St. James, and the elders of the Church at Jerusalem, glorified God, upon hearing of the conversion of so many Gentiles by the teaching of St. Paul, and then they "said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law: and they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs. What is it therefore? the multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come."

The elders feared, that St. Paul's coming to Jerusalem might cause a disturbance amongst the Jewish converts; who, though Christians, reverenced the Law, and could not bear that it should be neglected. They had heard exaggerated accounts of what the Apostle had taught; for he had never said that it was wrong to observe and do the things commanded by Moses, and that therefore they ought not to do them. He had only said, that it was not necessary to keep the ceremonial Law; and that it was useless to do so, because no man could obtain eternal life by any such outward acts. St. Paul's great object was to make the Jews understand, that the Law given by Moses, was only meant to be binding until the Messiah came; and that as Jesus had now visited his people, the ceremonial part of the Law was done away with. God no longer required it to be observed: therefore, if the Jews chose still to observe it, they must not imagine that by doing so they would now find favour with God: the only way to gain his favour was by believing in Jesus Christ, and trying, out of love for Him, to obey all the commands and precepts of the Gospel: all who thus strove to please God, would find favour in His sight, whether they kept the ceremonial Law or not. The Jewish converts at Jerusalem, not clearly understanding what St. Paul had taught, were set against him; and as they would be sure to meet together to discuss the matter, as soon as they heard of his arrival, the elders now said to one another, "What is it therefore?"—that is, what can be done to quiet the fears of these Jewish brethren. The plan that the Apostles and elders now proposed, was one that would show the Jews, that St. Paul did not think it wrong to observe the forms of the Law, though he taught that it was not necessary to do so. What this plan was, we shall hear from what they now said to St. Paul, "Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them; them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law."

To understand this speech, we must remember that even in the time of Moses, the Children of Israel were in the habit of showing their piety, and their wish to serve God, by devoting themselves for a time to the performance of special acts of worship; separating themselves from their brethren, for the observance of certain forms and ceremonies. A person who thus separated himself for a time from others by a particular profession of religion, was called a Nazarite; and the Lord Himself gave Moses directions, as to the outward forms and ceremonies to be observed by every one, who should vow the vow of a Nazarite. To take the vow of a Nazarite was a voluntary act; that is, it was at the choice of any person to take it: but once taken, the person who had thus devoted himself to the special service of God, was neither to drink wine, nor any of the drinks made from fruits or honey: he was to drink water only, that his head might be cool and clear, and better able to attend to his religious studies and exercises. Then he was not to shave his head, nor to cut his hair; neither was he to do any of the things usually done upon the death of a relation, because such mourning for the dead would render him unclean.

Some persons vowed themselves to be Nazarites for life; others only for a certain number of years, months, or even days: and at the end of the time, the Nazarite was to bring certain offerings unto the priest to be presented to the Lord: then he was to shave his head at the door of the tabernacle, and burn the hair in the fire which consumed the peace offerings. After all the appointed ceremonies had been gone through, the Nazarite was free from his vow, and might return to live like other people. You will, I hope, remember Samson, who was a Nazarite from his birth; and who fell into great trouble, because his vow was broken, when his hair was cut off by Delilah.

Now at the time when St. Paul came to Jerusalem, there were four men there, who had taken the vows of a Nazarite for a short time: their time was nearly out, and the elders proposed that St. Paul should join them in abstaining (or keeping) from such things, as they were forbidden to do; and that he should "be at charges with them," that is, pay for the sacrifices they must offer, before they could shave their heads, and be free from their vows. The Jews looked upon it as an act of piety, for any person to pay the expenses of those who had taken the vow of a Nazarite.

We have now seen what the elders advised St. Paul to do, in order to show the Jews that he was no enemy to the Law of Moses, and did not think it wrong to observe its forms, if people liked to do so, though it was unnecessary. And they added, "As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication": thus repeating that decision of the Church, with which the teaching of St. Paul agreed.

"Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them." All this was done for the sake of peace, and to make the Jews more willing to listen to St. Paul. Some people think it was not right nor wise to act in this manner, because it might lead man to believe, that the Law ought to be observed in all its ceremonies, and that St. Paul's practice did not quite agree with his preaching. At any rate it had not the effect of satisfying the Jews; on the contrary, it caused a serious disturbance. "When the seven days were almost ended," some unbelieving Jews of Asia, who had persecuted St. Paul in their own country, and were now come to Jerusalem for the same purpose, "when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him, crying out, Men of Israel, help: this is the man, that teacheth all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place." They declared that St. Paul, by his teaching, was taking away from the Jews all their privileges as the chosen people of God, and putting the heathen on an equality with them; that he taught men not to respect the law, nor to reverence the temple; and that he did not reverence it himself, but had polluted and defiled it; for, said they, he "brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place." This they said, because they had seen an Ephesian convert, named Trophimus, in the city with St. Paul, and "supposed that Paul had brought (him) into the temple"; which of course he had not done: because, though he knew that the entrance of a true Christian into the temple would not be displeasing to God, he knew that it would greatly offend the Jews, if any one who had been a Gentile, went any further than the outer court of the temple, set apart for the Gentiles: and he did not wish to offend or vex the Jews needlessly. We should never do anything to vex or grieve others, unless it is our duty to do it. Our duty we must do, whatever be the consequence.

The Jews, who now tried to stir up the people against St. Paul, succeeded to their utmost wish in raising a disturbance, for "all the city was moved, and the people ran together: and they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple: and forthwith the doors were shut. And as they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar." The band here spoken of, was the Roman garrison, or party of soldiers, posted in Jerusalem, to keep the city in order, and prevent any kind of disturbance or riot amongst the Jews. The chief captain of this band, at the time we are speaking of, was a Roman named Claudius Lysias; "who," upon hearing of the uproar, "immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down unto them." They had not far to go, for the place in which they were posted was the castle of Antonia, close to the north-west corner of the temple. This castle, or strong tower, had been built by Herod the Great: it was so high, that from the upper part, the soldiers on watch could see what was going on in the two outer courts of the temple: they would therefore have seen St. Paul dragged out of the temple by an angry mob, and they would at once have taken these tidings to their captain, who went down with all haste, and arrived in time to save the Apostle's life; for the Jews feared the Roman soldiers, and when they saw them, "they left beating of Paul"—that is, ceased to beat him.

"Then the chief captain came near, and took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains"; for as he naturally concluded that St. Paul must have committed some crime, to make the Jews treat him in this way, his first care was to secure him, that he might not run away, and thus escape the punishment he deserved. We may be quite sure that the Apostle would have made no attempt to escape; but that the Romans could not know. When Claudius Lysias had secured his prisoner, he "demanded who he was, and what he had done." To this question, no reasonable answer could be given; for as St. Paul had not committed any crime, no intelligible accusation could be brought against him: and therefore, "some cried one thing, some another, among the multitude": so that Claudius Lysias could make out nothing for certain; "and when he could not know the certainty for the tumult, he commanded him to be carried into the castle." The Jews, unwilling to lose their victim, pressed after the soldiers who were leading him away, eager to kill him. "And when he came upon the stairs," leading up into the castle, "so it was, that he was borne," or carried, by "the soldiers for the violence of the people. For the multitude followed after, crying, Away with him." On the top of the stairs, the Apostle was out of reach of his furious enemies; "and as Paul was to be led into the castle, he said unto the chief captain, May I speak unto thee?" These words were spoken in Greek, to the astonishment of Claudius Lysias, who imagined that his prisoner must be a certain Egyptian, or rather a Jew who had come from Egypt to Jerusalem, about two years before this time. Giving out that he was a great prophet sent by God, this man persuaded great numbers of people to go with him to the Mount of Olives, promising, that they should see the walls of the city fall down at his command: but he intended, with the help of these people, to force his way into the city, and destroy the Roman guards. This attempt was, however, prevented by Felix, the governor of JudÆa: many of these foolish people were killed, and the leader himself fled into the wilderness, accompanied by a great number of men, that "were murderers," or had committed other crimes which made them liable to punishment. Josephus the historian tells us, that these murderers were persons who, under pretence of religion, came up to Jerusalem with daggers or short swords, concealed under their cloaks, ready to do any act of violence. They were employed by Felix to murder Jonathan the High Priest; and for this crime they of course received no punishment. They afterwards made it a practice, to come up to Jerusalem for all the feasts; and then, either by hiring themselves out as assassins to those who wished to get rid of an enemy, or by killing those against whom they had any grudge, they committed numerous murders, even in the temple itself. The number of these murderers became very considerable, and the Roman Government wished to destroy them.