Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1902-03-15
The SUNDAY SCHOOL.
s.essoa In the international series
for March 16, 1so2-Ehe Etht-
ODian Converted.
THE LESSON TEXT.
(Acts s:9-p.)

q. Then the Spirit said unto Philip. Go
near. and Join myself TO this chariot
80. And Philip ran thither to him, and
heard him read the Prophet Esaias. and
said. Understandest thou what thou read
est?
81. And he said, How can I. except some
man should guide meg And he desired
Philip that he would come up and sit with
him.
g. The place OF. the Scripture which he
read was this: He was led as sheep to
the slaughter; and like 8 lamb dumb be-
fore his shearer, so opened he not MS
mouth:
So In his humiliation his judgment was
taken away; and who shall declare his
generation? for his life IS taken from the
earth.
"a. And the eunuch answered Philip. ana
said. I pray thee, Of whom speaRest the
prophet this? of himself, or Of some other
man?
IS. Then Philip opened his mouth. ana
began at the same Scripture, and breaches
unto him Jesus.
S. And as they went on their way. they
came unto certain water; and the eu-
much said: See. here is water; what doth
hinder me to be baptized?
81. And Philip said: If thou helievest
with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he
answered and said: believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God.
IS. And he commanded the chariot to
stand still; and they went down both into
the water, both Philip and the eunuch;
and he baptized him
SO. And when they were come out of the
water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away
Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more;
and he went on his way rejoicing.
10. But Philip was found at Azotus; and
passing through, he preached in all the
cities till he came to Caesarea.
GOLDEN TEXT.-With the heart
man beHeveth unto righteousness;
and with the mouth confession Is
made unto saIvattOn.-ROm. 1910.
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 SIS. The time of this les
son was the summer A. D. 35, Sc or 81,
and occurred in the uncultivated re
gion southwest OF Jerusalem. The
following is a brief analysis of the
passage to be studied:
Philips directions ...............Acts S:26-29
Philips exposition ................Acts 8:30-35
The eunuch baptized .............Acts S:S6-40
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 was such that he could
travel in comfort, though he does not
appear to have had much of a 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 he went on his way. The
chariot did not move so swiftly but
that a 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. It is easy to imagine the
difficulty a man must have felt in I'M
derstanding 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 IA
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 a welI-informed Jew would
be able to clear away the difficulty
Philips answer to the question was
probably a 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.-Philip's 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 IL was pretty surely
some wayside fountain. Notice the
omission in the Revised Version of
Philips answer to the eunuch's ques-
ton and the Ethiopian's confession
They are probably additions by some
scribe. 1t does not seem TO nave Deen
the practice in the apostles time to
require anything more than the ex-
preston of desire for baptism be-
fore administering the rite. Philips
disappearance may have been, proba-
bly, was, miraculous. It 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
journeyed to Caesarea, preaching on
the way Caesarea became his home,
and there he afterwards entertained
the man who had driven him away
from Jerusalem (21:s).