The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 2 — Section 52

wol'k of gm.co. Mother, friend, minister, he.ve the simple power of agency; none ot: them co.n, by o.ny endeavours, reach to the heart and effect tho saving chan:;e. Ill ns- tra.to by the wa.y in which the florist produces new colours and new varieties of Bowel'. Ilo carefully puts the pollen grnins on the top of tho pistil, but ho cannot O'et them down tho pistil to fructify the seeds below. 'l'he mysterious power of nature can alone accomplish that. Or illustrnte by the peculiar kind of stone which may be smashtd to pieces, but, if set ari!}ht to the blow, will Rplit into ?seful slabs. God alone can set men right fol' the influence of tho preached Word. It 1s our duty to briug saving truth and sinful souls together, but with the Lord alone is the opening to receive. Show how this may become an encouragement to all Christian workers who can see that God i~ working with them, and that in some of those whom they seek to bless the work of gl'ace is evidently begun. II. GOD THE SPIRIT HAS VARIOUS WAYS OJ' BRINGING SOULS TO CHRIST, That which describes the work of grace in the heart of Lydia. is not said of any one else. it was just the way in which the Spirit was pleased to deal with her. We find that in creation God always acts on fixed principles, but he is never trammelled by the necessity for expressing those principles in fixed forms. Landscapes, plants, trees, countenances, minds, all take form upon definite and invariable vegetable, or animal, or mental laws; but no two of them are alike in their form. Infinite diversity is quite compatible with vite.l unity. It is equally true in the new creation. God has laid down certain principles on which the return of souls to him must be arranged.. There must be (1) penitence, (2) humility, (3) faith; but the exact way in which these are to find expression is left undefined. Show, then, how improper it must be to make any one man's experience a necessary model for another man; and consequently bow injurious Christian biographies may become to young seekers after God, if such seekers take up the idea. that they must think e.nd feel and act precisely as others have done. The workings of the Divine Spirit in man are divinely free. IIJ. THE GENTLENESS AND THE GRACE OF DIVINE DEALINGS ARE SEEN IN THE ADAI'TATION OF METHODS OF CONVERSION TO INDIVIDUALS. Some can only hear God when he speaks in the loud tones of earthquake, storm, or fire. But it is equally true that others pay no heed until there comes to them the "still small voice;" and thererore the voices of God are so graciously varied to men. Illustrations of the variety and adaptation of God's methods may be taken from Scripture. Shepherds from the Bethlehem plains were guided to the infant Saviour by direction of the holy angeis ; and star-gazing Magi were guided by the sign of the heavenly light. Godless and persecuting King Manasseh was humbled in the dust, put in a. prison-house, and prepared by affliction to listen to his fathers' God. The eunuch of Queen Candace was led by Divine providence, and prepared by studious and meditative habit, to see in Jesus of Nazareth the Mes8iah-Saviour of Old Testament prophecy. St. Paul was brought to faith by a. sudden and overwhelming revelation suited to convince a. man of so impulsive a character. The jailor at Philippi was broken down by terror, and plucked from the very edge of e. self-inflicted death. And Lydia. felt the constraining power of the story of the Crucified. In each case the grace of Divine dealing may be shown in the adaptation to character and circumstances. Apply to : 1. Those who have long known the power of God opening their hearts to the truth. What is now need~d is the full acceptance of faith. 2. 'l'hose just conscious cf new feelings and desires. Whence do they come? They must be the Spirit workin:a; in you. Whither do they tend? Surely to the faith in Christ that saves. 3. Those who fear Lhat they l::.ave had no inward movings of the Spirit of God. Perhaps they are only unnoticed. Maybe that even now you are ready to hear of Christ, the living Saviour, who wants your love and trust.-R. T. Ver. 17.-The witness of evil spirits to Christ. This poor slave-girl was subject to some kind of convulsive or epileptio fits. Brain-disease, and tho rnrious forms of hysteria, WCl'e very imperfectly understood in the olden times. "Notbiog was Jes:; unJcrstood in antiquity than tlleso obscure phases of mental excitation, and th~ strarig;o flashes of sense, and even sometimes of genius, out of the gloom of a. perturbed mtellect, were 1·egarded as inspired and prophetic utterances." General opinion a,sociated such forms of disease with possession of some spirit, good or bad; and it is curious to not11  ~ THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. fOH. XVI, 1-40,