Those who believe and teach the truths of God's word in these last days, meet with similar opposition from unprincipled persons who will not accept the truth, and who do not hesitate to prevaricate, and even to circulate the most glaring falsehoods in order to destroy the influence and hedge up the way of those whom God has sent with a message of warning to the world. While one class make the falsehoods and circulate them, another class are so blinded by the delusions of Satan as to receive them as the words of truth. They are in the toils of the arch-enemy, while they flatter themselves that they are the children of God. "For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."

The disappointment experienced by the idolaters in being refused the privilege of offering sacrifices to the apostles, prepared them to turn against these ministers of God with a zeal which approached that of the enthusiasm with which they had hailed them as gods. The malicious Jews did not hesitate to take full advantage of the superstition and credulity of this heathen people, to carry out their cruel designs. They incited them to attack the apostles by force; and they charged them not to allow Paul an opportunity to speak, alleging that if they did so he would bewitch the people.

The Lystrians rushed upon the apostles with great rage and fury. They hurled stones violently; and Paul, bruised, battered, and fainting, felt that his end had come. The martyrdom of Stephen was brought vividly to his mind, and the cruel part he had acted on that occasion. He fell to the ground apparently dead, and the infuriated mob dragged his insensible body through the gates of the city, and threw it beneath the walls. The apostle mentions this occurrence in the subsequent enumeration of his sufferings for the truth's sake: "Thrice was I beaten with rods; once was I stoned; thrice I suffered shipwreck; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often; in perils of waters; in perils of robbers; in perils by mine own countrymen; in perils by the heathen; in perils in the city; in perils in the wilderness; in perils in the sea; in perils among false brethren."

The Jews, taking advantage of the credulity of a rude tribe, were able to accomplish at Lystra the design they had meditated at Iconium.² St. Paul was stoned,—not hurried out of the city to execution like St. Stephen,³ the memory of whose death must have come over St. Paul at this moment with impressive force,—but stoned somewhere in the streets of Lystra, and then dragged through the city-gate, and cast outside the walls, under the belief that he was dead. This is that occasion to which the Apostle afterwards alluded in the words, "once I was stoned,"⁴ in that long catalogue of sufferings, to which we have already referred in this chapter.⁵ Thus was he "in perils by his own countrymen, in perils by the Heathen,"—"in deaths oft,"—"always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in his body. . . . Alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in his mortal flesh."⁶

² Acts xiv. 5.

³ See the end of Ch. II. At Jerusalem the law required that these executions should take place outside the city. It must be remembered that stoning was a Jewish punishment, and that it was proposed by Jews at Iconium, and instigated and begun by Jews at Lystra.

⁴ See Paley's remark on the expression "once I was stoned," in reference to the previous design of stoning St. Paul at Iconium. "Had the assault been completed, had the history related that a stone was thrown, as it relates that preparations were made both by Jews and Gentiles to stone Paul and his companions, or even had the account of this transaction stopped, without going on to inform us that Paul and his companions were 'aware of the danger and fled,' a contradiction between the history and the epistles would have ensued. Truth is necessarily consistent; but it is scarcely possible that independent accounts, not having truth to guide them, should thus advance to the very brink of contradiction without falling into it." Horæ Paulinæ, p. 69.

⁵ See pp. 145, 146.

⁶ Compare 2 Cor. iv. 8-12 and xi. 23-27.

And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and, having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead. (Acts 14:19)

For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles. (2 Cor. 11:5)

Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep. (2 Cor. 11:25)

In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren. (2 Cor. 11:26)