GALLIO the indifferent! History tells us he was the brother of Seneca the philosopher, who exclaims, “O most sweet Gallio! Few men are so agreeable about anything as my brother Gallio is about everything!” Yet this amiable man lost a marvelous opportunity to hear the gospel from the lips of Paul, and perhaps lost his soul at last just because he was so unconcerned about eternal things that he did not consider them worthy of his attention. To him the whole matter was beneath contempt, consisting only, as he supposed, of a quarrel about words and names and Jewish ceremonial observances. So he turned scornfully away without hearing that glad message which God was sending out in grace to a needy world. His attitude stands out as a warning to others not to treat lightly the privileges Sod gives, lest the day of doom find them still in their sins.
“Oh, what will you do in the solemn day,
When earth and sea shall flee away;
When the rending heavens in fire shall roll,
And shrivel up like parchment scroll?
Oh, what will you do when the sins of the past
Shall rise like clouds that gather fast,
And stand before you in dread array;
O sinner, tell me, what wilt thou say?”