Evening star., 1921-08-27
BY REV. HUGH T. STEVENSON.

Ramsay says that this is in many
respects the most remarkable para
graph in Acts" Three times within
guidance of God being manifested in
three distinct ways leading up to the
door being opened up by the provi-
Dental direction for the first proc
lamation of the gospel in Europe" by
Paul and his associates. The divine
guidance changed the apostles pro-
gram first by the Holy Spirits for
bidding Paul to preach the gospel in
Asia, which was the name of the
Roman province in the western part
Of Asia Minor, bordering along the
sea coast. When the door was closed
for him to preach in Ephesus the
apostle. moved by his passion for the
souls of men, planned to win Bithy-
mia, but the Spirit of Jesus prevented
him from carrying out his plans to
win that province. The providential
restraints that kept Paul from trying
to win province guided him to
Troas. where he learned through a
vision that God wished him to win
continent for Christ.
While Eusebius tells us that Luke,
the beloved physician, was a native
of Antioch and a Gentle by birth,
and one of the apostles converts. yet
there is much in the narrative to in
dicate that the man of Macedonia was
none other than the writer Of the
Acts. He became a member of Paul's
party in Troas. We do not know how
they met. but evidently it was unfor-
seen. and the suggestion that Luke
was summoned to minister unto Paul
because he was again ill with an
acute attack Of the same illness which
he had suffered in Galatia is worthy
of consideration. The more important
thing is that the servant of God won
his medical attendant for the Lord
Jesus and through his decision to
become a member of the missionary
band, so as to be able at all times to
frail body of the Apostle, PauFs at
tention was called to the opportunity
presented in the neighboring conti-
nent for service. The appeal and call
of this Macedonian was a moving one.
Come over into Macedonia and help
u.s."
One night. while Paul meditated
upon the providential leadership that
had brought him to the busy Roman
colony of Troas, where Alexander the
Great stayed to indulge his dream of
rivaling his ancestor Achilles the
apostle learned through the vision of
need for the gospel in Macedonia,
which was just across the Hellespont,
why God had DETECTED his mission.
Pierson has pointed out how Living
ston assayed to go to China, but God
suffered him not, and sent him into
Africa to be its missionary general,
to go to the Great Polynesia in the
South Sea, but God guided him to
India to lay the foundations for CIV
ing vernacular Bible to one-sixth
OF the population of the world. judi
son did go to India. but was given to
tolic church for all the age" PauTs
program, If carried out, might have
changed the destiny Of several prov
inces. but his obedience to the call of
duty changed the civilization of the
world and obtained for him a crown,
It was clear to Paul that the pagan
when the Macedonian cry reached
him for help. That request was a
confession that Greek culture. art,
literature. science and philosophy "a
passed) was a failure. That cry was
an acknowledgment that Roman au-
thority. law, government, the strength
and pride OF human citizenship Tin
some respects mans model today was
not sufficient to satisfy the human
had gone as far as 1t could go in It's
own strength and along the pathway
Of it's own genius that 1onged for that
deliverance. that redemption, that the
gospel of Christ alone could give, for
in no other way can the power OF
salvation be found.
The vessel that carried Paul to .Eu-
rope differed from that OF xerxes
who set sail from near the very place
where the apostle embarked the mex,
call Of God that had been revealed
in the cry of the Macedonian for
help. The sudden change from the
third personal pronoun to the first
gives us the record of an eyewitness
as the writer of the Acts was Luke
the Macedonian physician. who shared
henceforth the trials of Paul's mis-.
sionary work. as his personal physi;