The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 2 — Section 237

tho humbling prophecie9 of the Messiah. Paul's" heresy" was, in fact, that he believed "all." '£he Jews' ruining sin was that they would not believe" all." This quietly spokon sentence of Paul gave the key to all. And it is another comment upon the Jews in harmony with that uttered by Jesus himself, "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have beliovod me," etc. (John v. 46).-B. Ver. 16 (see also previous Homily on eh. xxiii. 6).-A hO'pe gr011mfrom a dup and manifold root. The hope that there shall be a resurrection of the dead is here described as a "hope toward God." It is hope pre-eminently resting upon God. For- I. IT 18 THE INSTINOTIVE HOPE TOWARD Goo OF OUR NATURE GIVEN BY HIM. The deep-seated instincts of nature are necessarily among the strongest moral arguments of which we can take cognizance. II. IT IS THE HOPE TOWARD Goo THAT COMES OB' THE CONCLUSIONS OP OUII TRAINED REASON, A REASON GIVEN ALSO BY m:r.i:. Reason's arguments upon certain highest subjects, by themselves, may easily be uncertain and fallacious. But as guidei on the way to other arguments, and a9 supports of other argumenti,, they are often very significant, very suggestive, very helpful. A.lld it is so to a high degree in this instance. III. IT IS THE HOPE OF THE CHRISTIAN HEART TOWARD Goo. It is the end of the gospel to him who believeth. If this hope fall through, all falls through. The Christian's deception becomes an absolutely typical and leading instance of deception for the whole world's whole length of history; and the Christian's disappointment the keenest of all disappointments-his collapse making him the most miserable of all men. IV. The hope that this resurrection shall include all-the "unjust" as the "just" -IS .A HOPE TOWARD Goo BESTING EMPHATICALLY ON THE TESTIMONY OF HIS 0 ~ REVELATION, AND CONTRIBUTED TO LARGELY DY CERTAIN ASPECTS OP ms JUSTICE WITH WHICH THAT REVELATION lllAKEB us FAMILIAR. In this theme the mystery of unfathomable depths of unsearchable wisdom is before us. It enwraps the height ot highest hope, the deepest things of fear.-B. Vera. 24, 25.-71ul highest powers eluded by the heart's subterfuges. The immediate connection reminds us very forcibly how the man who is the worst friend to himself is sometimes environed with opportunities charged with the offer of mercy. Providenc11 and the God of all providence long wait upon him in natural relationships, in his very weaknesses, in suggestions and inducements of almost every various kind. How many things conspired now to give Felix the opportunity of hearing and knowing the truth! His position, his popularity, his knowledge" of that Way," the fact of his having married a Jewess, and even the itching of his hand for a bribe (ver. 26)-things so strangely at variance with one another and some of them with goodness-did nevertheless all com- bine to make him a hearer of the things greatest and best to be heard. He heard, felt, resisted, and lost. And Felix is a great and long-enduring illustration of- I. THE POWER THAT LIEB IN THE APPEALS OF RELIGIOUS, i l Q SPECIALLY OF CHBISTIAN TRUTH, There are deep valid reasons for this. 1. Right lies with them, by the verdict of (1) even reason; (2) conscience; (3) experience of pract,ical life. In every one of these directions, even to all their ramifications, there is nothing like a mere beating of the air, nothing like mere sound and fury, nothing like vo:,; et pr<Eterea nihil, in the appeals of religious truth, Each appeal is a home-thrust, that purports to reach and is fitted to reach what is deepest and most enduring in a man. And each appeal is a manifesto in the name of one or mc>re of these grand authorities and arbiters of humau life. 2. The imaginings, as just as they are instructive (if not first stifled) of the mysterious looming future, lend a large contribution to the power of religious appeal Sometimes they are roused as by the mutterings of distant thunder, sometim~s as by strains and snatches of celestial music. 'l'he echoes are for some so rich with sound, so mellow; or for others they wander as though haunting the empty chambers of hollow hearts. The app·rehension of the in.finite and the infinite future "hangs in doubt" before many eyes. But it is not always the apprehension of fear, and whether one or tho other it does its work. 3. Love, and of 11n unusual kind, dwells in them. 'l.'he interference with the sacredness and the retire<lness of indi,i.lual thought and feel- ing which is offered by religious appeal, and offered also with a certain appearance of arbitrary authority, is remarkl\bly counterbaianced by its unili$putc<l. disihterested11e:;s. 244 TBE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. [en. XXIV, 1-27.