We Have Heard The
Macedonian Call (Joseph
Parker 06/2006)
(Commentary on
Acts 16: 6-12 excerpt from 'People's Bible' 19th Century) (4 Minutes)
Why
should the Holy Ghost
forbid the apostles to preach the Word anywhere? We are
forbidden to do certain things. The things themselves are
good, but the time is wrong, or the place is ill-chosen, or another
opportunity is greater and ought to be absorbent. It is not
enough that you are in a good place, doing a good work, your object
should be to live and move and have your being in the very Spirit of
God, so that wherever He may point, your very heart may outrun your
feet in attaining the appointed and sacred destination.
The
Holy Spirit is
always to be consulted. Pray without
ceasing, walk with God. Be so near Him that a whisper will
reach His heart. Be the friend of God, have no self, be
sanctified wholly - body, soul and spirit. Be quick all over,
answering instantaniously with eagerest love every commandment of the
Divine will. Do not be your own idol. Have no
judgement, preference, prejudice, that you cannot take up and cut in
two with a double-edged knife, if God should so will it. "Not
my will, but Thine be done." I will work here or there, on
this side the sea or yonder side - both sides are thine.
"Lead, kindly Light." Where that is the spirit, the life can
never go wrong. Where life is bounded by programs and
outlines and purposes merely human, life will be a succession of
mistakes and stinging disappointments. "O rest in the Lord,
and wait patiently for Him, and He will give thee thine heart's
desire."
What
did Paul see then in
his vision? It was quite a typical vision. Paul saw
a man in earnest prayer, praying to a fellow man. It was all,
perhaps, the Macedonian suppliant could then do. Begin where
you can. Paul saw a man in earnest, and a man seeking
help. The man said, "come over into Macedonia and help
us." There are cowards that run away when poor, ill-used
people call for "help." There are men, women and children
calling all over the land today for "help" and we put our fingers in
our ears, and go home and say, "Behold, we knew it not." "If
thou forbear to deliver him that is drawn unto death, and say, Behold,
I knew it not, doth not he that knoweth the heart understand, and will
not he make an inquisition for blood?"
Christianity is "help"
or
it is nothing - active service, co-operation, sympathy, a common
sacrifice for a common good. This is a typical
instance. If the Church could have it's eyes opened today, it
would see every unevangelized country and every land in sore strait or
difficulty typified in this Macedonian man. From every land
"they call us to deliver their souls from error's chain." The
Macedonian man represents a large population. Let us regard
him as a man who has heard of Christianity, or who is dissatisfied with
Pagan teaching, or who feels the pain of a great void which the
firmament itself could not fill with all its wealth of light
- he cries for something more; that man is not far from the
kingdom of God. Do not believe that Pagans who are struggling
after virtue and calling for "Light, more light! Light, more
light!" are far from the kingdom of heaven.
"Other
sheep I have which are not of this
fold; them also must I bring." " In every nation he that
feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him."
But that is a reason why those who believe they have the true light
should hasten with it, that they may scatter the shadows and establish
the day.
-Joseph Parker
(1830-1902)
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