The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 2 — Section 216

How different from fataliem I Such a oaee ae Livingstone in the dangers of hie Atrlcan mission reminds us that there is a feelincr of confidence in our weakness which ie like a vision in the night. Notice- " I. THE GUILT OF FANATIOISM:. The forty conspirators thought that they were doing God service. They divulged the oath to the chief priests and elders. It was, by their silence, appropriated ae the deed of the whole Sanhedrim, The blindness of their passion ~ecnred its OWll defe.at. II. Tm~ DITINE INTERPOSITION TO PROTECT, The eist.er of Paul probably .not a Christian. The boy attached to his uncle, showing the affectionate nature of the apostle. A weak instrument chosen of God to accomplish ~reat work. The soldierly feeling of the captain aroused, and his sympathy with a fellow-citizen of Rome. Human agents controlled and directed by Divine influences. III. ROMAN DESPATCH AND nrscIPLINll: called, again, into the service of the gospel. The promise of the Lord was being fulfilled, though in a way unanticipated by Paul. Cresarea revisited under very different circumstances. The lonely, persecuted Jew becoming important. Felix put on his mettle. The contrast between the two worlds -the world of Judaism and the world of imperialism. The prisoner going to Cresarea su:;gests what is wanted to deliver mankind from both-the cruelty of fanatics and the cruelty of despots and military ambition. The simplicity, heroism, all-conquering love of the Christian ambassador. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord." It was a significant change from Lysia.s's fortress at Jerusalem to Herod's palace at Clllsa.re&. The gospel was challenging the world.-R. Vers. 1-6.-.A threefold e:£ample ef true greatneas. Every careful reader of the Testament is aware that there is obscurity present to a certain degree in this passage. The obscurity is of a nature not very likely to yield to timid treatment. It does not seem likely that there remain facts of history which would clear it up, for instance. Rather would it seem the preferable conrse to face at once the difficulty, to-narrow its dimensions to the smallest compass, and to admit that it is not evident how it was that Paul failed to know the thing that he said he did not know-whether this were that Ananias was the high priest, or whether it were that it was Ananias who uttered the command to smite him on the mouth. For this is one among many instances of the sort of difficulty that offers no impossibility of reaching a very feasible explanation, but only perplexity and uncertainty, as to which among several may have been the actual explanation. All, however, that is now incumbent on ourselves is to accept in all good faith Paul's statement, and the lessons which may be suggested by what is before us will not be prejudiced. We have in the passage a threefold exemplification of the greatness that is open even to human character and life. L THE GREATNESS OF A GREAT IDEA AND RULE OF LIFE. There is no reason to think that Panl said what exceeded in the least degree the facts. 1. He owned to a con- science. 2. He owned to the principle that conscience ought to be accepted as guide. 3. He owned to the duty of accepting the governance of that conscience in things great and small-in" all things." 4. He glanced, to say the least, and very significantly, at the fact that conscience, too, had its Superior, its Master, its Judge-the living "God" himself. A life led through the length of its intelligent period in obedience to conscience is a life that will have steadiness, consistency, strength, about it. Equally noticeable is it that human greatness, where it may most really touch the mark, will own, as it did notably in the case of Saul, to much mixture of imperfection, to much possibility of error, to grand oversights, even if conscience be its guide, -;.nless that conscience is informed, is divinely informed, and is refreshed by the light of the Spirit of all true guiding. IL THE GBEATNEBB THAT CAllNOT PBOVE STOICAL WHEN lllOBAL OON8IDERATION8 ABE AT STAKE. 1. Paul feels an intense scorn of the thing that Ananias does. 2, Thongh by exposing it, and t~nchantly, in the face of open court, he exposed ~imself also to have it thought and said that personal resentment partly accounts for hie conduct, yet Paul was content to run the risk of this. Many do now think that the conduct of Paul and his language here oonirast unfavourably with what might have been, and <letrac:t something from the force of his righteous indignation on a righteous occasion. There is, however, such a thing as a noble disregard of fair fame, that a purer offering CH, xxm. 1-36.] 'l'IlE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 223