The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 17

glorious inherHo.nce for which he ho.d pa.id so costly e. price. But the time or hia exolte.tion was the hour of his disciples' sorrow. By his departure they lost sight of iheir dcnrnst Friend, their wise Counsellor, their great 'f, acher, their honoured Lord. Bo must it bo with us. The upright Christian statesman p~sscs to a still larger sphere of usefulness nnrl honour, nnd the nation mourns; the gifted and devoted pastor is ci1llod to a celestial ministry, e.nd the Church is bereaved; the beloved parent is translated to the skies, and the fnrnily hearth is desolate. J]. 'l'HAT THE ATTITUDE OF JIELPLESSN'E~S IS ONE FROM WlJICH WE MURT SOON BE AROUSED. (Vera. 10, 11.) It was rmtural and right enough that, when the Saviour was taken up and disappeared from sight, the disciples should continue to "look steadfastly toward heaven; " their eyes may well have been riveted to the spot in inexpressible awe and wonder. Doubtless all thought was swallowed up in simple surprise and consternation; they stood in helpless, bewildering astonishment. 'l'his mirrht Inst for some minutes, but it could not continue longer. The e.ngels broke in up~u it, not with the language of reproach, but with the voice of arousing. A kindly voice is this. When disposed to give way to helpless awe, or fruitless ~rief, or inani- mate prostration of soul, we may thank the minister of God, in whatever form he may come, wbo says to us, " Why stand ye gazing? Arouse ye! All is not lost. 'l'he past is past, but the future is in front of you." III. '!'HAT TIME, WITII PATU:NCE, WILL BRING HEAVENLY COMPE'SSATIONS. (Ver. 11, latter part.) Though the Master was taken, he would come again; and when he returned it would, indeed, bo "in like manner," etc., but in more glorious form e.nd with more splendid surroundings (1 Thess. iv. 16; 2 These. i. 7; Jude 14; Rev. i. 7). Moreover, he would come again in 11,nlike manner, but in a way as gracious and, perhaps, even more needful, viz. in the enlightening influences of the Holy Spirit (ver. 5). Heaven. was taking away their Strength and their Joy; bnt let them wait in holy trustfulness, and Heaven would soon give them ample and blessed compensation. God takes from us-from tbo community and from the individual heart-those that are very dear, things that are very precious to us ; then we faint auu are grievously distressed ; we may be almost paralyzed with our sense of loss and desolation. But there is blessing on its way-Divine comfort, solace, strength. The hand that takes our trea,ures bas large compensations in reserve. IV. THAT BEREAVEMENT FI1''llS A PURE AND WISE RELIEF IN COMMUNION WITH GoD A= IN FELLowsmp WITH MAN. (Vers. 12-14.) The apostles, roused by the angels' speech, "returned unto Jerusalem" and went into the upper room, where they would meet their best friends-those who had the deepest sympathy with them-that they might commune with them and the.t they might" continue in prayer and supplication." In the time of bereavement nnd woe we me.y be tempted to shut ourselves in to our own chamber and nurse our grief. Nothing can be more unwise. Let sorrow, indeed, have its own chosen loneliness in its first dark hours; leave it alone with God, with the pitiful, patient Saviour. 'l'hen let it come forth; let it go into the" upper room," where it can hold fellowship with human friends; let it go into the sanctuary, where, with the people of God, it can pour out its heart in prayer and supplication : it will not be long before it finds itself joining with them in the accents of praise.-C. Vcrs. 15-26.-Tlie path of sin and the way of the rigliteoos, The passage treats of the miserable end of the traitor apostle and of the elevation of Me.tthias to the office from which" Judas by transgression fell." We are reminded of- I. THE PATH OF BIN. (V ers, 16-20.) 'l'his is a gradual descent. "No one ever became most vile all at once," wrote the Roman; and be was right. Some men descend much more rapidly than others the path of folly and of sin, but uo uue leap~ at once from the summit to the foot, We do not suppose that one day Judas wa~ dev,oted to Christ and the ne:s.t day began t-0 think how be should betray him. Probably his evil course was this: first, surprise at the Lord's slower and more quicl method of ministering; then impatience and even positive dissatisfaction with him, then growing doubt of his clnims; then cupidity; then treachery ; then remorseful despair; then suicide, e.nd the "going to his own place" (vcr. 25). '!'hose who from bein::; virtuous become vicious men, fall in the same way, i.e. by degrees; more or less llowly: first, tho harbouring of one evil thought antl another; then laxity in word;  12 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. [oe. 1. 1-26.