and God took this petty prison in His
hand and shook it as a dicer might shake his dice box, and all its
doors were thrown open and the fetters were shaken from the feet of
those that were bound. And the old jailer is shaken out of his
complacency and out of his bed and a great terror grips him.

I can see him as he picks himself up and looks about him in dismay.
The doors are open. He is sure that the prisoners are gone. He knows
that his life will be to pay. He will not face the shame of it. He
will inflict justice upon himself. He draws his sword and prepares to
thrust it through him, but Paul's eyes were upon him, and knowing his
purpose he shouts at him, "We are all here, Jailer. Do thyself no
harm."

There is love in that cry, tenderness in it, longing in it that the
jailer could not understand. Neither could he fail to realize the
might of it. It touches him deeply. He is gripped by another terror,
the terror that has come through the presence of these strange men who
have brought the things of eternity to seem real to him. And urged on
by that new terror he rushes to these men of bleeding backs and
tattered garments and throws himself at their feet with this great
question in his heart and upon his lips, "Sirs, what must I to do be
saved?"

Now, I am aware of the fact that this jailer was a heathen and I am not
accusing him at all of being a great theologian. I do not know how
learned he was. I do not know whether he could read or write or not.
I do not know whether he was widely traveled or not. He may have never
been beyond the precincts of his own city. But what I do know is this,
that he asked the biggest question that ever fell from human lips.
There can be no greater. It was the greatest for him. It is the
greatest for you. It is the greatest for me. "What must I do to be
saved?" There is no question quite so big as that.

And I am wondering now if it is a big question to you. Remember, it is
not: What must I do to be decent? It is not: What must I do to be
respectable? These things are all right, but they are not supreme. It
is not: What must I do to get rich? Millions of us are asking that
question as if it were the one question of eternal importance. But you
know that it is not. It is not: What must I do to be beautiful? Some
of us are asking that question too, and some of us, I am sorry to say,
are missing the answer to it very much. But that is not the big
question.