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.
And a vision appeared to Paul in the night - but while awake; otherwise it would have been called a dream.
There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.
Stretching his eye across the AEgean Sea from Troas, on the northeast, to the Macedonian Hills, visible on the northwest, the apostle could hardly fail to think this the destined scene of his future labours; and if he retired to rest with this thought, he would be thoroughly prepared for the remarkable intimation of the divine will now to be given him. This visional Macedonian discovered himself in part, it may be, by his dress, but certainly by what he said. And yet it was a cry, not of conscious desire for the Gospel, but of deep need of it, and unconscious preparedness to receive it, not only in that region, but, we may well say, throughout all that western empire, which Macedonia might be said to represent. Yes! The literature and the arts of Greece, and the all-subduing and nobly-ruling power of Rome have failed to reach the deadly maladies of our fallen nature; and all Heathendom, in the person of this Macedonian, is crying for its only effectual cure, which these missionaries of the Cross possess and are only waiting for this call to administer.