RHODA

"A damsel... named Rhoda...," Acts But, regardless, there are some lessons 12:13. which we may gather from this vivid picture hoda means "a rose," and "this rose" in of Rhoda and her behaviour on the one side Rmy life has kept its bloom for many of the door, while Peter stood hammering, in years now, for some 2000 years, and is still the morning twilight, on the other side of the sweet and fragrant and will always be. What door. We can notice in the relations of Rhoda a lottery of undying fame it. Men will give to the assembled believers a striking illustra- their lives to earn it, and this servant-girl got tion of the new bond of union supplied by the it by one little act, and never knew that she Gospel. had it. And I suppose she does not know to- Rhoda was a slave. The word rendered day that, everywhere throughout the whole in one version "damsel," means a female world where the Gospel is preached, "This slave. Her name, which is a gentile name, that she hath done is spoken of as a memo- and her servile condition, make it probably rial to her." that she was not a Jewess. If we would want Is the love of fame worthy of being called to indulge in a guess, it is not at all unlikely "the last infirmity of noble minds?" Or is it the that her mistress, Mary, John Mark’s mother, delusion of ignoble ones? Why need we Barnabas’ sister, a well to do woman of Jeru- care whether anybody ever hears of us af- salem, who had a house large enough to ter we are dead and buried, so long as the take in the members of the church in great Lord knows about us? The damsel named numbers, and to keep up a considerable es- Rhoda was little the better for the immortality tablishment, had brought this slave girl from which she had unconsciously won. the island of Cyprus. At all events, she was a slave. There is a resemblance between the de- tails of this incident and those of another In the time of our Lord, and long after, case, when Peter was recognized in dim light these relations of slavery brought an element by his voice, and Luke, who is the author of of suspicion, fear, and jealous espionage into Acts, seems to have had the resemblance almost every Roman household, because between the two scenes, that in the high every master knew that he passed his days priests’ palace and that outside Mary’s door, and night among men and women who in his mind, because he uses in this narrative wanted nothing better than to wreak their a word which occurs, in the whole of the New vengeance upon him. "A man’s foes were Testament only here and in his account of eminently those of his own household." what took place on that earlier occasion. How here this child slave, a gentile, has In both instances a maid-servant recog- been touched by the same mighty love as nizes Peter by his voice, and in both "she her mistress. Mary and Rhoda were kneeling constantly affirms" that it was so. I don’t together in the prayer meeting when Peter know if you can build upon this resemblance, began to hammer at the door. but at all events I think that the use of the "And when Peter was come to himself, same unusual word in the two cases, and no- he said now I know of a surety, that the Lord where else, seems to suggest that Luke felt hath sent his angel and hath delivered me how strangely events sometimes double out of the hand of Herod, and from all the themselves, and how the apostle who is here expectation of the people of the Jews. And all but a martyr is re-enacting, with differ- when he had considered the thing, he came ences, something like the former scene, to the house of Mary, the mother of John, when he was altogether a traitor. whose surname was Mark, where many were

39 RHODA gathered together praying. And as Peter Christ, may be taken as pointing symbolically knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel the way by which the social and civic evils of came to hearken, named Rhoda. And when this day are to be healed, and the war of she knew Peter’s voice, she opened not the classes to cease. "Neither Jew nor Gentile, gate for gladness, but ran in and told how bond nor free, male nor female, we are all Peter stood before the gate." one in Christ Jesus our Lord." Now neither woman thought of the un- Also this "Woman in My Life," Rhoda natural, unwholesome relation which had for- (Rose), teaches us the sacredness and merly bound them. In God’s good time, and the greatness of small common duties by the slow process of leavening society with counting for the Lord. Rhoda came out Christian ideas, that diabolical institution per- from the prayer meeting to open the gate. It ished in Christian lands. Violent reformation was her business, as we say, to answer the of immoralities is always a mistake. "Raw door, and so she left off praying to go and do haste is half-sister to delay." it. So doing, she was the means of delivering the apostle from the danger which still Settlers in forest lands have found that it dogged him. It was of little use to be praying is endless work to grub up the trees, or even on one side of the shut door when on the to fell them. "Root and branch" reform sel- other he was standing in the street, and the dom answers. The true way is to girdle the day was beginning to dawn. Herod’s men tree by taking off a ring of bark round the would be after him as soon as daylight dis- trunk, and letting nature do the rest. Dead closed his escape. trees are easily dealt with, living ones blunt many axes and tire many arms, and are alive The one thing needful for him was to be after all. taken in and sheltered. So the praying group and the girl who stops praying when she Thus the Gospel waged no direct war hears the knock, to which it was her business with slavery, but laid down principles which, to attend, were working in the same direction. once they were wrought into Christian con- It is not necessary to insist that no heights or sciousness, made its continuance impossible. delights of devotion and secret communion But, pending that consummation, the immedi- are sufficient excuses for neglecting or delay- ate action of Christianity was to ameliorate ing the doing of the smallest and most menial the condition of the slave. The whole aspect task, which is our task, opening a door. If of the ugly thing was changed as soon as your business is to keep the door, you master and slave together became slaves will not be leaving, but abiding in, the se- of the Lord Jesus Christ. cret place of the Most High, if you get up The Gospel has the same sort of work to from your knees in the middle of your prayer, do today, and there are institutions in full and go down and open it. flourishing existence in this and every other The smallest, commonest, acts of civilized community that are entirely antago- daily life are truer worship than in rapt nistic to the spirit and principles of and solitary or united prayer, if the latter Christianity as Roman slavery was. I, for my can only be secured by the neglect of the part, believe that the one uniting bond and former. Better to be in the lower parts of the healing medicine for society is found only house attending to the humble duties of the in Jesus Christ, and that in Him, and that slave than to be in the upper chamber, unit- the principles deducible from His revela- ing with the saints in supplication and leaving tion by Word and work, applied to all so- tasks unperformed. You are in full time cial evils, are their cure, and their only Christian service at the point of salvation cure. in Christ, and whatever you do you do it That slight, girlish figure standing at the as unto the Lord with all your might, even door of Mary, her slave and her sister in opening a door.

RHODA 40 We must remember how we may find head," as we say, and so went off to tell that here an illustration of still another great truth he was outside, instead of letting him in. in Rhoda, that the smallest things done in Joy and sorrow are equally apt to make the course of the quiet discharge of us forget plain and pressing duties, and we recognized duty, and being, therefore, may learn from this little incident the old-fash- truly worship of God, have in them a cer- ioned, but always necessary advice, to keep tain quality of immortality, and may be feelings well under control, to use it as im- eternally commemorated. It was not only pulse, and not as a guide, and never to let the lofty and unique expression of devotion, emotion, which should be down in the engine which another woman gave when she broke room, come on deck and take the wheel, the the alabaster box to anoint the feet of our helm. It is dangerous to obey feelings, un- Saviour, which were to be pierced with nails less the decrees are countersigned by tomorrow, that has been held worthy of undy- calm common sense illuminated by the ing remembrance. Scriptures. The name and act of a poor slave girl Sorrow is apt to obscure duty by its dark- have been commemorated by that Spirit who ness, and joy to do so by its dazzle. It is hard preserves nothing in vain, in order that we to see the road at midnight, or at midday, should learn the things which we vulgarly call when the sun is in our eyes. Both need to be great, and those which we insolently call controlled. Duty remains the same, whether small, are regarded by God the Holy Spirit, my heart is beating like a sledge hammer not according to their apparent magnitude, or whether my bosom’s Lord sits lightly but according to their motive and refer- on its throne. ence to Him. Christ said, "I will never forget any of their works." And this little deed of Whether I am sad or glad, the door that Rhoda’s, like the rose petals that careful God has given me to watch has to be housekeepers in the country keep upon the opened, and shut by me, and whether I am a sideboard in china bowls to diffuse a fra- door keeper in the house of the Lord, like grance through the room, is given us to keep Rhoda in Mary’s, or have an office that peo- in memory for ever, a witness of the sanc- ple think larger and more important, the im- tity of common life when filled with the perativeness of my duties is equally inde- Spirit in acts of obedience to Him. pendent of my momentary emotions and circumstances. Remember then, that duty damsel named This same figure, of the " remains while feeling fluctuates, and that, Rhoda," may give us a warning as to the sorrowful or joyful, we have still the same possibility of forgetting very plain duties un- Lord to serve and the same crown to win. der the pressure of very legitimate excite- "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, ment. "SHE OPENED NOT THE DOOR FOR longsuffering, faith, self-control." GLADNESS, but ran and told them." And, as if, while she was running in which her mes- And finally in Rhoda, this "Woman in My sage, Herod’s quaternions of soldiers had Life," we have an instance of a very modest, come down the street, there would have but positive and fully warranted trust in one’s been no small stir, in the church as to "what own experience in spite of opposition. They had become of Peter." had been praying here for Peter’s deliver- ance, and now that he is delivered, they will He would have gone back to his prison not believe it. There is sometimes a dash of sure enough. Her "first duty" was to open the unbelief in immediate answers to our prayers door. Her second one was to go and tell the mingling with the prayer. And although the brethren we have got him safe inside. But in petitions in this case were intense and fer- the rush of joyous emotions, she naively for- vent, as the original language tells us, and got what her first business was, "lost her had been kept up all night long, and although their earnestness and worthiness are guaran-

41 RHODA teed by the fact that they were answered, yet When something happens to you from when the veritable Peter, in flesh and blood, the Lord, it is yours and it is personal, and stood before the door, the suppliants first they cannot tell you it didn’t happen because said to the poor girl, Rhoda, "Thou art mad." you have had the experience that it has. And then, "It is an angel," not Peter. "It can- Well, at last they open the door and not be he." there Peter stands. Peter’s hammer, ham- Nobody seems to have thought of going mer, hammer at the gate is wonderfully given to the door to see whether it was Peter or in the story. It goes on as a kind of running not, but they went on arguing with Rhoda as accompaniment through the talk between to whether she was right or wrong. The un- Rhoda and the friends. It might have put a belief that alloys even golden faith is stop to the conversation, one might have taught us in this incident. Rhoda, "con- thought. But there is still "Another who stantly affirmed that it was so." The lesson stands at the door knocking, still more per- is trust your own experience, whatever sistently, still more patiently. "Behold, I stand people may say against it. If you have at the door and knock. If any man open the found that Jesus Christ can help you, and door, I will come in and sup with him." And has loved you, and that your sins have been this is addressed to believers with a chal- forgiven, because you have trusted in Him, lenge to get back into fellowship with Christ do not let anybody laugh or talk you out of so that He can sup with you. that conviction. Rhoda, the flower of the Word, If you cannot argue, do like Rhoda did, teaches us the importance of being faith- "Constantly affirm that it is so." That is the ful in small things, and doing your job as right answer, especially if you can say to the unto the Lord no matter if it is a door or a agnostic party, have you been down to the cup of cold water in the Lord’s Name. It is door, then, to see? And if you have to say, eternally rewarded and recorded as gold, "No," then the right answer is, "You go and silver, and precious stones. look as I did, and you will come back with the Rhoda says be the best, whatever it is same belief which I have." you are. Thank you, Rhoda.... Rose.

RHODA 42