The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 31

principlo, that thoy were to go forth ln the strength of a Stronger than man, so in this acted chargo, _this ,marv.ol of a demonstrati~n of t~e Spirit, the same root-princip).e is conveyed, be 1t said, vnth " thousandfold 1mpress1veness. Not one a.tom of Christ's work must thoy touch in their own strength, nor begin it presumptuously before they are sufficiently equipped-panoplied by the Word and the Spirit. That lesson has gone, is going, must go down through all time, and all succeeding generations and portions of tho Church. Nor is it tho least or important lessons being at this very time taught us, by methods often most painful, most humiliating but most healthful, that the work of Christ prospers with the man, with the Church, with the age, which is most thoroughly characterized by a profound trust, and effectual, fervent invocation of the Holy Spirit.-B. Vers. 6-8.-0,aving for forbidden knowledge-ita alterative, enlarged, practical trust. "They asked of him saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time . . . the earth?" The question of the apostles of which St. Luke here tells us we do not find either in his Gospel or iu that of any of the other evangelists, one among many indfCations of the probability that during "the forty days" much may have transpired between Christ and his apostles not left on record. It may nevertheless be noted, in passing, that the incident happens to be in interesting analogy with such another as that of which we read in John xxi. 20-23. .And except for the fact that it is not put down to the account of Peter, we might probably be pardoned for surmisin;; that it was he again who was the prime mover in it. '\Ve have here- I. 'l'llE SIGNS OF EVEN APOSTOLIC CRAVING AFTER FORDIDDEN KNOWLEDGE. 1. Whoever may have promoted the question, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" most eagerly, we can feel no difficulty in admitting its very natural character. Nor is it at all necessary to affix too mean a construction to the motive of the apostles. Let it be granted only that t!:ieir mind was not thoroughly delivered from the idea of a "kingdom of Israel" on earth, and we need not straightway therefore conclude that their chief thought or wish was to a "kingdom of Israel" of earth, rather than "of heaven" or "of God." 2. And as the question was not an unnatural one in itself, so also it was one that bears the traces of that deeper impression which had been most legitimately made on the apostles by the marvels of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Whatever might be in store or might not be in store for them in this matter of the long-cherished hope of a kingdom, their conviction was stronger and stronger grown that Jesus was One who could do this thing, who could be the Founder of such a kingdom, and establish it on no doubtful, hazardous, merely adventurous sort of footing, but worthily, strongly, and for ever. If other miracles were for a sign of his authority, and for a grand moral witness of him, this yet more than all else whatsoever: his own death issuing in resurrection I The space of one moment may have awakened again and ripened the impulse to dwell with a fascinated interest on this subject-the moment that in which "these sayings sank down into their ears," namely, that "they should not depart from Jerusalem," that they" should wait for the promise of the Father," and that they should "be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." (1) Nevertheless the issue, if nothing else, convicts the question of being the wrong one. How often the things that are abundantly natural, and to which the warmest impulses seem made to lead us on, are for all that the f orbidde'Tl-for- bidden, perhaps, by Divine word of mouth even, otherwise by deeper sense in our own self and life I Christ 11,pprizes his interrogators that on the merits of the case, not on any mere ceremony, tl·e subject was one "too high " for them-" they cannot attain to it." It is for us te, remember at the present time that nothing that we know is plainer than the some things we do not know, in matters of religious thou.~bt and specu- lation, that these "some" things which we do not know are often of the iutensest speculative int.erest, arll at the same time things not in the position of the not clearly "revealed," but of the clearly not "revealed," and that the more than likely reason for this is, that they are too high for human reason at present, and are kept for " yet the little whilu" of earth," in the Father's power." Let it, howov~r, be granted that there may bo other things left unrevealed, which rightly and designedly keep awake the intense speculative thought of the whole Church. They challenge not the presumptuous- ness, but tho reverent diligence, of the Church's intellectual life. (2) .d.t a moment of 26 THE .ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. [oB, 1. l-!.16.