Work of Paul at Ephesus.
Here we have the victory of the Divine Word over the power of falsehood and evil in the minds of men. Such episodes show on a small scale what the effect of the evangelical leaven is in the world on a large scale.
I. THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL SEEN IN THE ACTIVITY OF PAUL. It becomes a two-edged sword in his hand against all the powers of darkness. Three months' continuous preaching of great evangelical truths may lay the foundation of spiritual building for the lifetime of many souls. In three relations this influence of the gospel is felt:
1. With reference to the first, he refused to throw pearls before swine. Or, like a faithful shepherd, he separated the untainted sheep from the rest of the flock, that they might not be injured. To attempt in act or thought to separate or excommunicate individuals from the true Church is a usurpation of Divine authority; a violent plucking of the supposed tares from the wheat. It is a different thing to go apart one's self from those believed to be in error. This is an exercise of personal liberty; the former an encroachment on the rights of others.
2. With reference to the second, it appears to have been the vital health of the inspired apostle which opposed and conquered bodily sickness. Not relics of a dead man, but clothes of a living man, were the instruments of the cure. The means are of slight importance when the Divine power is present. It was not Peter's shadow at Jerusalem (Acts 5:15), nor here at Ephesus Paul's handkerchief, which wrought the cures, but the living spiritual force in the will, that is, the faith of the worker. The Roman relic-worshipper expects life from dead things, salvation from that which in the nature of things has no healing power. Nor is the expectation of life and spiritual health from rites and ceremonies more reasonable. The service of dead works is placed in the room of the inward organ of a living faith.
3. The third mode of St. Paul's activity: the people placed in trust of God's Word had fallen into the practice of the most foolish magic arts. The impostors' mode imitate the apostle's. Not in teaching the truth nor in converting souls, but in aping the wondrous deeds of the apostle, so seeking to secure a like credit. 'Tis the way of all false teachers and spurious imitators; they can mimic the gesture, cannot catch the spirit. The counterfeit is all but the original; but an immense chasm lies in that all but! "Jesus whom Paul preaches." The faith of very many is but a faith in the faith of some one else—a dependence on hearsay, like that of these teachers. And this is weakness itself. The "seven sons of the high priest" may remind us of the old commonplace that external association with sacred things is not always favorable to piety. On the contrary, the old proverb says, "The nearer the church, the further from God." This is an extreme way of stating a patent truth. But the evil spirit defies the feeble imitator, will not yield to his spells, knows the difference between the man filled with and the man empty of God. If we advance to the combat without a call and without an inspiration, we shall incur humiliation. We cannot create an inspiration, nor call ourselves. "Paint a fire; it will not therefore burn." Mock enthusiasm will be found out. "Jesus and Paul I know; but who are ye?" Try to preach without believing your own doctrine, speak of Jesus as a Friend while the heart is averse from him; the mocking voice of the fiend will be heard within, and efforts to convince others will be as the blows of one that fighteth the air. The lie of the heart will paralyze the mightiest eloquence; but the simple truth of the conscience will be a power made manifest in weakness. The false teachers are impotent in the presence and before the attack of the passionate evil spirit; they are overpowered, and flee naked and wounded out of the house. The devil is a thankless master, and puts to shame his most zealous servants. 'Tis a condensed tragedy, this scene. A naked and a wounded soul is all that we may expect to carry from the service of falsehood.
II. THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL IN THE AWAKENED CONSCIENCE,
1. Fear fell on all. Falsehood bows before the majesty of truth. The devils give witness to Jesus. His Name is glorified by the triumph of his servants and the subjection of his foes. Silence was broken, guilty reserve vanished. Probably both converted and unconverted had sin to confess. Fear is in the soul what the earthquake and the tempest are in the physical world. It breaks up the hard crust of habit, lets the pent-up lava-floods break forth, brings purification and health in its train.
2. Confession is freely made. We have no right to force the secrets of the heart. Happy is it when they are volunteered, and when the soul brought to itself thus of its own accord "gives glory to God."
3. Practical results. We need not debate the question of the confessional." More important is it to recognize that genuine confession is followed by a renouncement of the sin. Here those who had seen the error of their superstition promptly undid it. They brought their books and burned them in public. It seems a pity that we should thus have lost valuable information. They might have renounced the teaching of the books and spared the books themselves. The records of human aberration are equally useful to us with the records of sound philosophy. Experiments that have failed will not readily be tried again. But in the fervor of a first love all is excusable. Where great corruption has prevailed, there will be presently a reaction, and extreme Puritanism will set in. Where pleasure has run to license legitimate pleasure will presently be looked upon with suspicion. The example of the Ephesians is not to be followed literally, but in spirit. Evil, like good, is everywhere present. Burn bad books, they will be read the more. Denounce "spiritualism," etc., and people's curiosity wilt be inflamed about it. Sophistry is hydra-headed: directly we seem to make little way against it. The best counsel is—Let alone what you know is injurious to you. Let the understanding be strengthened and the affections purified, and superstition will fall from the mind as an eruption disappears from the skin when the body is restored to health. "Thus mightily grew the Word of God." Live for the truth; sow it, plant it out in all minds, and let there be no room for the ill weeds to grow.—J.