And so ever.  It may be strange, but it is true, that it is “the Man of Sorrows” who has won the love of men; it is the Saviour who has been lifted up on high out of the earth, who has drawn all men to Himself.  Christ:  Christ crucified:  Christ risen:  that is the message which every Christian evangelist has to declare.

III.

His Message of Glad Tidings.

And is not that good news? “Beginning from that same scripture, Philip preached the GLAD TIDINGS of Jesus.”

Philip made the eunuch’s previous knowledge the starting-point of all that he had to say, and, as he went on, showed how there was in his message the answer to all his doubts and the solution of all his difficulties.

And the gospel has still the same meaning for us.  It has a message for the man struggling with the battle of life, in the example of One who has fought that fight before, who knows its every trial and sorrow, and who has come gloriously through them all.  It has a message for the sinner, brooding anxiously over his guilty past, conscious only of his own defilement and unworthiness in the sight of an all-holy God, as it assures him of mercy and free forgiveness, of sin blotted out in the blood of Christ.  It has a message for the trembling believer, compassed about with temptations and doubts, as it tells of One who can still be “touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” and who, because “He Himself hath suffered being tempted,” is “able to succour them that are tempted.”  And it has a message for the mourner sorrowing over the loss of near and dear ones, for it points to Him who is “the Resurrection and the Life” of His people, and gives promise of the “Father’s house” with its many mansions, where He is preparing a place for His children.

And yet great and glorious though that message is, where there are not a hearing ear, an understanding heart, and a willing mind, even a St Philip or a St Paul may preach in vain.  But where, on the other hand, these are present, then God may use even the humblest and feeblest of His servants to speak some word, to utter some warning, which may be worth to us more than all we have in the world besides.  God grant that it may be so with us, and that by the power of the Holy Ghost the word preached may be welcomed, “not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which also worketh in you that believe” (1 Thess. ii. 13).

ANANIAS AND SAPPHIRA

BY REV.  GEORGE MILLIGAN, M.A., D.D.