The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 36

"Then returned fhey unto Jerusalem . . . the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren." \Ve have here- I. Tr!E RECORD OF ANOTHER PERIOD OF WAITING, CHARGED WITH THRil.LING EXPECT.A• TJON, It may be heh! that a period of just six weeks had elapsed since the very Aame persons ns are here spoken o_f had passed through a much briefer interval than the ten ,layR they are now passing through, marked, however, very lar~ly by the samo characteristic of thrilling expectation. Perhaps we may say, in tbe hght of suoh language as that of onr Lord himself (Luke xxiv. 25, 26), that it was entirely to be set down to the fault of these disciples and women that on that occasion their experience was not altogether one of expectation, instead or being so dreadfully dashed by gloom, by fear, sometimes by a very m>ar approach to despair. That interval of a very short three days may probably have dragged its hours along with fearful slowness. It was, however, 1he time, if faith had apprehended it, which should have been brilliant with the light and hope of a risin~, and therefore finally vindi- cate,! and manifestly triumphant, Master-of One who had long time patiently stooped to suffering, humiliation, insult, it is true, and who bad at last bowed his head to death, but whose task and subjection were uow done, and come the time of" rest from his labours," and of glory iu his victory. But we know credibly that the interval was not thus brightened. Memory was faint, and faith faint-hearted. And the impressions of sense that came of Gethsemane, and of the brutal scenes of the judgment hall, and of the fierce sufferings of the cross, and the darkness or death, overmastered the plead- ing suggc~tings of faith, and overruled the whispering memories of the vanished Friend's own words. It was natural, indeed, because to be wrong is, alas I the very thing that is so natural with us all; but we may say that never were three days so wrested of their rights. For confident, joyful, ardent expectation were substituted fear, gloom, and only the timidest of hopes. And yet there can be no doubt that the beating pulse of expectation, though the low-beating, would be our correctest diagnosis of that period. And it was ,ww a pulse of expectation, too, but a healthier one by far. Faith had had a little rest, a little occasional change to sight these forty days past, and was the better, stronger, more willing for it. What an inversion had mercifully occurred to them of their igr,orance, doubt, fear, in certain cardinal directions--of their estimates of impossibility, or at least incredibility I So, after a few enchanting visions and audiences of their great Lord, they find themselves "left" again I But they are not left" comfort- less." 'l'hey do remember now his words. They return to Jerusalem; they wait. They learn a fresh lesson in waiting. Their waiting rests on memories that now glow with glory, on a few words of direct command, on other few words of express promise, and on one incomparable /act-the .Ascension. Things noteworthy in the nature of this period of expectation are as follows :-1. It was waiting for their life-work, which they arc implicitly forbidden to anticipate. Yet who could call it wasted waiting? The hasty, the uncertain, and those who may have other motive inferior to the most real motive, sometimes decry a delay, in which they ought to recognize a great meaning and a positive use. 2. lt was waiting for even liberty to leave a certain place or separate from a certain circle of companions or associates. The final reason of this became apparent. The startling developments of Pentecost would have been shorn of half their intended value, ar,art from the solidarity of the apostles and disciples. The conditions of our earthly life, and our sphere of Christian ministry and service, often seem both tieina0 and trying. Yet there must be valuable consideration for these, and sometimes tirne does at last surprisingly justify them. 3. It was waiting for a promised mar• velloua endowment, not of anything so vulgar as outward wealth, not of anything so enviable but dangerous as mere intellectual superhuman illumination, but of the undefined, the mysterious, the awful power of the Holy Ghost. With what anxious outlook we <lo sometimes wait! With what mistaken, ill-judged longings I Nay, but 'lometimes past these, with what pardonably trembling, shrinking, fainting, hovering tancy we wait! But oh, if these disciples and women could have gauged beforehar.d something of that awful gift of the Holy Ghost, what of character, quality, colour, would it not have given to their expectation! So men have now and again trembled before the mystery of their own conversion-before some deep change in their spiritual .1elf, and before that supreme exchange of grace and trial here for glory and perpetual security above. And so also, for infinite reason, God veils just a while light, beauty, the blaze of knowledge, even the finish of holiness, from his own. OIL J, 1-26.] THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 31