The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 2 — Section 275

the bond of faith should break, alas I all would break. Dut in that last moment, who.t reo.son we have to think that there ie One who makes its strength equal to all the 6train which by any possibility could be put upon it I ffi. THE PLACE BELONGING TO FAITH IN THE PERSONAL CHRIST A8 TIIJ!I WAY TO II THl!I IKHERITANOE." " The inheritance," it distinctly appears, is that of a prepared pince for o. prepo.red people. •The preparation is one; it is that of sanctification attained by faith only. The way to "the inheritance." therefore, cannot be found, except by the paths of faith, the "faith that is in Christ." And the review of the whole would teach us that it were well-nigh impossible to summarize more forcibly and briefly in one the offices of" faith that is in Christ." His own is theemphe.sis here given to it. And be shows that it runs like a golden cord through the whole work of redemption.-B. Ver. 19.-The make of a heave-nl,y t!ision, and its use. These words are pa.rt of Paul's own description of his conversion. He has been telling the faot, and explaining the ma.nner and circumstances of it. In fewest words he has spoken of the blinding light from heaven at midday, but far above the brightness of a midday sun; of the voice. "Which he beard when prostrate on the earth; of its summons to him to rise, and to be ready promptly to begin a career of activity and of danger perhaps, alike unparalleled. Then calling it altogether a " vision," and a "heavenly vision," he says, " I was not disobedient to it." For three days he remained blind; for three days, so complete was the mastery of mind over body, he did neither eat nor drink. They led him by the hand to Damascus; there the Divine will and purpose concerning him were further unfolded to him by Ananias; and there he found a grateful shelter awhile with Christ's disciples-those very persons whom he had set out to discomfit and persecute. Twenty_. seven years, or thereabout, have now passed away, and looking back on that time, Paul sayB--a.nd the trial of those twenty-seven years amply bear him out-" Where- upon . . . I wes not disobedient to the heavenly vision." It will be instructive to notice- I. WHAT IT IS WHIOB PAUL BEBE TERllB A "HEAVENLY VISION." The charm of words often beguiles, sometimes misleads, and, like distance, lends enchantment ,to the view. A heavenly vision-must not every one covet it? Certainly every one would not covet this of Paui's. A "heavenly vision," if given, must it not be irresistible? Will it not be made of fairy forms, of rainbow colours, of angel movements, of seraphs' music? Poetry and dream, imagination and the refinedness of inspiration,-these will be the material a.nd make of it. But, no, it is not so; it was not so now. A heavenly vision may be as practical, of matter as hard, of manner as unceremonious and unwelcome, as the most ordinary reality of our everyday vexed and harassed life. In thu, every one of us finds occasionally the hard knocks of hard facts, and so we may in a heavenly vision. And thu was the kind.of which Paul here speaks. The light was bright, but not with fancy's brightness, but with blinding effect. For the rest, judge in one moment the cha.racteristics of the heavenly vision that, beginning with blinding, goes on by giving the strong rider a heavy fall to the earth. No drenmy whisperings succeed, nor strains seraphic, but summons short and sharp, with his name twice repeated. The remonstrant and upbraiding questions succeed, and fear and trembling and unknown astonishment are the result. This sort of vision, whatever it may be oalled, ii. according to our general thought, not so much of heavenly as of earthly things. Yet these were the facts of Paul's vision, and equally fact is it that he term, it heamenly. And here is our lesson, that the warnings from heaven; and the per- suasions that come from heaven, and the instructions that date from heaven, may, while we stay here, savour and have to savour much of the material and the methods of earth, so far as regards the instrnments of them. The heavenly vision shall· best justify its name often for you, when it apprizes you experimentally, not of the delicious sensations of angels, but of the fear and trembling and anguished amaze- ment that pert.a.in to sinful hearts and injured consciences. Paul was right; for his vision did come from heaven, and it pointed up to heaven, a.nd it led him back with it to heaven, and an innumerable host of others also. Hard fare brought the prodigal back to himself and home to his father; and it was so with Paul, severe and uncer~ mun.ious handling brought Paul ,to himself and his Saviour and his 1:ife•work; and it may Le 110 with Ullo that hard blows ,md smarting wounds and crowding cares 11;1e.y be OH, U.VI. 1-32.] THE ACTS OF 'l'HE APOS'rLES. 283