IT Perhaps one of the most striking is presented to us in the history of the famous Warren Hastings. Hastings, when but a boy, conceived a passionate longing to regain for his family the ancient home of his forefathers, Daylesford, which, owing to monetary losses, had passed into the hands of strangers. He was but a poor lad when first the desire seized his mind ; but all through his long and chequered career this desire never left him, until towards the end of his life he accomplished his object, and purchased the ancestral home, where he ultimately died.2
1 J. H. Jowett. ■ S. C. Lowry,
The Saving Name.
ACTS & ROM. — 5
Literature.
Bamford (J. M.), The Burning Heart, 115. Book (W. H.), Columbus Tabernacle Sermons, 200. Franks (R. S.), Man, Sin, and Salvation, 78. Henderson (A. R.), God and Man in the Light of To-day, 157. Herford (B.), Anchors of the Soul, 210. Horton (R. F.), The Trinity, 191. Jeffrey (R. T.), The Salvation of the Gospel, 104, 125. Liddon (H. P.), Sermons on Special Occasions, 267. Martin (S.), Rain upon the Mown Grass, 225. Newbolt (W. C. E.), The Gospel Message, 136. Spurgeon (C. H.), New Park Street Pulpit, iv. No. 209. Williams (T. L.), Thy Kingdom Come, 67.
Christian World Pulpit, xlii. 162 (Whiton) ; lxx. 184 (Meyer); lxxvii. 392 (Guttery).
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The Saving Name.
And in none other is there salvation : for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved. — Acts iv. 12.
These words were uttered by St. Peter, as representing the
young Church of Christ, when, for the first time after her
foundation, she stood fairly face to face with the hostile power
of the world. On the Day of Pentecost she had encountered
some playful or scornful mockery, which was silenced when
St. Peter came forward and explained the true cause of the
occurrences which excited it. But when the cripple was
healed on the Mount of the Temple, the Jewish world roused
itself in earnest. The miracle was performed in the most
public place in Jerusalem; and immediately afterwards St.
Peter had addressed a large multitude which gathered round
him. He pointed out that Jesus, by the might of His Name,
was the real worker of the miracle; that His exaltation and
power were in accordance with prophecy; that it was a fact
of the utmost moment to every one of his hearers. Hereupon
three classes of persons became alarmed. The priests saw in
the Apostles of Christ dangerous rivals to their own office and
authority. The Sadducees — the unbelieving section of the
literary class — were angered at the public discussion of a
miracle, which, if true, condemned their own denial of a
resurrection, and which they would gladly have buried beneath
a contemptuous silence. The Captain of the Temple, as the
guardian of public order — a sort of chief commissioner of
police — was apprehensive that the excitement might lead to
disturbances. These several personages and classes might well
have taken the miracle to heart; they might at least have
asked the question why it had so impressive a significance for
an increasing section of the people. But questions of this
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68 THE SAVING NAME
kind are not often considered in moments of passion. The prejudices of the past, combined with fears and resentment, carried the day ; and they cast the Apostles into prison.
This done, it became necessary that the Apostles should be examined in court — the Court of the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was solemnly convoked ; it had, according to the law of Deuter- onomy, to decide the point whether the Apostles were to be regarded as true prophets or as seducers to idolatry. The Court knew that the cripple had been healed by the Apostles — not in the Name of Jehovah, but in the Name of Jesus. And this seemed to establish the charge of idolatry; since nothing could be plainer to the Jewish mind than the distinction between Jesus the Crucified Prophet and the Almighty Jehovah. The first question, therefore, which the Court asked the Apostles was, By what power or by what name have ye done this ? The Court, you will observe, does not enter upon the general question of the Apostles' teaching; it asks only who had been invoked to work the miracle. And St. Peter, standing before men who had his life in their hands, speaks directly to the point: "Ye rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole ; be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner." And then he adds, " Neither is there salvation in any other : for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved."
The text contains two important topics — I. Salvation. II. The Saving Name.
I.
Salvation.
What a great word that word " salvation " is ! It includes the cleansing of our conscience from all past guilt, the delivery of our