| The Glory of the Common Life |
Chapter 5 |
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In this incident in St. Paul’s life we see God working silently and invisibly. The night before the plot was made the Lord appeared to St. Paul, in his prison in the darkness, and said to him, “be of good cheer: for as thou hast testified for me at Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.” This was assurance that he could not be killed by the forty men who had conspired to assault him the next day. When Christ has work for a man somewhere next year, no man can kill him this year. “Every man is immortal till his work is done.”
We do not know how St. Paul’s sister’s son came to be at Jerusalem just at that time. God always finds ways of doing what he wants to have done. His hand is on all events. All things serve him. We say it chanced that the young man was in Jerusalem that day; it chanced that he learned in some way of the plot. We use the word chance because we have no better word to use. It was only chance as far as men knew, but we know that God was in it all.
The young man became God’s agent in the matter. When he heard of the plot he hastened to his uncle, and in great alarm told him of it. St. Paul sent him to the Roman officer. The officer chanced to be a kindly man, and gave the boy courteous attention. At once he set in motion the machinery to get his prisoner away from the city. If it had not been for God, St. Paul would have been killed. But since there is a God, whose plans go on through all human plots and schemes, he was delivered and set one step farther on his way toward Rome, where he was to witness for his Lord.
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