How Needy Churches Obtained Ministerial Help by Stephen Nelson Haskell

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 21, 1883

How Needy Churches Obtained Ministerial Help.

By Stephen Nelson Haskell

It was at the close of the first General Conference of which we have any account, in A. D. 51, that Paul said unto Barnabas, "Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do." This course was always the practice of the apostles. They would enter new fields and after individuals had embraced it would return and visit them to more firmly establish them in the faith. After some disagreement in reference to taking John Mark; the apostle Paul chose Silas, who was a prophet, and departed, being recommended by the brethren into the grace of God. He went through Syria and Cilicia confirming the churches, delivering to the churches decrees which had been ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem, and witnessed to by the Holy Ghost. They then went to Derbe and Lystra. Derbe and Lystra were cities where Paul at one time healed a man who had been lame from his mother's womb, and where the people took him and Barnabas for gods, and desired to do sacrifice to them. "But certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium came in and persuaded the people and they stoned Paul and brought him out of the city, supposing he had been dead." Notwithstanding this, a company was left who feared God and received the gospel. At Lystra the apostles selected Timotheus, whose mother was a Jewess, but whose father was a Greek. Timothy was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. He was also noted for his piety and faith, as were his mother and grandmother.

The decrees which had been ordained at Jerusalem and witnessed to by the Holy Spirit were left to the churches where the apostles went, and by them the churches were established in the faith, and increased in numbers daily. The apostle pursued his course throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and was desirous to go into Asia Minor and there build up the cause of God. But we read, that they were "forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia." Then they came down to Mysia and assayed to go into Bithynia; but concerning this move we also read that "The spirit suffered them not;" so passing by Mysia they came down to Troas. The reason that the Spirit of God did not suffer the apostle to go into Asia and Bithynia to preach the word, could not be because there were none who could be reached by his preaching, for a few years subsequent to this, there were noted churches raised up in Asia; and the gospel also entered Bithynia where many believed. Yet for some cause the Spirit of God did not permit the apostles to enter these fields at this time. So passing by Mysia they came down to Troas.

Troas was on the Aegean Sea. Here it seemed that they had come to an end of their journey, unless they could pass into the country that the Spirit of God forbade them to enter. We have no account of their praying that night, or of their consultations which they must have had as to where the Lord would have them go; but from certain reasons, the Spirit of God had designed to introduce the gospel into Europe. In the visions of the night there appeared to the apostle a form, which he recognized as a supernatural visitor, "a man of Macedonia." He plead for the spiritual wants of his country. It was the voice of the sick inquiring for a physician, of the ignorant seeking for wisdom; the voice which ever since has been and is now, calling on the church to extend the gospel, and send the truth to those who are unacquainted with it; especially when some are pleading with the Lord of the harvest for laborers to come over and help.

After Paul had seen the vision he immediately endeavored to go into Macedonia, "assuredly gathering that the Lord had called him to preach the gospel unto them." His leaving Troas is thus described by a writer: "The men of Troas awoke to their trade and their labor. Among those who were busy about the shipping in the harbor were the newly-arrived Christian travelers seeking for a passage to Europe—Paul, and Silas, and Timotheus, and that new companion, 'Luke the beloved physician,' who, whether by pre-arrangement or by a providential meeting, or (it may be) even in consequence of the apostle's delicate health, now joined the mission, of which he afterward wrote the history. God provided a ship for the messengers whom he had chosen, and (to use the language of a more sacred poetry than that which has made these coasts illustrious) 'he brought the wind out of his treasuries, and by his power he brought in the south wind,' and prospered the voyage of his servants." It is evident, however, that Paul and his companions sailed from Troas with a fair wind, for on a later occasion he said that five days were spent on the passage from Philippi to Troas, and on the present occasion the same voyage in the opposite direction was made in two. It is said that Luke's expression literally means, they sailed before the wind. They came with a straight course to Samothrace, and next day to Neapolis. Samothrace is the highest land in the north of the Archipelago, with the exception of Mount Athos. These two eminences have been in all ages the familiar landmarks of the Greek mariners of the Aegean.

From Neapolis they sailed direct to Philippi, which was the chief seat of that part of Macedonia, and a colony, and there abode certain days. Macedonia, in its popular sense, may be described as a region bounded by a great semicircle of mountains, behind which the streams flow westward to the Adriatic, or northward and eastward to the Danube and the Euxine. The plains of Macedonia are considered to be very productive, although they are liable to inundations. But the surface of the plain, which is intersected with multitudes of streams, is covered with fields of Indian corn, and the villages are so numerous that when seen from the summits of the neighboring mountains they appear to form one continuous town. But the apostle, as on other occasions, directed his course to the chief city, Philippi. It was the first city, and the traveler would first reach this on entering this part of Macedonia, and it was a city of no little importance as a Roman colony.

The larger proportion of the inhabitants of Philippi were Greeks and Romans. The number of the Jews must have been small. This is sufficiently accounted for when we remember that it was a military and not a mercantile city. There seems to have been no synagogue in Philippi, but here the apostle found a small company of women, who went out of the gates of the city on the Sabbath-day by the river-side, where prayer was wont to be made. Here we find the key which unlocks the mystery why the Spirit of God forbade the apostle to go into Asia and Bithynia. A small company resorted to the river-side on the Sabbath and sought God that he would send them help; and he who controls the ministry heard their prayer and was moving upon the mind of the apostle, not suffering him to enter certain fields which he desired, but directing his course to that place where these individuals felt they needed help. They might have appealed to the brethren at Jerusalem, but their laborers were few. They might have sent messengers and tried to prevail upon some one to come to labor with them; but they pursued a wise course, sought to the God of the laborers, the great Shepherd of the sheep, and he, in answer to their prayers, had directed the footsteps of Paul and Silas, and Luke "the beloved physician," to that place for their help.

The congregation which met here for worship on the Sabbath, consisted chiefly, if not entirely, of a few women. It is evident that these were not all of Jewish birth, and not all residents of Philippi. Lydia, who is mentioned by name, was a proselyte, and Thyatira, her native place, was a city of the province of Asia. The business which brought her to Philippi was connected with the dyeing trade, which had flourished from a very early period. In this unpretending place, and to this congregation of pious women, the gospel was first preached within the limits of Europe. It was the commencement of as important a mission as was ever opened in the gospel ministry.

It seems that Paul and his companions arrived in the early part of the week, for "some days" elapsed before the Sabbath. On the Sabbath day strangers went and joined the little company of worshipers at their prayer by the river-side. The apostles, in a social and friendly manner, sat down and spoke to the women who resorted thither. Lydia was one of the listeners, and the Lord opened her heart, that she took heed to the things that were spoken by Paul. She made a profession of faith, and was immediately baptized.

With the baptism of Lydia was also that of her household. How much is embraced by the expression, "her household" we cannot tell, but it may be observed that this is the first passage in the life of Paul where we have an example of that family religion to which he often alludes in his epistles. It may also be rightly added that we have here the first example of that Christian hospitality which was so emphatically enjoined and so lovingly practiced in the apostolic church. The frequent mention of the hosts who gave shelter to the apostles, reminds us that they led a life of hardship and poverty. Lydia besought the apostles if they considered her worthy to come under her roof and abide, her house should be their home. She admitted of no refusal to her request, and their peace was on that house. All these circumstances go to show that these women had greatly desired laborers to come to this place, which is additional evidence that the subject of their prayers had been for God to send them help.

Thus far all was peaceful and hopeful in the work of the gospel in Macedonia. The way opened before them favorably, and it would seem that a church consisting of both men and women was gradually being built up, for we read that this continued for many days. It was difficult for them to foresee the storm which was to arise upon them. A woman who possessed a spirit of divination, and brought much gain to her masters by practicing on the credulity of the Philippians, followed the apostles and said "These men are the servants of the most high God, who are come to announce unto you the way of salvation." This continued to do day after day. Satan is always pleased to tell the truth, when by so doing he can bring a reproach upon the cause of truth. But Paul was grieved and rebuked the spirit, and cast the devil out of her. When her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they at once commenced a crusade upon the apostles, for she was restored to her right mind, and with her natural powers she could not pursue her calling to bring them gains. The complaint that these men brought was that these men, referring to the apostles, were throwing the whole city into confusion; that they were Jews and were attempting to introduce new religious observances, which they, being Roman citizens, could not legally receive and adopt.

The charge that Paul and Silas were disturbing the colony was false, for nothing could be more calm and orderly than their worship and teaching at the house of Lydia or by the water-side; but the people became excited, and when they learned that these strangers were Jews, their discontent became fanatical. The rough words were spoken, in the language of a writer: "Go, lictors! strip off their garments; let them be scourged." At any rate the record says that they received many stripes, and were cast into prison bleeding and fainting from the rod. The jailer received a strict injunction to keep them safe. Well might Paul, when at Corinth, look back to this day of cruelty, and remind the Thessalonians how he and Silas had "suffered before, and were shamefully treated, at Philippi." The jailer fulfilled the directions of the magistrates and placed the apostles into the inner prison. "The inner prisons of which we read in the ancient world, were like that 'dungeon in the court of the prison,' into which Jeremiah was let down with cords, and where 'he sank in the mire.' They were pestilential cells, damp and cold, from which the light was excluded, and where the chains rusted on the limbs of the prisoners. One such place may be seen to this day on the slope of the Capitol at Rome." The apostles did not complain of their evil treatment, and there is no account of any words which they used that showed that their lot was hard; but they remembered with joy the sufferings of Christ, and sang praises to God.

Suddenly, as if in direct answer to prayer, an earthquake shook the foundations of the prison, the gates were broken, the bars smitten asunder, and the bonds of the prisoners loosed. The effect of this was what might be expected. The jailer would have taken his own life, had not the apostle, self-possessed in the earthquake, as afterward in the storm at sea, exclaimed to the jailer, "Do thyself no harm for we are all here." The jailer saw that the apostles possessed something that did not consist in dry form of religious worship. He came in before them and exclaimed, "What must I do to be saved?" Immediately he and all his household were instructed in the faith of Christ. Not a word was mentioned about their sufferings, but after the jailer had believed, he took them into his house and set food before them, and refreshed their exhausted strength. It was a night of happiness to all. They praised God that his power had been made effectual in the salvation of the jailer's family.

This was the result of these few women asking God to send them help. Were our lonely churches pursuing the same course, crying unto Him who is the author and finisher of our faith, and who holds his ministers in his right hand, oftener they would find that God would send them help that would accomplish the most. We recommend this course to all of our lonely brethren that need help and feel that they must have the servants of God to come to them. From here the apostle went to Thessalonica, and the gospel commenced to spread in Europe.

S. N. HASKELL.