The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 2 — Section 269

us: 1. That the truth of the goRpol ia that which can be indefinitely extended witho1Jt making any man the poorer. If a m&n divides his gold among the poor, he loses it himself, but he who imparts heavenly wisdom, Christian influence, gains 39 be give~. 2. That it is the tendency of Christian truth to make its possessor desire to extend it. '1.'he contemplation of a God of love, the study of the life and spirit of the self-sacrificing Saviour, tho purity of the joy which it inspires in the h111nan heart,-these are fitted to produce in the soul o. holy yearning to extend to c.thers the blessedness we enjoy. 3. '!'hat it becomes us to put forth all our talents to dif;\,.,e the knowledge and to spread the kingdom of Jesus Christ. The thought of millions of souls starving that might feed on the bread of life should animate us with keen desire and send us with elastic step in the path of deliverance and of life.-0. Vere. 1-32,:._Paid before Festus and ,Agrippa. His address may be divided as follows:- !. 'raE REMARKABLE STORY OF ms LIFE. (Vere. 1-18.) 1. Bis life in Judaism. He had been brought up, as all knew, in the strictest sect of hls religion, a Pharisee. Paul's example, it has been remarked, lends no countenance to the fallacy that disso- lute students make the best preachers. He had been conscientious from the first, a friend of virtue, and a servant of the Law. He had not sacrificed his youth to vice, nor wooed with unabashed front the means of weakness and debility, physical or moraL " One cannot believe that men of this kind are so quickly converted. Ordina- tion does not change the heart, nor is the surplice or gown a means of grace." 2. The charge agair.st him. Notwithstanding that an evil leaven of passion or zeal had worked in him in those unconverted days (and he does not conceal it), he had retained the Pharisaic hope of the resurrection of the dead. The zeal of the Jews, on the other hand, a!Zainst the gospel, tended to cut them o! from living connection with the religion of their fathers, and from the blessings of the better covenant which superseded the old. And this zeal of unbelief was blind. What was there incredible in the idea of the resurrection of the dead? The question m.1y be gen11ralized to the unbeliever-What is there at bottom so incredible in any of the great ,,l,_lects of Christian faith? The form of the belief may change, the substance remainB from age to age. 3. His own resistance to conviction. He can speak feelingly to these sceptics, for he has known the most stubborn doubt and resistance himself. He had been under an illusion. He had thought it a duty to oppose Jesus. There is a deep and pure joy in confession, and in the knowledge that one's own sincere experience will be profitable as guide and warning to others. He is ever ready to speak on thls matter ; it is one of his noblest traits ( eh. xxii.; 1 Tim. i. 16). The blessed change he can never forget ; he is a living wonder to hlmself and to many. Let preachers derive their best material from the experience of their heart and life. 4. His conversian. (Vers. 13-18.) The splendour of that light from heaven shining on his path of blind fury can never be forgotten. And the first beam which breaks through the night of our sin and stubbornness is worthy of eternal recollection and meditation (2 Cor. iv. 6). The glory of the once humiliated but now enthroned Saviour sw-passes all. With the light comes the voice, which humiliates and raises, rebukes and cheers. The voice echoes the secret voice of his conscience, hitherto, in the intoxication of his passion, half heard or not heard at all. But it is also a voice which is loftier than that of the self-condemning conscience- Divine, pardoning, and cheering, " Stand up I" God slays and makes alive. The like voice was heard upon the holy mount (Matt. xvil. 7). From that moment Saul rose up a new creature in Christ Jesus. And it is the revelation of the love of God, a thought mightier than all our own doubt, a force in the soul irresistible against our passion and hate, which must conquer us and in our lowliness make us for the first time truly great. 5. His ordination. It may be viewed as an example of true ordi- nation to the sacred calling. (1) It is a Divine act. The prayers and the laying on of hands will not suffice to turn the worldling into the spiritual. man. There must be the inner sanctification and anointing. "Power from on high" must be received, by which a, man may stand and witness and serve. (2) It appoints to service, and only to honour through service. Neither dignified titles nor riches are promised to Paul, but toil and suffering even unto death. The best orders a man can have are to be found in hi1 ability to teach and ill the evidence of fruit from his teaching. (3) Paul was to b,, 278 THE AOTS OF TIIE APOSTLES. [on. XXVI, 1-32.