This poor slave-girl was subject to some kind of convulsive or epileptic fits. Brain-disease, and the various forms of hysteria, were very imperfectly understood in the olden times. "Nothing was less understood in antiquity than these obscure phases of mental excitation, and the strange flashes of sense, and even sometimes of genius, out of the gloom of a perturbed intellect, were regarded as inspired and prophetic utterances." General opinion associated such forms of disease with possession of some spirit, good or bad; and it is curious to note that the great physician Hippocrates attributed epileptic diseases to possession by Apollo, Cybele, Poseidon, etc. "At this period, and long before, people of this class - usually women - were regarded as prophetesses, inspired by the Pythian Apollo." "As a fortune-teller and diviner, this poor girl was held in high esteem by the credulous vulgar of the town." "The fact that St. Luke, who in his Gospel describes like phenomena as coming from doemonia, evil spirits, unclean spirits, should here use this exceptional description, seems to imply that either this was the way in which the people of Philippi spoke of the maiden, or else that he recognized in her -phenomena identical with those of the priestesses of Delphi, the wild distortions, the shrill cries, the madness of an evil inspiration. After the manner of sibyls, sorceresses, and clairvoyants of other times, the girl was looked on as having power to divine and predict, and her wild cries were caught up and received as oracles." Remembering the well-established doctrine that the Bible is not given as a revelation of science, medical or other, we are able to recognize in this narrative simply the general opinion of the age concerning spirit-possessions, and we need not affirm that either our Lord, or the apostles, in dealing with such cases, seal for us the truth of this explanation of them. In view of the common sentiment, it was not well that such persons should be allowed to witness to the Christian teachers. Their witness may have been true enough, but it was certainly liable to be misunderstood. no wholly satisfactory explanation has yet been given of the devil-possessions recorded in the New Testament, but this much we may fully admit - there was a remarkable accession of spiritual-evil force in the early Christian age.

I. OUR LORD'S TREATMENT OF THESE PHENOMENA. For the apostles followed the example of their Lord. One striking instance may be referred to (Matthew 8:28-34). Our Lord

(1) delivered the victims from the evil power; making this an illustration of his moral and spiritual mission; and

(2) he resisted the association of his work with the witness of disease, mania, hysteria, or evil possession. It was necessary that every association of the conjurer should be dissociated from Christianity. Its appeal is to the sober reasonings of the mind and the normal and natural demands of the heart. The gospel is for men in their senses; and it properly refused then, and refuses still, all testimony from ecstasy, spiritualism, jugglery, oracle, or any unnatural forms of excitation. A truth may be sadly disgraced and misrepresented and prejudiced by its champions, though it does not therefore cease to be the truth. The witness of evil spirits too certainly bears for men an evil tone, so Christ refused to permit it.

II. THE APOSTLES' TREATMENT OF THESE PHENOMENA. Something may be due to St. Paul's personal annoyance at the constant repetition of these clamorous cries, which hindered his work, and very possibly disturbed him when talking in the proseucha. He may also have felt great pity for the poor suffering girl; but no doubt his chief reason for putting forth the miraculous power entrusted to him was the misapprehension of his character and his work which her witness was likely to produce. Men might be led by her to think that he was possessed by some of the gods, or was a messenger of some of the idols, and so his work would be hindered, as it had been at Lystra. We must remember that the apostles' message was directly antagonistic to paganism and idolatry, and they were right in jealously guarding it from so perilous an association with it. Impress, in conclusion, that Christianity makes its appeal to the intelligence, conscience, and affections; and, then and now, it needs, and it will bear with, no adventitious or questionable aids. - E.T.

What a strange thing have we here! the devil preaching the gospel; at least confirming the word of those who preached it. How was it that the prince of darkness could thus support the men who were labouring to destroy his kingdom? How could he give his testimony to the truth of that gospel by which his throne was to be subverted? Was not Satan here casting out Satan, and contributing to the overthrow of his own dominion? No: his speaking truth was a master stroke of devilish policy. He spoke the truth to counteract it; to put Paul and Silas and the possessed woman on the same ground, as if they all agreed: and if Paul and Silas had been pleased with this testimony, and appealed to it, and observed to the people that she who had told them so correctly many things which they could not have found out, confessed them as the servants of God and the preachers of salvation, he would have gained a great point. Let the Pythoness once be identified with the Christian teachers and she might teach, under the name of Christianity, such things as the devil has since often taught, and called them the way of salvation. The devil confessing Christ is in fact more dangerous than the devil denying Christ: for he only confesses to oppose. He confesses, and misrepresents, so that he makes the doctrine of Christ sometimes one thing and sometimes another; and anything but what it really is. Sometimes it is salvation by man's merit, heaven purchased by the performance of outward works. Thus he builds up a fatal system of self-righteousness. Yet there is truth in what he teaches. The works are necessary; but he assigns to them a wrong office, puts them in the place of Christ, and thus leads men to reject that way of salvation, to which, by the mouth of the Pythoness, he bore witness. At other times he takes the direct contrary course; and with the show of honouring Christ teaches men to look for salvation by a faith which produces no works. Thus his doctrine is — what it were to be wished his kingdom was — divided against itself: sometimes it is Christ requiring what God has not commanded; sometimes it is Christ allowing what God has forbidden, or forbidden what God has allowed. Alas! this confession of the Pythoness, as it was not altogether the first instance of Satan's acknowledging Christ, so neither was it the last by many, many examples. And Christian teachers have too often been ignorant of his devices, not having received the wisdom to detect him, when transformed into an angel of light. Paul had this wisdom.

(J. Fawcett, M. A.)

At the very end of the nave of Westminster Abbey there is a monument erected to a young philosopher and clergyman who ill his short space of life, which lasted only twenty-one years, made discoveries in science of a most surprising kind. His name was Jeremiah Horrox. There was one thing which he felt ever had a higher claim upon him even than science. It was to do his duty in the humble sphere in which he found himself; and when he was on the eve of watching the transit of the planet Venus across the sun, and was waiting with the utmost keenness of observation for this phenomenon, he put even all these thoughts aside, and went, on the Sunday on which this sight was to be observed, to perform his humble parish duty in the church where he was pastor. He mentions it in his journal, in words which are now written over his monument: "Called aside to greater things, which ought not to be neglected for the sake of subordinate pursuits." Subordinate, secondary, in one sense, the pursuits could not be, for they were the discovery of the glory of God in the greatest of His works; but subordinate in another sense they were, for they came across, in that instance, the single-minded discharge of the task which he owed to his Divine Master.

(Dean Stanley.)

Sir Thomas Smith, the eminent secretary of state to Queen Elizabeth, when on his death bed, sent to his friends, the Bishops of Winchester and Worcester, and solemnly entreated them to draw from the Word of God the plainest and exactest way of salvation; adding, "It is a matter of lamentation that men know not to what end they are born into the world till they are ready to get out of it."

Truth is truth, by whomsoever confessed, for whatever motive, and in whatever way. Here it was confessed by a devil-possessed girl. Perhaps her better nature was in the ascendant at the time. As we know from the Gospels demoniacal possession was intermittent, and the poor creatures had their lucid intervals. So this damsel, conscious for the moment of her misery and degradation, may have meant this as a sort of appeal for help. Perhaps, however, it may have been in mockery. No doubt the apostles had asserted their authority as servants of the most high God, and certainly "the way of salvation" was their constant theme. And the girl gifted with powers of mimicry may have reproduced their peculiar accent for the purpose of creating amusement. On the former hypothesis Paul's pity was excited: on the latter his indignation and alarm lest the gospel should be brought into contempt. Anyhow the testimony is true as a description of: —

I. THE CHARACTER OF GOSPEL MINISTERS.

1. They are men(1) Not angels; do not therefore expect angelic attributes of them. One of the greatest hindrances to the work of the Church is the extravagant demands which are made of the ministry. It discourages the men, and induces indolence in the people.(2) They are men having knowledge of human needs, invested with human sympathies, gifted with the faculty of communicating Divine thought in human language.

2. They are servants.(1) A humbling thought. All magisterial airs, all pomp and show, are utterly inconsistent with this character. A servant is a subordinate and has simply to do what he is told.(2) A suggestion of responsibility and labour. What is a servant for but for work? And for the efficient discharge of that work he is held responsible.

3. They are servants of the Most High God.(1) Their office therefore is invested with the loftiest dignity. What greater honour than to be the servant of a sovereign. Our Lord Himself gloried in this title.(2) Their persons are secure. God will protect His servants till they can say, "I have finished my course."(3) Their reward is great; as is to be expected from such a Master. "Be thou faithful," etc.

II. THEIR WORK. "To show the way of salvation."

1. There is a way of salvation.(1) A way to it — i.e., means whereby it may be secured.(a) Repentance — consciousness of being in the wrong way, regret for it, confession of it, and desire to get out of it.(b) Faith. Acceptance of the right way; of Him who is the Way; walking in that Way — i.e., humble dependence on Christ.(2) Salvation itself is a way — a progress from darkness to light, from misery to blessedness, from sin to holiness, from uselessness or injuriousness to usefulness, from earth to heaven, from grace to glory. Salvation is a state, but it is an endlessly progressive state. No matter however high the attainment the saved one is to "forget the things that are behind," etc. So viewed salvation is the right way, the happy way.

2. This way has to be shown.(1) Hence the guide must know it, and not theoretically, from books or from what others have told him; but from being in it. Personal salvation is the essential qualification for a minister, and a guarantee of his competency for his work.(2) Knowing it the guide must show it; by precept and example: simply, clearly, powerfully.

(J. W. Burn.)

I. THE WORK OF ALL MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL.

1. They are to show the way of salvation. This is the great object they should ever have in view.

2. The way of salvation they are to show is, by faith in Christ.

3. They are to show the way, not the ways of salvation. There never was, and never will be, but one way. This their work implies — They ought to know it themselves.

II. THE APPELLATION HERE GIVEN THEM; WITH THE REASONS OF THEIR BEING SELECTED AND EMPLOYED IN THIS SERVICE. "Servants of God."

1. It denotes that they are sent by Him to this work.

2. The dignity of their office — servants, not of men — of the highest men, but of God — of the most high God. They are employed as mortals; because this method is adapted to our receiving information on the subject with composure.Learn:

1. The guilt of those who neglect a gospel ministry.

2. Be helpers of ministers.

(The Evangelist.)

Lydia, Paul, Silas, Timotheus, TimothyAsia, Bithynia, Derbe, Galatia, Iconium, Jerusalem, Lystra, Macedonia, Mysia, Neapolis, Philippi, Phrygia, Samothrace, Thyatira, TroasAnnoyed, Becoming, Charge, Christ, Command, Considerable, Continued, Distressed, Enjoin, Finally, Forth, Greatly, Grieved, Hour, Immediately, Moment, Orders, Paul, Persisted, Round, Sore, Spirit, Troubled, Turning, Wearied1. Paul and Silas are Joined by Timothy,
7. and being called by the Spirit from one country to another,
14. convert Lydia,
16. and cast out a spirit of divination;
19. for which cause they are whipped and imprisoned.
25. The prison doors are opened.
31. The jailor is converted,
35. and they are delivered.

Acts 16:18

     1416   miracles, nature of
     2351   Christ, miracles
     4126   Satan, resistance to
     4135   demons, Christ's authority over
     8405   commands, in NT

Acts 16:13-21

     5745   women

Acts 16:16-18

     4155   divination
     5695   girls
     8160   seeking God
     9130   future, the

Acts 16:16-19

     4134   demons, exorcism
     5333   healing

Acts 16:16-21

     7448   slavery, in NT

Acts 16:16-24

     2012   Christ, authority
     8483   spiritual warfare, causes

Acts 16:17-18

     4165   exorcism
     8228   discernment, examples

Paul at Philippi
'And on the sabbath day we went forth without the gate, by a river side, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which were come together.' --ACTS xvi. 13 (R.V.). This is the first record of the preaching of the Gospel in Europe, and probably the first instance of it. The fact that the vision of the man of Macedonia was needed in order to draw the Apostle across the straits into Macedonia, and the great length at which the incidents at Philippi are …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

How to Secure a Prosperous Voyage
'And after [Paul] had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. 11. Therefore ... we came with a straight course.'--ACTS xvi. 10, 11. This book of the Acts is careful to point out how each fresh step in the extension of the Church's work was directed and commanded by Jesus Christ Himself. Thus Philip was sent by specific injunction to 'join himself' to the chariot of the Ethiopian statesman. …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

The Riot at Philippi
'And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers, 20. And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, 21. And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans. 22. And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them. 23. And when they had laid many …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

The Great Question and the Plain Answer
'He brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31. And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved.'--ACTS xvi. 30, 31. The keeper of a Macedonian jail was not likely to be a very nervous or susceptible person. And so the extraordinary state of agitation and panic into which this rough jailer was cast needs some kind of explanation. There had been, as you will all remember, an earthquake of a strange kind, for it not only opened the prison doors, but shook …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

Household Salvation
To allure and encourage you to long for family religion, I have selected this text this morning. God grant it may answer the purpose designed. May many here have a spiritual hunger and thirst, that they may receive the blessing which so largely rested upon the Philippian jailer. Note in our text five things. We have a whole household hearing the word, a whole household believing it, a whole household baptized, a whole household working for God, and then, a whole household rejoicing. I. Observe, first, …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871

Lydia, the First European Convert
WE MAY LAUDABLY EXERCISE CURIOSITY with regard to the first proclamation of the gospel in our own quarter of the globe. We are happy that history so accurately tells us, by the pen of Luke, when first the gospel was preached in Europe, and by whom, and who was the first convert brought by that preaching to the Savior's feet. I half envy Lydia that she should be the leader of the European band; yet I feel right glad that a woman led the van, and that her household followed so closely in the rear. …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891

The Cry of the Heathen
And now, beloved, having thus prefaced our discourse, we have another observation to make before we proceed to a full discussion of the text. What an instance of Divine sovereignty we have in our text! He who is wise can see sovereignty everywhere in the work of salvation, but how clearly is it present here. Bithynia must not hear the gospel; the apostle desires to go and preach it there; but as yet, it seems, God does not intend that Bithynia should be evangelised. He desires to tarry in Asia, and …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 4: 1858

The Heavenly Father
ACTS xvi. 24-28. God that made the world, and all that therein is, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands . . . For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. I told you last Sunday of the meaning of the days of the week; but one day I left out--namely, Tuesday. I did so on purpose. I wish to speak of that day by itself in this sermon. I told you how our forefathers worshipped …
Charles Kingsley—The Good News of God

Note
THERE is a passage in an old writer which throws so much light on some points mentioned in this paper, that I make no excuse for giving it to the reader in its entirety. It comes from a work which is little known and less read. It has done me good, and I think it may do good to others. "When a man is awakened, and brought to that, that all must be brought to, or to worse,' What shall I do to be saved!' (Acts 16:30-31), we have the apostolic answer to it: ' Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou …
John Charles Ryle—The Upper Room: Being a Few Truths for the Times

Saving Faith.
And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.--ACTS xvi. 30,31. This is one of the most abused texts in the Bible, and one which, perhaps, has been made to do quite as much work for the devil as for God. Let every saint present, ask in faith for the light of the Holy Ghost, while we try rightly to apply it. Let us enquire:-- 1. Who are to believe? 2. When are they to believe? 3. How are …
Catherine Booth—Godliness

Directions to Sinners.
Text--What shall I do to be saved.--Acts xvi. 30. THESE are the words of the jailor at Philippi, the question which he put to Paul and Silas, who were then under his care as prisoners. Satan had, in many ways, opposed these servants of God in their work of preaching the Gospel, and had been as often defeated and disgraced. But here, at Philippi, he devised a new and peculiar project for frustrating their labors. There was a certain woman at Philippi, who was possessed with a spirit of divination, …
Charles Grandison Finney—Lectures on Revivals of Religion

Measures to Promote Revivals.
Text.--These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.--Acts xvi. 20, 21. "THESE men," here spoken of, were Paul and Silas, who went to Philippi to preach the Gospel, and very much disturbed the people of that city, because they supposed the preaching would interfere with their worldly gains. And so they arranged the preachers of the Gospel before the magistrates of the city, as culprits, and charged …
Charles Grandison Finney—Lectures on Revivals of Religion

The Missionary on the Sea Shore.
"And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: There stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us."--Acts 16:9. "Wei schaumt so feierlich zu unsern Fuessen." [65]F. de la Motte Fouque. transl., Jane Borthwick, 1858 Dark mighty Ocean, rolling to our feet! In thy low murmur many voices meet, The sound of distant lands brought strangely near To Fancy's ear. From shores unknown comes the sweet Sabbath bell, New languages the old glad tidings tell, We hear the …
Jane Borthwick—Hymns from the Land of Luther

Chrysostom Evades Election to a Bishopric, and Writes his Work on the Priesthood.
About this time several bishoprics were vacant in Syria, and frequent depositions took place with the changing fortunes of orthodoxy and Arianism, and the interference of the court. The attention of the clergy and the people turned to Chrysostom and his friend Basil as suitable candidates for the episcopal office, although they had not the canonical age of thirty. Chrysostom shrunk from the responsibilities and avoided an election by a pious fraud. He apparently assented to an agreement with Basil …
St. Chrysostom—On the Priesthood

The Christian's Peace and the Christian's Consistency
PHILIPPIANS i. 21-30 He will be spared to them--Spiritual wealth of the paragraph--Adolphe Monod's exposition--Charles Simeon's testimony--The equilibrium and its secret--The intermediate bliss--He longs for their full consistency--The "gift" of suffering Ver. 21. +For to me, to live is Christ+; the consciousness and experiences of living, in the body, are so full of Christ, my supreme Interest, that CHRIST sums them all up; +and to die+, the act of dying,[1] +is gain+, for it will usher me in …
Handley C. G. Moule—Philippian Studies

The Martyrs of Lyons and vienne (Ad 177)
Many other martyrs suffered in various parts of the empire under the reign of Marcus Aurelius. Among the most famous of these are the martyrs of Lyons and Vienne, in the south of France (or Gaul, as it was then called), where a company of missionaries from Asia Minor had settled with a bishop named Pothinus at their head. The persecution at Lyons and Vienne was begun by the mob of those towns, who insulted the Christians in the streets, broke into their houses, and committed other such outrages against …
J. C. Roberston—Sketches of Church History, from AD 33 to the Reformation

Scotland and Ireland
The only thing which seems to be settled as to the religious history of Scotland in these times, is that a bishop named Ninian preached among the Southern Picts between the years 412 and 432, and established a see at Whithorn, in Galloway. But in the Year of St. Ninian's death, a far more famous missionary, St. Patrick, who is called "the Apostle of Ireland," began his labours in that island. It is a question whether Patrick was born in Scotland, at a place called Kirkpatrick, near the river Clyde, …
J. C. Roberston—Sketches of Church History, from AD 33 to the Reformation

Whether Since Christ's Passion the Legal Ceremonies Can be Observed Without Committing Mortal Sin?
Objection 1: It would seem that since Christ's Passion the legal ceremonies can be observed without committing mortal sin. For we must not believe that the apostles committed mortal sin after receiving the Holy Ghost: since by His fulness they were "endued with power from on high" (Lk. 24:49). But the apostles observed the legal ceremonies after the coming of the Holy Ghost: for it is stated (Acts 16:3) that Paul circumcised Timothy: and (Acts 21:26) that Paul, at the advice of James, "took the men, …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Pædobaptism. Its Accordance with the Institution of Christ, and the Nature of the Sign.
1. Pædobaptism. The consideration of the question necessary and useful. Pædobaptism of divine origin. 2. This demonstrated from a consideration of the promises. These explain the nature and validity of Pædobaptism. 3. Promises annexed to the symbol of water cannot be better seen than in the institution of circumcision. 4. The promise and thing figured in circumcision and baptism one and the same. The only difference in the external ceremony. 5. Hence the baptism of the children …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Children Devoted to God. Gen. 17:7,10; Acts 16:14,15,33.
Children devoted to God. Gen. 17:7,10; Acts 16:14,15,33. [For those who practise infant Baptism.] Thus saith the mercy of the Lord, "I'll be a God to thee; I'll bless thy num'rous race, and they Shall be a seed for me." Abram believed the promised grace, And gave his sons to God; But water seals the blessing now, That once was sealed with blood. Thus Lydia sanctified her house, When she received the word; Thus the believing jailer gave His household to the Lord. Thus later saints, eternal King! …
Isaac Watts—The Psalms and Hymns of Isaac Watts

Acts 17:16-17. Athens.
[9] "Now, while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry." Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him." --Acts 17:16-17. PERHAPS the reader of this paper lives in a town or city, and sees more of bricks and mortar than of green fields. Perhaps you have some relative or friend living in a town, about whom you naturally feel a deep interest. …
John Charles Ryle—The Upper Room: Being a Few Truths for the Times

Conversion, Its Nature and Necessity.
Closely related to the doctrine of the power, or efficacy, of the divine Word--as considered in the last chapter--is the doctrine of conversion. It is the subject of conversion, therefore, that we now purpose to examine. It is an important subject. It deserves a prominent place in treating of the Way of Salvation. It is also an intensely personal subject. Each one who desires to be in the Way of Salvation is personally interested in it. The eternal destiny of every one who reads these pages is closely …
G. H. Gerberding—The Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church

The Law Established through Faith
Discourse I "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: Yea, we establish the law." Romans 3:31. 1. St. Paul, having the beginning of this Epistle laid down his general proposition, namely, that "the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;" -- the powerful means, whereby God makes every believer a partaker of present and eternal salvation; -- goes on to show, that there is no other way under heaven whereby men can be saved. He speaks particularly …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

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