and effort pulsates through it. It has no morbid tone. Much stress is laid upon the efficacy of Christ's death, but only the deaths of Stephen and James are mentioned, and the deaths of Paul and Peter are entirely passed over. This silence * * * * indicates that it matters everything how a Christian lives; little how he dies. Christianity advances with a steady and rapid progress from Jerusalem to Antioch, Antioch to Corinth, and Corinth to Rome. There are references to the numbers of the believers (2:40; 4:4), and constant statements that they were increasing rapidly (2:47; 5:14; 6:7; 12:24; 16:5). Besides the more formal notices, there are incidental allusions to the churches in Samaria and Phoenicia (15:3), Syria and Cilicia (15:23), Troas (20:6, 7), Tyre and Ptolemais (21:1-7), and other cities. The book is the missionary's best companion on the frontier and in foreign lands. The Acts is animated with the universal aims of the Gospel. It has a Gentile ring. Palestine was only the birthplace of Christianity, not its exhaustive theatre. Peter catches this tone in his speech on the day of Pentecost (2:39), whose various tongues were themselves a type, and witnesses a figurative representation of it in the vision on the housetop of Joppa. Stephen's eye takes in this larger horizon, and Paul, who uttered the significant words in Antioch of Pisidia, 'Lo, we turn to the Gentiles' (13:46), looks out to Rome itself when he insists, 'I must also see Rome' (19:31; 20:22). The motto of the Acts is the command of the ascending Saviour, 'to the uttermost part of the earth' (1:8), and continues to be the motto of the Church. The Acts of the Apostles is not yet a closed book." (The Acts of the Apostles, by J. S. Howson and H. D. M. Spence, p. xix and xx. International Commentary, Introduction.)

3. The Gospel Taken to the Gentiles: The Apostles, being Jews themselves, appear to have shared the common prejudices of their race against the Gentiles; and treated them for a time as if they had no lot nor part in the gospel of Christ. It was not the design of the Lord, however, to thus restrict the application of the gospel. Jesus, himself, while he had said that he was "sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," had also said: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me;" and the commission of the risen Christ to the Apostles sent them to "all nations." (Matt. xxviii:19; Acts i:8.) Hence, when Cornelius of Caesarea, a devout man, one that feared God, though a Gentile, sought the Lord by prayer and good works, he found him; for an angel was sent to Cornelius, who told him his prayers and alms were accepted of God, and that he had come to direct him to send men to Joppa for Simon Peter, who would be able to tell him what he ought to do. The devout Gentile immediately started the messengers to find the Apostle. Meantime Peter himself was prepared by a vision to go with the gospel unto one whom both he and all his race regarded as unclean. In vision he thought he beheld a great net let down from heaven, filled with all manner of four-footed beasts, fowls of the air, and creeping things. And a voice said to him, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat." "Not so. Lord," was his reply, "for I have never eaten anything that was common or unclean." "What God hath cleansed," said the voice, "that call not thou common or unclean." This was done thrice, and as he was yet pondering what the vision could mean, the messengers of Cornelius were at the gate enquiring for him; and he was commanded by the Spirit to go with them, doubting nothing, for God had sent them. Peter was obedient to the inspired commandment, and went to the house of Cornelius, where he found many of the devout Gentile's friends and kinsmen gathered together in anticipation of his coming. Cornelius having informed the apostle how he came to send for him, Peter exclaimed: "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him." He then proceeded to preach the gospel to Cornelius and all present. As he did so the Holy Ghost fell upon them, to the astonishment of all the Jews who had accompanied Peter; for they heard them speak in new tongues and magnify God. Cornelius and his friends were baptized and thus the door of the gospel was opened to the Gentiles. (Outlines Ecclesiastical History, pp. 81, 2.)

4. Peter's Mission to the Gentiles: "This event was the crown and consummation of Peter's ministry. He, who had first preached the resurrection to the Jews, baptized the first converts, and confirmed the Samaritans, now, without the advice or co-operation of any of his colleagues, under direct communication from heaven, first threw down the barrier which separated proselytes of the gate from Israelites; first established principles which issued in the complete fusion of the Hebrew and Gentile elements in the Church. The narrative of this event, which stands alone in minute circumstantiality of incidents and accumulation of supernatural agency, is twice recorded by St. Luke. The chief points to be recorded are, first, the peculiar fitness of Cornelius, both as a representative of Roman force and nationality, and a devout and liberal worshiper, to be a recipient of such privileges; and, secondly, the state of the apostle's own mind. Whatever may have been his hopes or fears touching the heathen, the idea had certainly not yet crossed him that they could become Christians without first becoming Jews. As a loyal and believing Hebrew, he could not contemplate the removal of Gentile disqualifications without a distinct assurance that those enactments of the Law which concerned them were abrogated by a divine legislator. The vision could not, therefore, have been the product of a subjective impression; it was strictly objective, presented to his mind by an external influence. Yet the will of the Apostle was not controlled; it was simply enlightened. The intimation in the state of trance did not at once overcome his reluctance. It was not until his consciousness was fully restored and he had well considered the meaning of the vision, that he learned that the distinction of cleanness and uncleanness in outward things belonged to a temporary dispensation. It was no mere acquiescence in a positive command, but the development of a spirit full of generous impulses, which found utterance in the words spoken by Peter on that occasion, both in presence of Cornelius and afterward at Jerusalem." (Dr. Smith's New Testament History, pp. 428-9.)

5. Rapid Growth of the Work: The knowledge once established in the minds of the Apostles that God granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life, seemed to unshackle those who were to preach the gospel, and gave a broader meaning in their minds to their commission to "Go unto all the world and preach the gospel unto every creature." Evidently before this they did not comprehend it in its fullest sense. The Apostles appear to have remained in Jerusalem a number of years—twelve years, tradition says—presiding over the Church and directing the labors of those preaching the gospel. Churches, or, more correctly speaking, branches of the Church were built up in Antioch, Damascus and other cities of Syria. The work also spread into Asia Minor, Greece and Rome; and everywhere great success attended the preaching of the elders, until the gospel was firmly established in various parts of the Gentile world. So extensive was the preaching of the ambassadors of Christ in those early days of the Church that we have Paul saying (about thirty years after the ascension of Messiah) that it had been "preached to every creature under heaven." (Outlines Ecclesiastical History, p. 83.)

6. Personal Appearance and Character of Paul: "We have no very trustworthy source of information as to the personal appearance of St. Paul. Those which we have are referred to and quoted in Conybeare and Howson. (Vol. i, ch. vii. end.) They are the early pictures and mosaics described by Mrs. Jameson, and passages from Malalas, Nicephorus, and the apocryphal Acta Pauli et Theclae. They all agree in ascribing to the Apostle a short stature, a long face with high forehead, an aquiline nose, close and prominent eyebrows. Other characteristics mentioned are baldness, grey eyes, a clear complexion, and a winning expression. Of his temperament and character, St. Paul is himself the best painter. His speeches and letters convey to us, as we read them, the truest impressions of those qualities which helped to make him The Great Apostle. We perceive the warmth and ardor of his nature, his deeply affectionate disposition, the tenderness of his sense of honor, the courtesy and personal dignity of his bearing, his perfect fearlessness, his heroic endurance; we perceive the rare combination of subtlety, tenacity and versatility in his intellect; we perceive also a practical wisdom which we should have associated with a cooler temperament, and a tolerance which is seldom united with such impetuous convictions. And the principle which harmonized all these endowments and directed them to a practical end was, beyond dispute, a knowledge of Jesus Christ in the Divine Spirit. Personal allegiance to Christ as to a living Master, with a growing insight into the relation of Christ to each man and to the world, carried the Apostle forward on a straight course through every vicissitude of personal fortunes and amid the various habits of thought which he had to encounter. The conviction that he had been entrusted with a Gospel concerning a Lord and Deliverer of men was what sustained him and purified his love for his own people, while it created in him such a love for mankind that he only knew himself as a servant of others for Christ's sake." (Dr. Smith's New Testament History, p. 633.)

7. The Apostolic Age: "The Apostolic Age naturally falls into three periods: (1) The time when the labors of the Apostles were confined to Jerusalem; (2) the time during which their ministrations were performed in all of Palestine, and (3) the time when they "went into all the world" (the Roman Empire) in obedience to the Saviour's behest (Matt, xxviii:16-20; Mark 16:15). * * * * * * * There is scarcely a movement, religious or otherwise, in the history of the world which can be compared, in quickness of development, with the first thirty years of the spread of Christianity. Up to the year 33 A. D. the name of Christ had scarcely been heard outside of a region no greater than one of the larger counties of Utah; over all the civilized world beside, paganism and Judaism held undisputed sway. Yet, by the year 63 A. D., through the active zeal of our Lord's followers, His name and the doctrines He came to establish had spread over Syria, Asia Minor, Arabia, Greece, Italy, and, we doubt not, some regions farther west. The Christians, as the followers of Jesus were called in derision first in Antioch (Acts 11:26), were everywhere known, and everywhere spoken evil against. Opposed by the combined forces of the two widely accepted religions above mentioned, the Gospel of Christ had spread "to the ends of the earth," and had been accepted by Jews and pagans everywhere." (Y. M. M. I. Manual, 1898-9.)

8. State of the Church at Close of Apostolic Age: "A. the close of the first century, the Church was in a sadly demoralized condition. According to our best authorities, all the Apostles but John were dead, no attempt (for any great length of time, apparently) having been made to maintain the quorum. If so important a body was allowed to become extinct, there is no reasonable doubt that other quorums fell into decay and that the Church organization lost its original identity. With the disorganization of the quorums of Priesthood there was an opportunity for the predicted rise of false teachers, under whom occurred changes in the ordinances of the Gospel. These changes afterward increased materially, until, in connection with the loss of true and the usurpation of false authority, they produced a complete change both in the organization and the ordinances of the Church. Persecution and internal corruption and dissension had also done their work, until at the close of the century, when John wrote his Epistles and the Revelation, but few of the branches of the Church retained enough of their identity and faithfulness to be recognized by him. The deplorable condition of the Church can well be gathered from the warnings and threats given to the saints at Ephesus in the second chapter of Revelation. A full discussion of this subject will be found in Roberts' New Witnesses for God, chapters 2-7. From the evidences there presented, it cannot be doubted that at the close of the first century the high authority of the Church had fallen into decay, and the Apostolic Age was at an end."