Heralds of the Gospel
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was when Sergius Paulus, the deputy of Cyprus, was listening to the
gospel message. The deputy had sent for the apostles, that he might be
instructed in the message they had come to bear, and now the forces of
evil, working through the sorcerer Elymas, sought with their baleful
suggestions to turn him from the faith and so thwart the purpose of
God.
Thus the fallen foe ever works to keep in his ranks men of influence
who, if converted, might render effective service in God’s cause. But
the faithful gospel worker need not fear defeat at the hand of the enemy;
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for it is his privilege to be endued with power from above to withstand
every satanic influence.
Although sorely beset by Satan, Paul had the courage to rebuke
the one through whom the enemy was working. “Filled with the
Holy Ghost,” the apostle “set his eyes on him, and said, O full of
all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of
all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the
Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou
shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there
fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to
lead him by the hand. Then the deputy, when he saw what was done,
believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord.”
The sorcerer had closed his eyes to the evidences of gospel truth,
and the Lord, in righteous anger, caused his natural eyes to be closed,
shutting out from him the light of day. This blindness was not per-
manent, but only for a season, that he might be warned to repent and
seek pardon of the God whom he had so grievously offended. The
confusion into which he was thus brought made of no effect his subtle
arts against the doctrine of Christ. The fact that he was obliged to
grope about in blindness proved to all that the miracles which the
apostles had performed, and which Elymas had denounced as sleight
of hand, were wrought by the power of God. The deputy, convinced
of the truth of the doctrine taught by the apostles, accepted the gospel.
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Elymas was not a man of education, yet he was peculiarly fitted to
do the work of Satan. Those who preach the truth of God will meet the
wily foe in many different forms. Sometimes it will be in the person
of learned, but more often of ignorant, men, whom Satan has trained
to be successful instruments to deceive souls. It is the duty of the
minister of Christ to stand faithful at his post, in the fear of God and