The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 2 — Section 232

the stwng cable which the giant's strength will be onable t.o divide. Well does Scrip- ture speak of "the deceitfulness of sin." 3. It is a fatal, thing, If 'rice hl\s slain ita thousands, and pride its thousands, surelv procrastination has slain ita tens of thousands, The man who is consciously and deterniinately refusing to serve God knows where he 1,tanda llnd what he is; he knows that he is a rebel against God, standing on perilous ground. But he who thinks he is about to enter the kingdom, or even dreams of so doing, 1,helters himself under the cover of his imaginary submission, e.nd goes on e.nd on, until sinful habit has him in ita iron cha.in, or until "pale-faced Death " knocks at his door, and he is found unreedy. "Oh, 'tis a mournful story, Thua on the ear of pensive eve t.o tell, Of morning's firm resolve the vanished glory, Hope's honey left to wither in the cell, And plants of mercy dead that might have bloomed BO we]L• a. Vers. 1-23.-Paul befO'T'e Fe'Uz. L TEBTULLus AND PAUL: A OONTBABT, Between false and spurious eloquence. False rhetoric, as Plat.o taught, always owes its power t.o its flattering the passions of the audience. So here the orator addresses himself directly to the magistrate's self-love. It is pretty clear that Felix, instead of being the bene- ficent ruler he is described as being, must have been well hated by the people for his vices and oppression. Later they accused him to the emperor. Flattery is a great solvent. The great gain the little, and not less the little gain the great to their ends by it. " Great lords, by reason of their flatterers, are the first to know their own virtues, and the last to know their own vices" (Selden). "Know that flatterers are the worst kind of traitors" (Sir W. Raleigh). On the other hand, true eloquence speaks to the heart and conscience (ver. 10). Paul indulges Felix in no flattering complimentary titles. He respects the office e.nd the existing order which it represents, true to his teaching in Rom. xiii. ; but not the bad man in the office. He speaks with freedom and boldness. He avows himself the member of a despised sect. He is a Nazarene. But Christianity iB no newly invented heresy, nor does the gospel depart from the faith of the fathers. Rather Christ's gospel their spiritual sum and substance, the end and goal of the old covenant. All that is true in any of our sects is continuous with the old ; what is quite novel is probably not true. The simple words of Paul contain a fine defence of persecuted opinions. 1. They are not of yesterday. 2. The future belongs to them. 3. :Meanwhile, the great thing we exercise is a good conscience. If they are really conscientious, force cannot put them down. II. THE CB:msTrill'e BEST DEFENCE. 1. " To have a conscience void of offence." Reli- gion which does not aim e.t this and end in this, is vain; otherwise a mere matter of the head, or of hereditary habit, an occasion of contention and source of division, chaff without wheat, and a shadow without life. A life that will bear the inspection of men and of God, the only certificate of true religion; or rather, the endeavour for such a life. The "exercise of one's self" in worthy habits, to noble ends. 2. Hope is ever c::on- nect.ed with the good conscience. The hope of the resurrection not a doctrine the splendour of which tirst appears in the New Testament pages; it appears in bright glimpses in the Old from the time of the Babylonian Captivity onward. In some form it lives and bums at the heart of all genuine faith and religion. With a joyous con- fession on the liJ!B, a clear conscience in the bosom, an innocent life-record behind one, the just judgment of God before one's expectation,-here are the defences of the Christian against the arrows of calumny.-J. Vera. 24-27.-The Divine Word MUI, the wnsCU111U. L LOVING THE somm OJI' THB GOSPEL, BUT NOT THE GOSPEL ITBELF. There is silver music in the message of recon- ciliation to man's distracted heart; but the call to repentance as the necessary condition of peace, this is discordant with passion and self-will. And there are grave errors here. Some suppose that the gospel renders the moral law superfluous; others, that the freedom of the conscience under the gospel means licence ; others take faithful reproof BS personal a.ffront ; many are WJ.der the dominion of sense, and the will is captive t,o the l118til of the flesh. err. XXIV. 1-17.] THE AOTB OF 'rHJ1j APOSTLES. 239