The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 2 — Section 104

RIGHTLY JllMDilA0ED, 011' THE BELll'-BUPPORTING OHARAOTER 011' CHRISTIANITY. This is it~ honest pride. It asks air ancl light. And it asks love and faith trust and trial. And it thoreupon nsks nothing more,. til_l of H, it ~omes to be asked, ~nd passionately, what devout, grateful, ndorin" return m its Rurpassmg condescension it is willin,,. to receive. Beneath not unfrequent disg11ises, Christianity has been a long history or°givin,,.0 and not taking, giving and not even receiving, till hand and heart have become one. And men, suppliant in loving and overflowing devotion, have begged their Master Lord and Saviour to accept of themselves and their all.-B. ' ' Vers. 9-11.-The complement to human uncertainty found in Divine fidelity. It must be supposed either that the omniscient eye saw some 8igns of failin" in Paul or else that the greatness of the work and the severity of the trials befo~e him .,;ere judged by Divine compassion to ask some special help. Notice, therefore, how true it is that- I. THE DEST AND STRONGEST 011' HUMAN DEVOTION IS LIABLE TO SOME UNCERTAINTY. No reference is here made to the fickleness that owns to no real devotion, nor ever sprang from depth of root, We are to note that the longest human persevernnce may yet break, the stoutest human heart may have its weaker moments, during which irretrievable damage may be done to its cause and discredit to itself, and the warmest devotion may under certain circumstances cool. 1. Exceeding weariness of the flesh may overcome, some unexpected hour, the truest human devotion, if it get lefr as it were just a moment to itself. 2. An exceedingly ballled state of the mind and of faith may throw that determined human devotion. The vicissitude of the world, the Divine conduct of its history, and, not the least, the Divine conduct of the grand forces of Christianity, when they seem awhile to halt or to be mocked by their own professed friends into discredit,-these often offer to baffle each deepest thinker, each most observant reflector. 3. The exceeding keenness of the soul's own peculiar disappoint- ment, when the beauty and the persuasiveness and the unchallengeable merit of Christ do nevertheless count, to all present appearance, for nothing before the brute force of the powers of evil,-this threatens the patience of human devotion. II. THE UNFAILING SUCCOUR OF DIVINE INTERPOSITION. That interposition rests on three very thoughts of mercy. They are : 1. The Divine observingness of " all and each," and of the most secret hear~ and need of each. 2. The Divine sympathy. This h! one of the great ultimate facts of a risen, ascended, glorified Saviour, who had been once with us, and who still shares, high aloft as he, is our nature. 3. The Divine practical methods of rescue in the hour of danger a provision against its over-storming rage. Among such methods may bo ranked: (1) Divine suggestions. These are angels of angels oftentimes to the depressed, the doubting, the darkened, yet the loving and trne of heart--they are like nothing, more than those rays of light, which are the brighter and more exactly defined for the darkness of the clouds past ,vhich they travel. (2) The triumph of a quickened faith. Surely this is "the gift of God." If faith itself be so, the brightest fl.ashiugs forth of the very pride of faith, if it be possible to say so, might be yet more inscribed the gifts of God-so opportune, so enlightening, so banishing to doubting darkness and to darkest doubting. '].'here is a moment when perfection is to the fragrance of blossom, the colour of flower, the ripeness of fruit, the light on the landscape, and there are moments when Faith knows and does her very best. And it is at such moments that God "restores the soul" of his servant. The miracle of vision and dream is nothing more pronounced, more certai □, more conclusive, to con- viction than these triumphal moments, when faith is in its pride and glory, and achieves its best. (3) The direct promise (Ps. xci. 1, 3-6, 11, 12, 14, 15; xxiii. 4 ; lxxiii. 23), '!'he promise made to Paul in this vision gathers round the centre that had drawn already, then, ages and generations round it; and how many more by this time I "I am with thee." And that central promise is good for all bearings of it, "Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world" (1 John iv. 4). It holds from such a statement of fact as this, to the immortal Christian charter-promise, "Lo, I am with you al way, even to the end of the world I" The direct promise, in the midst of our human u1.certainty and unsteadiness of performance, is clear, exact, steady, and certain, Resting our faith, it feeds hope, and draws closer and closer the bands of love. (4) The conviction of there being, in 1pite of 1111 appearances, a large harvest to  J 06 THE AC'fS OF THE APOS'l'LES. (oH. :r.vm. 1-28.