I. He breaks the bonds of tribulation, when His elect call to Him day and night (Paul and Silas).
II. He tears asunder the fetters of sin, when bound souls sigh after Him (the jailer).
III. He makes a path for His word and kingdom even when the world puts fetters on them. “The Word of God is not bound.”
IV. He bursts open the prison of the grave, when the hour of eternal redemption strikes. That hour is said to be midnight. (K. Gerok.)
Earthquakes
We have all read of the earthquake in Lisbon, in Lima, in Aleppo, and in Caraceas; but we live in a latitude where in all our memory there has not been one severe volcanic disturbance. And yet we have seen fifty earthquakes. Here is a man who has been building up a large fortune. His bid on the money market was felt in all the cities. He thinks he has got beyond all annoying rivalries in trade, and he says to himself, “Now I am free and safe from all possible perturbation.” But in 1837, or in 1857, or in 1873, a national panic strikes the foundations of the commercial world, and crash f goes all that magnificent business establishment. Here is a man who has built up a very beautiful home. His daughters have just come home from the seminary with diplomas of graduation. His sons have started in life, honest, temperate, and pure. When the evening lights are struck, there is a happy and unbroken family circle. But there has been an accident down at Long Branch. The young man ventured too far out in the surf. The telegraph hurled the terror up to the city. An earthquake struck under the foundations of that beautiful home. The piano closed; the curtains dropped; the laughter hushed. Crash! go all those domestic hopes, and prospects, and expectations. So, my friends, we have all felt the shaking down of some great trouble, and there was a time when we were as much excited as this man of the text, and we cried out as he did: “What shall I do?”
The midnight hour in the prison of Philippi, an image of the great hour of the Lord
1. The world sleeps, but believers wait for it with watchfulness and prayer.
2. The earth quakes, but the Lord is near.
3. The servants of sin tremble before judgment.
4. The children of the kingdom lift up their heads with joy, because their redemption draweth nigh. (K. Gerok.)
God a powerful Ally
When John G. Paton, upon his little island of Anyeitum, was almost giving up hope of life, though still trying to pacify the bloodthirsty natives, it happened that upon the far horizon line a ship’s sails were seen and a line of smoke going up into the sky. “The fire steamer comes,” cried the natives in wild terror, and ran to hide themselves in the bush. The chief, who had been so cruel, came to beg Paton for his life. It seemed like the last judgment to these poor ignorant subjects. But what was it to the missionary? To him the connecting link with his own country, the help and strength of new life. When the ship came it proved to be one of Her Majesty’s men-of-war, and the sight of the power of Paton’s Queen so struck the native imagination that they decided to leave the man who had such powerful friends to do his work unharmed. So behind the Christian there is the Christian’s God, all-powerful, all-willing.
