Lydia might probably be influenced in making this request by another consideration. She expected great advantage from more familiar intercourse with her guests. In the social hour--at the friendly table--in the retirement of home--she could propose inquiries, which such a man as Paul would be happy to hear, and ready to answer. He who could thus address the saints at Rome--I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; that is, that I may be comforted together with you, by the mutual faith both of you and me--"must have proved an interesting companion to so pious and inquisitive a woman." She would receive him as a father and honour him as an apostle. Happy, thrice happy for us, when we make a proper selection of our bosom friends, and improve the hours of social intercourse to the purposes of spiritual improvement! Nothing is more advantageous than reciprocal communication; it elicits truth, corrects mistake, improves character, conduces to happiness, animates to diligence, and gives anew impulse to our moral energies. "Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it; and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked; between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not."
In reviewing this history, we cannot help regreting the specimen it affords of the paucity of real Christians. The whole city of Philippi furnished only Lydia, the jailer, and a few others, who attended to the preaching of Paul. Immersed in business, devoted to superstition, or depraved by sensuality, the glad tidings of salvation were despised or disregarded. They had neither eyes to see, ears to hear, nor hearts to feel. The God of this world blinded them, that they did not believe. There was not even a Jewish synagogue in Philippi--not one altar erected to the true God--and only a small retreat by the river-side, to which a few female inquirers resorted unnoticed or abhorred. Such is the world in miniature! In reviewing the long track of ages, we can observe but here and there a traveller along the road to Zion. The "narrow way" appears an unfrequented path, while thousands and myriads crowd the "broad road that leadeth to destruction." The page of history is not adorned with the names of saints, but, blessed be God, they are recorded in Scripture, and will shine forever in the annals of eternity.
The subject, however, presents another aspect. Lydia was the first convert to the Christian faith in EUROPE! In her heart was deposited the first seed that was sown in this new field of labour, in which so rich and extensive a harvest has since sprung up. It was then, indeed, according to the parabolical representations of Christ, but as "a grain of mustard seed," which is the "least of all seeds;" but what a plant has it since become, striking deep its roots, and waving wide its branches, so that the nations recline beneath its refreshing shade, and feel the healing virtue of its sacred leaves! At that distant period, while Asia was under spiritual culture, Europe presented nothing to the eye but an outstretched wilderness of desolation--ignorance spread over her fairest regions "gross darkness," and the very "shadow of death"--and superstition reigned upon his gloomy throne with triumphant and universal dominion. The particular state of Britain may be inferred from the general condition of the world; but if any difference existed, there is reason to suppose, from its peculiar disadvantages and insular situation, that a blacker midnight enveloped this region, than spread over the more civilized provinces of the Roman empire. There was, indeed, no nation in which the grossest practices of idolatry did not prevail, and where human nature did not appear in a state of awful degeneracy. Their very reason was folly; their very religion impiety. Let us, then, be unceasingly grateful to that providence, which has not only sent the gospel to Europe, but has caused the light to shine with peculiar glory in this favoured land, which, at its first promulgation, was in a state of singular depravity; fixed, so to speak, in the very meridian of the benighted hemisphere.
Britain has now emerged into day; and has not only caught the rising beam of mercy, but is becoming the very centre of illumination to every kindred and people of the globe. The different orders of Christians engaged in missionary under-takings--Moravian, Baptist, Independent, and Church Societies, ought to be mentioned with distinguished approbation, and hailed as FELLOW LABOURERS in the vineyard. May they ever co-operate and not control each other! May they be one in spirit, though diverse in operation! May they unite their respective energies in one common cause, while bigotry retires abashed from the glory of such a scene!
Above all, "the United Kingdoms may fairly claim, what has been freely and cheerfully accorded by foreign nations, the honor of giving birth to an institution, (the British and Foreign Bible Society,) the most efficacious ever devised, for diffusing that knowledge which was given to make men wise unto salvation.
"But although the approbation so generally bestowed on the British and Foreign Bible Society, may be received as a gratifying homage to the simplicity, purity, benevolence, and importance of its design, it is not to the praise of men, but to the improvement of their moral and religious state, that the Society aspires. Acting under the influence of an ardent desire to promote the glory of God, and adopting the spirit of the apostolic injunction, 'As we have opportunity let us do good unto all men, especially to those who are of the household of faith;' its object is to administer comfort to the afflicted, and rest to the weary and heavy-laden; to dispense the bread and water of life to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness; to feed the flock of Christ at home and abroad; and to impart to those who sit in darkness the cheering rays of the Sun of Righteousness.
"The theatre on which the Society displays its operations, is that of the whole world. Considering all the races of men as children of one common Father, who 'maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust;' and who wills 'that all men should come to the knowledge of the truth;' the British and Foreign Bible Society offers the records of eternal life to the bond and the free, to Heathens and Christians,--in the earnest hope that they may become a lamp unto the feet, and a light unto the paths of those who now receive them, and of generations yet unborn.
"To support the character which the British and Foreign Bible Society has assumed, to realize the hopes which it has excited, to foster and enlarge the zeal which it has inspired, are obligations of no common magnitude, and which cannot be discharged without correspondent exertions. 'As a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid,' the eyes of nations look up to it with expectation. Immense portions of the globe, now the domains of idolatry and superstition; regions where the light of Christianity once shone, but is now dim or extinguished; and countries where the heavenly manna is so scarce, that thousands live and die without the means of tasting it,--point out the existing claims on the benevolence of the Society.
"To supply these wants, fill up these voids, and display the light of revelation amidst the realms of darkness, will long require a continuance of that support which the British and Foreign Bible Society has derived from the public piety and liberality, and perhaps the persevering efforts of succeeding generations. Let us not, however, be weary in well doing; 'for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.'
"Whatever may be the extent of the existing or increasing claims on the British and Foreign Bible Society, it has ample encouragement to proceed in its sacred duty of disseminating the Word of Life.