‘And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand.’
Act_28:3
This chapter records the sequel to the wreck. The two hundred and seventy-six souls had escaped from the ship and had all got safely to land. They found themselves upon the island which we now call Malta, but which was then known by the name of Melita. The Maltese had cherished and retained a belief in God as the moral ruler of the universe. God, they believed, punished wrong-doing, and rewarded virtue fully in this world. Human justice often failed in its work; Divine justice never! When, therefore, they saw the viper dart out upon the Apostle’s hand, they at once concluded that the man whom the soldiers watched with vigilance was a murderer. When St. Paul shook off the viper into the fire, and felt no harm, ‘they changed their minds, and said he was a god.’
The incident contains a lesson full of value and importance in the right guidance of all our life—social, religious, business, intellectual, or political. Everywhere in the pursuit of duty we must expect the viper to dart out upon us. Well for us if we are on our guard, and ready instinctively to shake off the attacks, and, God-protected, by Divine grace feel no harm.
I. The viper in business life.—Business is one of the most necessary things in the world. Those engaged in such duties may well seem, like St. Paul, to be energetically and characteristically helping to do something in the rain and cold, easing and ameliorating the condition of human life. But how often do we see the viper dart out of the midst of the work, and fasten on a man’s hand! How often do we see trade or business blunting the higher and nobler faculties of human life, blinding the soul to the spiritual world, exhausting all the natural energies in mere material, earthly interests, and sometimes—alas! too often—undermining the uprightness and honesty of a hitherto spotless character! How often do we see the hand or the heel wounded, while all power to shake off the venomous beast would seem to have deserted the soul!
II. The viper in knowledge.—Or look at knowledge in its many branches. What is more fascinating or delightful? But even here be on your guard! Even here the viper darts out and is ready to fasten on the hand. For there are spheres of truth which reason can only enter hand in hand with faith, and reason is apt to rise in rebellion, and flash scorn on that which is beyond its ken, and glory in its ignorance, or, as it prefers to phrase it, its agnosticism.
III. The viper in the Church.—The serpent has penetrated paradise, and all man’s life is henceforth lived in his presence. The Church is the paradise of God on earth. It is the nearest meeting-place of man with God. It is the Home of Grace. It is the refuge of penitent sinners. It is the resting-place of God’s revelation. It is the soul’s best and truest home. It is here that you can do the greatest works for God. It is here that you can lead others to know the happiness that you have found. It is here that you may be ‘the light of the world,’ and ‘the salt of the earth.’ It is here that you may be God’s band of labourers, ‘fellow-workers with God.’ Yet here, too, beware of the dart of the serpent. Here he fastens upon and wounds the hand, Here sometimes narrowness, bitterness, obstinacy and self-will. proud contemptuousness, prejudice, jealousy, and littleness of spirit may mar and spoil what God has intended.
IV. To shake off the viper.—St. Paul shook off the venomous beast into the fire, and felt no harm, because he did it instinctively the moment the dart was made, and because he was God-protected by the last promise of our Lord to His disciples. It is only by the religion of Jesus Christ that we can cast off the serpent. No profession of morality, no trusting in one’s own strength, no force of character, no amount of self-respect will do it. No; nothing but the indwelling guidance and strength of the Divine Spirit, perpetually cherished, perpetually invoked, perpetually obeyed—nothing but this will help us to shake off the power of evil, and to take no harm.
