The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 2 — Section 46

Vera. 1-5.-.Apostolic devotion owned. The opening two little words of the fifth verse must not be neglected. The fifth verse does not merely summarize the incidents narrated in the preceding four verlies. It connects them as effects with their just causes, or with that which was in part, and as matter of fact, their just cause. Observe, then, that- I. THE LOVE OF APOSTOLIC HEABTS ESTABLISHES FAITB DI THE HEARTS OF OTHERS A..."ID INCREASES THE SPREAD OF IT, II. THE KINDLY PASTORAL VISITING OF THOSE OF SUPERIOR KNOWLEDGE, AND WHO HAVE REEN SET AND CALLED OF Goo, AS LEADERS, ESTABLISHES THE FAITH OF WHOLE CHUrtCHES AND INC!tEASES THEIR NUMBER. Ill. THE ACTIVE ZEAJ, OF THE OLDER AND HONOURED LEADERS IN SEEKING AND ENCOURAGING YOUNG RECRUITS THROWS ENERGY INTO EXISTL.'IG FAITH AND PROVIDES DIRECT MEANS FOR PROPAGATING IT. 1. Paul selects Timothy, observing him to be the right sort. 2. Paul recognizes the need of new blood and young blood, and lets the Churches see that he does so. 3. Paul suggests the circumcision of Timothy, as son of a Jewish mother, that no time should be unnecessarily lost in removing objections on the part of the Jewish elements in the Churches he was visiting. lV. A!'I EQUITABLE ADMINISTRATION OF THE DECISIONS OF THE "APOSTLES A!.ll ELDERS," AND A JUST ATTENTIO!'I TO ECCLESIASTICAL ORDER, STEADIES THE FAITH RESIDENT IN 'l'HE CHURCH AND PROMOTES THE GROWTH OF IT ELSEWHERE. (Ver. 4.) To try to "put a yoke upon the neck" of any Church is to" tompt God n (eh. xv. 10). To give it true liberty is like giving it air and light.-Il. I Vers. 6-12.-The Spi-rit's course. It may be laid down as a canon, that the faets marking periods of speciai gifts and s:pecial inspiration and special" dispensatious" point to Jl?'inci1ile.1 availablo for other periods in the whole history of the Church and the worltl. What mi~ht otherwise seom among the driest historical or sometimes almost geographical statements aro accordingly threaded together by an invisible bond o{ conucction, which lends them abundnut interest. .And bore, from the apparer:tly bare narration that is given Ull of whore Piiul and Silas went, where they <lid not go, and whcr~ ,tiwy wishctl to go but wore overruled, wo may learn- I. I rm UEALl'l'Y <DF TUii SPlll.IT'S PU0l'FERED CONDUCT OF 'l'KE CHURCH.  'l'IlE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. [on. XVI, 1--10,