The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 2 — Section 106

the sacrifice, tho absolute unqualified loss are what only the omniscierit eye cnn see, an,\ nro such t\int the eye of Jesus_ would "weep" ove_r them. A much happier view of fitness, wlach courted opportunity, and of opportunity which was divinely vouchsafed to fitness, is here before us, Let us observe- I. THE FITNESS, It is illustrated in two instances. 1. The instance of .Apollos. (1) He was eloquent, It was very possibly a native ~ft with him. If it were such, it was used-used in a good ea.use, bnproved by nee. Many a natural advantage is not used; or is so sluggishly used that it wine no improvement and earns no talen-t beside itself; or used, it is used to inferior ends or to really bad purpose. So far from its being able to be described as "improved," it both desecrates and is desecrated. (2) He had the fitness of one who had acquired knowledge of the Scriptures, and very hearty, thorough knowledge of them. He understood their parts and their harmony. He could, no doubt, quote them, compare them, vindicate them against misinterpretation or very weak interpretation, And thoroughness of acquaintance with them raised their meaning and value and admirableness incomparably for him, A very scanty, meagre acquaintance with Scripture is dishonour offered to it and its high worthiness; but, furthermore, it has no value for the subject of it. He is stricken with famine in the presence of rich abundance, and the strickenness is all his own doing. The average modern Christian loses, perhaps, beyond all that is supposed, from this one source. (3) He had been instructed and had taken the graft of such instruction respectin.~ the Messiahship of Jesus. "This word," upon which all turned for the Jew of that day, he had "received with meekness." And this word, though at present he hau not got beyond the "baptism of John," and knew little of the" baptism of the Holy Ghost," was bearing already "much fruit." ( 4) He owned to the great qualification of" fervour in the Spirit/' It was a fervowr assuredly not all his own, not altogether native iu gift. The Spirit had condescended to descend and light upon him. (5) He had a certain fitness of practical aptitude at speaking, And he did not bury it. He began by "speaking" as if in conversation with one or more. He went on to "teaching," and neither his teaching nor any who heard it rebuked his advance, it would appear, till he found himself" preaching boldly" in public in the synagogues. It is just as though impulse had been faithfully obeyed, and felt its way, felt it rightly from step to step. (6) He bad also a certain missionary fitness. No large language boasts it to us, but the significant language of his deeds speaks it. He was "disposed" to pass on ward. This is the disposition of the gospel. It refuses to stagnate. It refuses to be partial. It refuses to forget "the ends of the earth." It refuses to stay its course till it shall "cover the earth, as the waters covert.he sea." 2. The instance ef Aquila and Priscilla. Behind the all-brief allusion to them, what a background, we may be well assured, lies I What loss of worldly businese, what vexation, what fatigue, what wounded hearts and painful aspects of human life, and strange estimates of the great Invisible, must have been the. oft visitants of thooe banished Jews of Rome I Yet (1) they had fallen in with Paul, and not been afraid of him, nor of his truth, which was one with him, and they had "learned of him." Ay, it was the foundation of all fitness for them. Bnt (2) they had admitted Paul to be "partners" with them, or workman for them at wages, and had received him as an indoor servant. So they had not only ler,rnt the first out- line and elements of Christian truth, but they had enjoyed the priceless advantage of learning ever so much more by question and answer, at many an odd moment, when the light burst in on them like a flash of lightning, only with healing instead of alarming effect. They had learned in many a nicely disposed frame of mind, when a quarter of an hour gave more than a week would have otherwise given. They had also been relieved and cheered through long stretches of wearisome toil, yet the time sped all too quickly, And many a time they said, in thinking of it all, "Did not our heart burn within us?'' They were qualifying for nothing different from this-to " expound the way of Goa more perfectly " to others. (3) They had come to feel themselves, if it might at all be so, "inseparable" from Paul. They must go with Paul (ver. 18) into Syria nnd to Ephesus (ver. 19). "There," it is significantly said, "hC1 left them" (ver. 19), for it was time their own separate usefulness and ministry should begin, II. TaE OPPORTUNITY, 1. For Apollos, He seemed made for usefulness. (1) He h11d begun work right heartily before Aquila and Priscilla had told hirr. the late~t and 108 'l'HE ACTS OF THE APOSTLE:S. (en. xvln. 1-2i:I.