Arizona republican., 1916-09-03

the governor under Aretas the king | kept the city of the Damascenes with | garrison, desirous to apprehend me; ! (33) And through a window in a
 basket was I let down by the wall, and ] escaped his hands.
 Time.-A. D. 57. Place.-Ephesus. !
 Exposition-L Paurs Reason for
 Boldness, 21-23. In verse 20 the Holy , Spirit here through the Apostle Paul l protests against ecclesiastical tyran- 1 ny. Paul continues: T speak by way of disparagement (of myself) as though we had been weak" It migh. | appear so-and very likely the tyrants 1 had insinuated it-in his not lording 1 it in a similar way over the church. 1 Yet" he says. 'Whereinsoever any is hold I am bold also" He had as much to boast of as they: yes, more. These opponents of Paul were Jews and boasted of it, and so Paul says, Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am l. Are they the seed of Abraham2 So am I (cf. Phil. 3: 4-6) Are they ministers of Christ? l more" The Paul recounts
 how he had gone beyond them m ap- proving himself a minister of Christ Tn labors more abundantly. In pris- ons more abundantly (of. C. g. Ac. 16: 23) In stripes above measure (cf W. 24) In deaths oft (cf. oh. IS: 4 10 Ac. 9: 23. 29 13: 30; 14: 5, 19; II: !. 13, 19. 24-31) Pauls enemies | had little indeed to set up against Il record like that In similar way. a way of empty pretension. the de- structive critics today assume that the yhave all the scholarship and that | those who hold to the conservative views are persons of no account. Now l and then it seems necessary to show l that these lofty pretentions of the i enemies of the truth today have as | little foundation in fact as the lofty pretentions of the enemies of the | truth in Pauls day. The greatest 1 Semitic scholars are not on the side | of the destructive critics but on the | side of conservative views. The same is true of the greater archaeoogists. I Yet the destructive critics persist in | asserting "all scholars agree" in the l support of their positions. Their as
 l sections are bald falsehoods, though l many of them are so ignorant of
 what real scholarship teaches that they do not know that their asser-
 tions are false.
 H. What Paul Suffered for Christ, 24-33. These verses give us a won
 derful insight into what Paul suf-
 fered for the name of Jesus (cf. Ac.
 9: 1e.) Well might he say of those who opposed him, Are they ministers
 of Christ? I more" Where has this
 glorious record ever been equaled?
 How small the hardshps we have to
 suffer compared with these. Yet
 Paul earlier in this epistle speaks of
 them as "our light affliction" of. 4: IT: cf Rom, 8: 1S.) We will do well to read again and again this cata- logue of sufferings endured for Christ It is evident that Paul en-
 dured much more than is recorded in
 the Acts There we have the account of but one scourging GAG. 16 23.) | Here we have eight. The stonlng is recorded in Acts 14: IS. The three shipwrecks mentioned here were prior to the one described in Acts 27. The , night and day in the deep was spent ) swimming or clinging to a spar or in . an open boat The "iourneyings of ten were not with the comforts of i, modern travel but with very greet hardships and peril The "perils of
 rivers" were the perils of swollen streams when many lost their lives in that way in the countries through
 which Paul travelled. The road be- tween Jerusalem and Antioch which : l Paul went over so often is crossed | by currents that rush down from
 Lebanon. The countries through which | Paul journeyed (notably, Pisidia) ? were infested with robbers. Some of
 the cities in which Paul faced perils
 from plots and mobs and other causes
 were Damascus (Ac. 9: 23-25, Jeru-
 salem (Ac. 9: 26, 29) Ephesus GAG. 19:
 z2-31) Oh for missionaries at home
 as well as abroad who take delight
 as Paul did (ch 12: 10), in labors | z xl.-l,s { these for Christ's sake. Too many
 today, though they say that they E | were "divinely called" to work, will no s undertake it unless a comfortable sal {. ary is guaranteed and q comfortable : home assured and travelling expense: e in a Pullman car provided. We neeC :, it is true Pauline doctrine" In ou ; ministers and missionaries, but WI need Pauline conduct as much 0 l more Paul labored with toll ant
 pain (v. 27,) not only with brain an' Q heart and lips, but with his hands als n Ac. IS: 3, A He spent nights il h vigils of prayer and watchings agains perils of one kind or another. H l. knew often what it meant to go with . ] out food and drink (cf. Phil 4: 12. | He knew what it meant to have in sufficient cothing and to suffer iron = the cold. And Paul was all this tim
 a mn suffering from physical mfr
 | mity (ch 12: 7-10: Gal. A. 13 IA.
 How far, how very far, was Paul V type of Christian living from ou n self-sparing manner of life. But I addition to all these outward thing s there was that which presses upo l him daily, anxiety for all tn
 churches" (R. VI. Every church (
 Christ was dear to Paul. It belonge l to his Lord and Savior therefore h | loved it and it was an object of anxi | GUS thought and care to him. T | most of us there are but fe i churches that we are really concerne ! about, but Paul was deeply concerne | about every one of them. Many night he lost sleep in heart breakin ! prayer for this church or that C ; Co. 2: 1, R. VI. By the sympathy 5 love he entered into every Christia T. brotbers need. If anyone was wea is ias he was weak with him. If any or a' was made to stumble, be himse o' burned with indignation. Every brotl
 er's troubles of any kind. Paul r s- carded as his own The classic writ wrote nothing human is foreign VI me" but Paul more truly could sa ? nothing Christian is foreign to me " It was all really his own. He entert le into it. He sympathized. i e. as ti re word literally means. suffered wit ts Now Paul comes back to the thoug' re of glorving with which the chapt 'e' begun and says, "If I needs mu iS glory. I will glory of the things tn concern my infirmities." He cites oI an especial example his lowlv and Ill ce dignified way to escape of tine pl p- against his life in Damascus. 1T