The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1902-03-14
THE LESSON TEXT.


THE LESSON TEXT.
(Acts 8.2s-40)
%. Then the Spirit said unto Philip. GO
near, and join thyseIf to this chariot.
80. And Philip ran thither to him. and
heard him read the Prophet Esaias, and
said Understandest thou what thou read
est2
81. And he said. How can I except some
man should guide me? And he desired
Philip that he would come up and sit with
him.
50. The place Of the Scripture which he
read was this: He was led as a sheep to
the slaughter; and like lamb dumb be-
fore his shearer, SO opened he not his
mouth:
SO. In his humiliation his judgment was
taken away; ard who shall declare his
generation? for his life Is taken from the
/ earth.
said i pray thee. Of whom speakest the
prophet this? of himself, or Of some other
man?
IS. Then Philip opened his mouth, ard
began at the same Scripture, and preached
unto him Jesus.
SO. And as they went on their way, they
came unto a certain water; and the eu-
much said: See. here is water; what doth
hinder me to be baptized?
81 Anu FAiilp saAu' II tuOu pelleVest
with all thine heart, thou mayest And he
answered and said I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son Of God
49, And he commanded the chariot to
stand still; and they went down both into
the water, both Philip and the sunuch;
and he baptized him.
49, And when they were come out Of the
water, the Spirit Of the Lord caught away
Philip that the eunueh saw him no more:
and he went on his way rejoicing.
40 But Philip was found at Azotus; and
passing through, he preached In all the
cities. till he came to Caesarea
GOLDEN TEXT.--Withs the heart
man believeth unto Righteousness;
and with the mouth confession IL
made unto saIvation.-Rom. 1O.1O.
NOTES AND COMMENTS.
Read not only the lesson as given
above, but also the verses just preced-
ing, beginning with the goth. Read
also Isaiah So. The time of this les
son was the summer Al. D. IS, SO or 81,
and occurred in the uncultivated re-
gion southwest Of Jerusalem. The
following is brief analysis OF the
passage to be studied:
Philips directions ........... Acts 8:26-29
Philips exposition ...s......... Acts IS
The eunuch baptized ........... Acts 8:36-40
Philips Directions. The Journey
which Philip was hidden to take was
long and lonely and seemed to lead
him away from the place Of greatest
usefulness. Yet he prepared at once
to GO. The road to which he was sent
was rough and uninhabited. The
Ethiopian eunuch seems to have been
Jewish proselyte, though that fact
IS not stated. and nothing more is
necessarily implied than that he was
interested in the Jewish religion
His position Mas such that he could
travel in comfort, though he does not
appear to have had much of retinue
with him. The depth of his religious
interest is shown in his possession of a
copy of the prophecy of Isaiah, prob
ably the Greek translation, and in his
reading it as be went on his way. The
chariot did not move so swiftly but
that man on foot could easily keep
up with it, and Philip went on in this
way until invited to enter the chariot.
Philip Explaining the Scriptures.
The eunuch was reading aloud (no
one ever thought Of reading in any
other way in those times), and the
reading furnished Philip with means
of approach. 1t is easy to imagine the
difficulty man must have felt in I'M
Outstanding Isaiah's purpose, who was
unfamiliar with Hebrew traditions
and was reading the words for the
first time, or at most had had small
opportunity for studying them. The
passage he was reading was the fa-
miliar one in Isaiah So, which has been
understood by Christians in all ages
as especially referring to Christ. The
eunuch's difficulty was especially with
regard to the. person of whom the
prophet was speaking. He had no
doubt that well-informed Jew would
be able to clear away the difficulty
Philips answer to the question was
probably simple relation of the main
events Of Jesus life. He would Of
course follow this narration with
statement of the reasons for believing
that Jesus fulfilled the prophecies Of
the Old Testament.
The Eunuch Baptized, Philips ac-
count Of Jesus must have included
some information as to the practice
of his followers, since the proposition
for the baptism came from the eunuch
himself. There is no way of knowing
what water was found that suggested
the thought, but ii was pretty surely
some wayside fountain. Notice the
omission in the Revised Version of
Philips answer to the eunueh's ques-
tion and the Philippians confession.
They are probably additions by some
scribe. 1t does not seem to have been
the practice in the apostles time to
require anything more than the ex-
preston of desire for baptism be-
fore administering the rites Philips
disappearance may have been, proba-
bly, was, miraculous. 1t is not, how
ever, necessary to suppose that he was
transported through the air to Azotus.
The meaning of the statement is that
Azotus was the first place where he
was recognized. From that point he
{osl,,na vad IN Caarorao v<ron ~ 80.