The Golden Muzzle

The rulers and elders were opposed to Peter and John.

It is no new thing for the gospel to be opposed.

Nor a strange thing for the great, the official, the powerful, and the influential to be foremost in such opposition.

The opposition of ungodly men is—

Natural, seeing that the heart of man is depraved.

Endurable, since our Lord and his apostles suffered it.

Harmless, if we commit the case to God.

Overruled for good by divine grace and wise providence.

The best and perhaps the only way to silence opposition is by exhibiting the blessed results which follow from the gospel.

Those who would say anything if they could, can say nothing of what they would, when they see before their eyes the cures wrought by the word of the Lord Jesus. “The man that was healed” is our best apologist. Better than Paley’s “Evidences,” or Butler’s “Analogy,” is the proof given by results.

I. THE GOSPEL IS VINDICATED BY ITS RESULTS.

1. On a broad scale in nations. England, the islands of the Pacific, Jamaica, Madagascar, etc.

2. In individual conversions from open sin. Some of the worst of men have become clear instances of the purifying power of the gospel.

3. In restoring to hope the comfortless and despairing. Very marvelous is its efficacy in the direction of healing mental maladies.

4. In elevating saints above selfish aims and designs, and inducing heroic consecrations. The biographies of gracious men and women are demonstrations of the divine power of the Word.

5. In sustaining character under fierce temptation. Wonderful is the preserving salt of grace amid surrounding putrefaction.

6. In holy and happy death-beds. These are plentiful throughout history, among all ranks; and they never fail to convince the candid.

   • Many another catalogue of results might be made.
   • Many a man is unable to be an infidel because of what he has seen in his mother, wife, or child.

II. GOSPEL-WORKS AND WORKERS MUST LOOK FOR LIKE VINDICATION.

Nowadays men ask for results: the tree must bear fruit, or the cry is, “Cut it down.” We do not shrink from this test.

1. The minister must find in his converts a proof of his call, and a defense of his doctrines, methods, peculiarities, etc.

2. A society, college, or institution must stand or fall by its fruits.

3. The individual professor must abide the same test.

4. The church in any place, and the church on the largest scale, must be tried by similar methods.

5. Even our Lord himself loses or gains honor among men according as his followers behave themselves.

III. THE GOSPEL AND ITS WORKERS DESERVE VINDICATION AT OUR HANDS. Those who are healed should boldly stand with Peter and John, as witnesses and fellow-workers.

This suggests a series of practical questions:—

1. Has it produced blessed results in us?

2. Have we come forward to stand with the preachers of it in evidence that it has wrought our cure? Are we continually witnessing to the truth and value of the Gospel of Christ?

3. Does the influence of the gospel upon us so continue and increase unto holiness of life as to be a credit to its influence?

4. Are there not points in our character which harm the repute of the gospel? Should not these be amended at once?

5. Could we not henceforth so live as more effectually to silence the opponents of the Word?

   • Let the Church plainly see that her converts are her best defense: they are, in fact, her reason for existence.
   • Let converts see the reason why they should come forward and declare their faith, and unite with the people of God.

Cases In Point

In the course of one of his journeys, preaching the word, Mr. Wesley went to Epworth. Having offered to assist the curate on the following day (Sunday), and his offer being refused, he took his stand upon his father’s tombstone in the evening, and preached to the largest congregation Epworth had ever witnessed. This he did night after night. He preached also during his stay of eight days at several of the surrounding villages, where societies had been formed and a great work wrought among the people, and some of them had suffered for it. “Their angry neighbors,” says Wesley, “had carried a whole wagon-load of these new heretics before a magistrate. But when he asked what they had done, there was a deep silence; for it was a point their conductors had forgotten. At length one said, ‘They pretended to be better than other people, and prayed from morning to night’; and another said, ‘They have converted my wife. Until she went among them she had such a tongue! and now she is as quiet as a lamb!’ ‘Take them back, take them back,’ replied the justice, and ‘let them convert all the scolds in the town.’ “—Tyerman’s Life of Wesley.

Lord Peterborough, more famed for his wit than for his religion, when he had lodged with Fenelon, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was so charmed with his piety and beautiful character, that he said to him at parting, “If I stay here any longer I shall become a Christian in spite of myself.”—G. S. Bowes.

A person who had expressed doubts whether the negroes received any real advantage by hearing the gospel, was asked whether he did not think one, named Jack, was better for the preaching. He replied, “Why, I must confess that he was a drunkard, a liar, and a thief; but certainly now he is a sober boy, and I can trust him with anything; and since he has talked about religion I have tried to make him drunk, but failed in the attempt.”—Arvine.

Certain gentlemen waited upon Rev. Matthew Wilks to complain of the eccentricities of his discourses. Wilks heard them through, and then produced a long list of names. “There,” said the quaint divine, “all those precious souls profess to have found salvation through what you are pleased to call my whims and oddities. Can you produce a similar list from all the sober brethren you have been so much extolling?” This was conclusive: they withdrew in silence.

The behavior of some professors has often given the wicked an opportunity to reproach religion. Lactantius reports, that the heathen were accustomed to say, “The Master could not be good, when his disciples were so bad.” The malice of sinners is such that they will reproach the rectitude of the law, for the obliquity of their lives who swerve from it. Oh that your pure life did but hang a padlock upon their impure lips!—William Secker.