Seeds of Life.
I. The words of my text describe very simply St. Paul's entry into Rome by the Appian Way, a prisoner, nearly two thousand years ago. How much has risen and fallen in those two thousand years? Millions upon millions of men and women have come into the light of our sun and passed away also; but this fact of St. Paul's entry into Rome does not pass away. We know that he was a life-seed, carrying life; we know that that life has wrought these great changes; that life is our inheritance and lives in us, and will never die. This we know now.The clever foolishness of the most foolish knowledge-worshipper of modern times acknowledges St. Paul to have been a great power. But how was it then at the time? how looked the seed which had so mighty a growth?
II. I have often thought St. Paul's last ten miles into Rome the most fearful contrast this world ever saw, the most splendid triumph of life matched against force and impossible mountains of evil. There is something terribly real in that single man going into the gorgeous pit of hell, which was Rome, in the sunny spring day, down the flowery slopes of the Alban hills and along the great street, and matching his spirit calmly and quietly against the crushing magnificence of temples, palaces, fortresses, legions, and empires. Truly this was a seed of life, an immortal germ, living now and ever growing, though Rome has perished and many an imperial city since 1 But then, it was only one poor prisoner. When we see any one like St. Paul, distinctly labouring for others and the good of life, we see a seed of life, and can never calculate the greatness it may be. Each and every one of us can be a seed power, can be a life able to sow itself, as part of the life of God on earth.
E. Thring, Uppingham Sermons,vol. ii., p. 353.
References: Acts 28:14; Acts 28:15. Good Words,vol. iii., p. 255.Acts 28:15. Preacher's Monthly,vol. vii., p. 9.