The Acts of the Apostles (1911) — PDF Scan 179

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HERALDS OF THE GOSPEL 173 Jesus of Nazareth, carried conviction to many a soul longing for the advent of the promised Messiah. And the speaker's words of assurance that the ''glad tidings" of salvation were for Jew and Gentile alike, brought hope and joy to those who had not been numbered among the children of Abraham according to the flesh. *'When the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath." The congregation having finally broken up, ''many of the Jews and religious proselytes," who had accepted the glad tidings borne to them that day, "followed Paul and Barnabas : who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God." The interest aroused in Antioch of Pisidia by Paul's discourse, brought together, on the next Sabbath day, "almost the whole city ... to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. "Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light, of the Gentiles, that thou sliouldst be for salvation unto the ends of the earth." "When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed." They