The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 2 — Section 187

hardly prudent. The leaders of the Church at Jerusalem tried tom11.ster the difficulties of the posilion by compromise, which is usually 11. sign of conscious wee.kness, 11.nd often n.ther mal.,es than settles the difficulty with which it deals. "The heads of tho Church in Jerusalem dreaded nothing but 11.n uproar, if St. Paul's presence in the city should become kuown. In order, therefore, to appease the multitude, they proposed to the apostle to observe the sacred usages publicly in the temple, with four men who woro paying their vows, and to present an offering for himself-a proposal which he willin!l;ly adopted. But although the concession of the apostles to the weak brethren proceeded from a good intention, yet it turned out disastrously. 'l'ho furious enemies of St. P11.ul were only the more exasperated by it" (Olshausen). It was a case of "over-Cll.'.dion," and it well illustrates the weakness and the peril that usually lie in over-cautious schemes. L THE PLACE FOR OOMPROMISE. Which is the practical expression of extreme caution, and the constant resort of cautious dispositions. It is useful: 1. When the matter in dispute cannot have a full and final adjustment. 2. When such serious interests a.re at stake that it is important not to keep open the dispute. 3. When both parties have a measure of right on their sides, and the claim of each must be moderated to admit the right of the others. 4. When the intense feeling of the disputants prevents the acceptance of any positive settlement. These may be illustrated both from worldly and from Christian spheres. II. Tim PERILS OF COMPROMISE. They arise from the fact that, as a rule, 1. Com- promise settles nothing, but really leaves the old difficulty to find a new expression. 2. It keeps in relation parties who would be much better apart. 3. It gives those who a.re in the wrong, an impression of weakness in those who suggest the compromise, and so encourages them in the wrong and leads them to take advantage of the weakness; as is illustrated in the case before us of the Judaizing party. III. THE PRACTICAL IMPORTANCE OF TAKING A FIRM STAND UPON WHAT IS BIGHT. Nothing disarms opposition as this does, and nothing settles disputes a.s a firm and wise decision. If the apostolic council had simply and firmly accepted St. Paul, given their public testimony to their confidence in him, and explained the relation in which the Gentile Churches and their teacher stood to tho Jewish Churches and their teachers, mistakes would have been corrected, opposition would have been checked, and St. Paul's enemies would have failed to make a party. All the calamities that followed, though foreordained of God, are, on their human side, traceable to the over-caution and weak compromise of the Jerusa.Jem apostles, Learn the value of prudence and caution in the practical concerns of life, but learn also the perils of the exaggeration of caution, and the adoption of compromises when we have before us questions of right and wrong. Right is right, and we must stand to it whatever may be the peril.-R. 'f. Vel'li. 27-30.-Parly prejudices. Explain the points of view of the Judaizing party. Zeal for the purity of Mosaism can be commelloded. The binding character of Mosaic Law on all born Jews may be recognized. We cannot wonder that many of the Jews should re.,"11.I'd Christianity as a reform of Juda.ism, rather than what such men as St. Paul saw it to be-the completion and perfection of Judaism. Regarding it as reformed Judaism, they would plead that its claims rested on all Gentiles who became Christian Jews. The first indications of the existence of this Juda.izing party within the Christian community we find in eh. xv. 1. 'l'ben the matter occasioned so much dispute that the advice of the apostolic council had to be sought. Their judgment was virtually against the Judaizing party, and this intensified their opposition, made them cling even more closely to their party prejudices, and led them to regard St. Paul more distinctly as the leader of the more liberal views which they hated, They followed the apostle everywhere; they tried to undermine his influence and destroy his work; and it even seems that they resolved not to rest until they had secured hi, death. They are striking examples of the worst phases of the sectarian spirit, which blinds to truth, hardens from conviction, destroys a man's tenderness, and makes cruelty and crime possible to him. Scarcely any evil force has exerted in history so baueful an influence 11.B that of the party spirit. It was an ideal time which the poetical historian describes, "when none w&B for a party, but all were for the state." Still the sectarian ~µ,d par~y spirit is the ~avest trouble affli<>l;ing Chriet's Church, a,nd the IllOBt seripus (JIJ, :llll, 1-30.J THE ACTS OF THE APOS'fLES. 193