SERMON XV.

ON THE SHIPWRECK OF ST. PAUL.

[Preached at Lincoln's Inn, 1822, and at Madras, 12th March, 1826.]

ACTS xxvii. 23, 24.

There stood by me this night, the Angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, Fear not Paul, thou must be brought before Cæsar, and lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.

THESE words are taken from one of the most remarkable passages in the life of the Apostle of the Gentiles, of which the incidents are as interesting as the doctrine which depends on them is important. A vessel bound from Crete to Italy in the stormy season of the year, and crowded with soldiers and passengers to the number of two hundred and seventy-six persons, had been tossed for many days on the bosom of a tempestuous sea, without the guidance of sun or stars, without tackling to direct her course, and almost a helpless wreck on the water. "All hope that we should be saved," we are told by one who was himself a passenger, "all hope that we should be saved, was then taken away. But there was on board that ship an aged and a holy man, a prisoner carried in chains to Rome, whither he had appealed for judgment

* Ver. 20.

from the envy of his countrymen. The same, while they were yet in harbour, had warned the crew of their approaching danger, and entreated them to defer till a calmer month, their ill-timed and unfortunate voyage. But now that the evil which he then foresaw had really fallen on them, he again came forward, not to reproach their former unbelief, or to join with them in vain lamentations for a calamity which could not then be avoided, but like that fabled meteor which the superstition of the heathen world had made the mariner's idol, he came forward to revive their hopes and stimulate their exertions, by the assurance that their lives were secure. Gently reminding them of his having foretold this calamity, that the truth of his former prediction might conciliate their attention and belief to that which he now delivered; "I exhort you," saith he, "to be of good cheer, for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night, the Angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, Fear not Paul, thou must be brought before Cæsar, and lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me."

The remainder of the history may be briefly related. They believed his words, they followed his directions, and though their vessel was dashed to pieces on the rocky shores of Melita, every soul on board was rescued from the devouring waves.

Among the many considerations which this his tory suggests to the mind, considerations of reverence for the mercy and the power of that God whose paths are in the sea, and who thus, by the preservation of many lives, was pleased to glorify His chosen servant in the presence of the heathen, there is one, which, if not so obvious as the rest, is at least, of equal practical utility; the benefits, I mean, which holiness bestows not only on the children of God themselves, but on all who are even incidentally connected with them. It is not Lot alone who is rescued from the devoted city; his daughters, his wife, his sons-in-law have all, for his sake, the same merciful offer of deliverance. It is not Joseph only who becomes a prosperous man, and with whose daily toil the Lord is present to bless and prosper it; his Egyptian master finds his goods increased for the sake of his Hebrew bondman. It is not Elijah only who is miraculously nourished during the famine; his Sidonian hostess also has her barrel of meal and her cruise of oil prolonged, and herself and her child preserved from perishing. It is not St. Paul alone, the chosen vessel of the Lord, and the appointed ambassador of the truth to the shores of the western ocean; it is not St. Paul alone, nor his comrades St. Luke and Timothy, nor the courteous centurion, whose discerning kindness, to his prisoner might have operated as some little claim to snatch him from the general calamity; the selfish mariners and the brutal soldiery are moreover given by God to the

prayers and services of His apostle; two hundred three score and fifteen persons are preserved from death by the presence of a single captive; and the vain-glorious boast of the Roman, Cæsarum vehis, was realized in the instance of St. Paul.

So closely united, indeed, and linked together are mankind, both in their welfare and in their suffering, that a great deliverance can hardly, in the common course of things, be wrought for one individual without his fellows also partaking in it. Not even the hand of an angel could eradicate the tares of this world without injuring the wheat which grows among them; and the wheat, according to the common dispensation of God's mercy, cannot receive its needful nourishment of dews and sunshine without an equal share in those advantages being accorded to the weed and the bramble. But, though even this acknowledged truth would be sufficient to prove the advantages which the righteous man confers on all in his immediate vicinity, yet does the history now under consideration afford a case far stronger than that of an incidental share in a general benefit. The protection here extended, was more abundant, by far, than was necessary for the preservation, or even the prosperity of the apostle. St. Paul might have been saved, though all the crew besides had been left to the mercy of the elements, and as the preservation of the latter was thus (according to the literal meaning of the word xaggerα) gratuitous, so was the Divine interposition by so much the

more conspicuous in proportion to the number of persons saved, and the helpless condition of, probably, the greater part of them.

It would have been, in like manner, extremely possible to have given Joseph favour in his master's eyes without blessing that master's store with a providential increase and prosperity; and the ravens might have still continued to bring food to Elijah while the widow of Zarephath had baked her last cake and died.

On the whole, then, it is fair to conclude, from the uniformity which is apparent in these several dispensations of Providence, and from the obvious tendency of, by far, the greater number, that in cases of this kind something more is intended than the mere preservation or even comfort of the one favoured person; and that, as a pious example is of such value to the world, God is pleased by His blessing and protection even in earthly affairs, to add weight and influence to His children, by making them, in a conspicuous manner, His instruments for good to all around them; by rendering their society and neighbourhood a source of safety as well as of honour; and all those who touch, if the allusion may be allowed, though it were but the hem of their garment, partakers of transmitted blessing.

And this will be strongly confirmed if we observe that the contrary is also strictly true; and that God by frequently punishing not only the wicked themselves, but those who are connected