Godbey's Commentary - Acts - Romans - Enter His Rest

Substitute. When the sinner in utter desperation casts himself on the mercy of God in Christ then and
there he receives a free pardon.
22. Paul, like the saints frequently in all ages, had a presentiment of the trouble awaiting him at
Jerusalem, yet impelled on by the divine leadership. Bishop Marvin, not even a member of the
General Conference, running on the Mississippi River, had a real presentiment of his election to the
episcopacy. When he left Jerusalem during his round-the-world tour, he had a presentiment of his
death, which occurred soon after. God’s saints, led by the Holy Ghost, and accompanied by guardian
angels, anon receive profitable intimations of events still hidden behind the intervening veil, but
destined soon to transpire. Good Lord, save us from that modern infidelity which takes God out of
the current events of life, and help us to get back to the Acts of the Apostles, where we see God in
everything.
25. “And now behold I know that you shall all see my face no more, among whom I came
preaching the kingdom.” This was A.D. 58. I believe with the critics that he had a second
imprisonment at Rome before his martyrdom, being acquitted the first time for the want of criminal
charges against him, and afterward returning to Greece and Asia and revisiting Ephesus about A.D.
64, and, after writing the pastoral epistles, arrested a second time on charge of burning Rome, not
that he was personally charged with it, because he was absent in Greece when it occurred, but as it
was imputed to the Christians, they sent away to Neapolis in Macedonia, arresting him and bringing
him to Rome, where, upon a second trial before Nero, he was condemned to death, with many other
Christians, on charge of burning Rome, A.D. 68. This return to Ephesus, after six to eight years, did
not preclude the fact that he would see the faces of some of them no more, as in that time many of
them had passed away.
MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITY.
26, 27. Paul here certifies that he is “pure from the blood of all men,” and gives as a reason
because he did not “shun to declare to them all the counsel of God.” Hence we see there is only one
way for us to be pure from the blood of souls and ready to meet all the people at the Judgment bar;
and that is to tell them the whole truth as we find it revealed in the Bible. If we fail to do this their
blood will be found upon our hands when God Almighty shall make inquisition in the Judgment day.
John Wesley’s best friends advised him to drop “sanctification” and “perfection” out of his
ministerial vocabulary, preaching the same truth in other phraseology; hear his response: “Will you
send the Holy Ghost to school and teach Him who made the tongue how to speak?” Verily, this is
the only way we can be pure from the blood of all men, i.e., by declaring to them all the counsel of
God.
“Watchman, what of the night?
The myriad foe come on to try thee with their might,
And if thou shall fail one note that trump to sound,
I will hang upon these battlements the watchman on his round.”