The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 2 — Section 157

be thw; 11ummarized and thus repeated: "Repentance toward God and faith toW&rd our Lord Jesus Christ." These two articles constitute the Christian magna charta, They_ clear the past, they give the key for the future and for all its hope and unfolding promise. " Repentance toward God" clears the very sky of human life and with a glorious sky indeed overvaults the heart itself. While" faith toward oik Lord Jesus Christ" will secure all else that ca.n be wanted till the time comes for faith to turn to~~L • Ill. PAUL'S .U."XIOUS OUTLOOK-THE OUTLOOK OF !IPIRITUAL LOVE. He is not the man to feel he has done his work, and may leave all the rest. He feels he can't lca,•o all the ~t. Care and anxiety for the morrow, not of earthly good and personal gain, possess him, but for the morrow of the spiritual career and the very souls of those he had called and testified to and led by bis example nt Ephesus. '!'hat a people see this and feel this genuinely present in their spiritual teacher and pastor, is an influence of ;:reat effect upon them. And there is another way in which it acts to great advantage. As time flows on., and the hour of trial and temptation and darkness may come, men arc wonderfully helped when they can recall the voice and look and earnestness 9f one who " told them of these things before they came to_ pass." IV. PAUL'S FAITH IN EXAMPLE AND HIS RESPECTFUL REGARD FOB THE "WITNESS" OF THOSE AMONG wnoM HE HAD LABOURED. Pride and priestly superciliousness never give expression to this side of the question. That the priest's eye is on the people is their haughty doctrine, and the so genuinely true other side of the matter, that the people's eyes are on the priest, to which Paul gives here such humble and kindly expression, is pushed into coldest shade by them. Without doubt, we are justified in thus regarding all that Paul here says of himself that might seem to be said in a self- commendatory style; there is in very truth nothing of this in)1is spirit. He does but speak facts, and can say "ye know" (vers. 18, 34) about them. If the el_ders of Ephesus do not know them, or know them to be not as Paul says, he has courted contradiction, not hidden himself away from it. Of what incalculable consequence example ever is ! Of what thrilling consequence it is in the career of the Christian minister and pastor! Vi:Jiat quiet rebuke it is, free from bitterness of tongue! What choicest stimulus and suggestion it is, full of life and movement as it is I The leading items of conduct and example, in which the Ephesian elders bad been able to take witness of Paul, are interesting to follow. 1. They had witnessed a long stretch of time and variety of state and temper. 2. '!'hey bad witnessed an humility <if mind that bended itself to circumstances, and endured aright what caused tears not idle and jeopardy of life many a time. 3. They had witnessed frankness of relations, plainness of ,speech, constancy of ministry, in public and in private. 4. They had witnessed a three years' continued impartial" warning of every one night and day with tears." 5; They bad not witnessed any self-seeking, any desire of "silver, or gold, or apparel." _6. They had, on the contrary, witnessed. their chief pastor at manual labour, to supply .his own temporal needs and to help bis companions. And in reminding the Ephesian elders of these things, Paul has enshrined for all generations one of the sweetest wo.rds of Jesus, unrecorded elsewhere. Yes; and whatever might come to be, there was no'doubt that Paul had, by all these uncontradicted methods, become unspeakably endeared to those whom he now addresses. - V. P .A.UL'i; USE OF APPEAL. Direct practical appeal is evidently one of the recognized gospel/orces. The preacher is not to forget it (vers. 28, 31). VI. PAUL'S FINAL BEBOBT TO PBAYEB. The particularity with which even this testimony of Paul to prayer is recorded is worthy of remark, "And when be had thus spoken, be kneeled down, and prayed with them a!L" Prayer is _the .renunciation of self-confidence. Prayer is the authorized summons for higher help. Prayer is the sure signal of the approach of strength to weakness, continuance to uncertainty, and power to prevail in place of the temptation by which men should fall. VII. LASTLY, PAUL'S MOVING TENDERNESS OF BPIBIT IN ALL. This tenderness and highly moved state of soul is betokened at every turn. If Paul speak of the rela.tions that bad subsisted between the Ephesians and himself (vcrs. 18-20); if he speak of his own future (vers. 22-25) or allude to his own past (ver~. 31-35); if he introduce the names of the Lord Jesus (vers. 24, 35), of the Holy Ghost, and the Church (vcr. 28), of God (ver. 32) ;-the touch is of the lcendcrcst, the tone is of the warmest. ann softest, CU, XX, 1-38,] THE AOTS OF THE APOSTLES. lG:J