The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 43

as it nffected his so-called fellow-disciples, and of necessity most of all as it concerned his own soul. If a man lets nny serious wrong in his earthly affairs drift, it is not Ion" before ho finds it out, for it linds him out, Business rarely indeed drifts ri"'ht of itself. llut wrong never drifts right. Least of all does that highest fashion of ;;1oral wron.,. ever drift right, whon the question lies in the domain that brings into contact that which is or ought to be hig~est in ourselves with that which is indisputably highest out of ourselves, All hero 1s matter of consciousness, of real life, of spirit. It is past us altogether to say, what we almost irresistibly imagine, that Judas was often on tho point of making a clean breast of it; but it is not past us to say that during those three years conscience must have often urged him to confess his mistake, to resign the livery he wore, to quit the Master's shammed service, and the discirle,' sbamecl society. In that event thero would have been" room for repentance;" there would have been room for help; there would have been room to remonstrate, to rebuke, to revive some spark of grace, to recover yet a soul alive. From some loving brother he might have beard anticipated the words, "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" and again, "It is impossible for those who were once enlightened . . . if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance." And the falling a.way might have been at the last averted. But no! Judas has no mercy on his own soul, because he will not be faithful even to it. The betrayer of his Master is the man to be the betrayer of himself. At every turn the career of Judas is fraught with solemn lessons for every one to whom the grace of discipleship to the Lord Jesus is offererl. The character of the test ordained for him is scarcely less plainly or less concisely written than that ordained for our first pa.rents. Yet, nevertheless, thousands of years have not passed a.way morally in vain in the world's history. And in place of the test of an humble, practical obedience to one individual and merely physical command, the probation for Judas, and for every one of ourselves, is self-consecratiou to Jesus, Master and Saviour, without one reservation, and personal holiness the sequel.-B. Ver. 26.-The earnest of zeal and fidelity exhibited by the Cfh•trch e:IJpectant. "And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles." 'l'he events with which the passage bas to do belong to that brief but remarkable interval of some eight to Len days during which the eleven apostles were bidden to remain in Jerusalem, and were, in a sense, left alone, their MBSter and Saviour having ascended, aqd the Spirit, the promised Comforter, not having yet descended. The brief interval invites not e. little conjecture, but so much the more than it otherwise might have done, because of the silence broken in this very passage. Had the concord of the eleven, and their united worship and services of prayer and praise in company with the large circle of the hundred and twenty brethren (as given vcrs.12-14), been our only record of the period, there woulu have been less stir of conjecture. Ilut,as it is, we are led to wonder whether, while Jesus spoke to the eleven apostles of "the things pertaining to the kingdom of God," he had possibly warranted them to add one to their number. We can only doubtfully answer" No." For while, on the one hand, it would seem strange, if Christ had done so, that Peter should not quote the fact to the general assembly, on the other hand it docs seem very strange that Peter should take upon himself to assert the necessity of such a step at such a time of unsett:edness as regards the constitution of the Church. Again, beyonc. the fact that the two, Joseph and Matthias, had been companions of Christ and of tle disciples from the time of the baptism of John (John i. 26) to the time of the Resur- rection, we know nothbg of them. We do not know on what principle the two were selected first of all from any others who might have answered to the same qualifications of having "companied with" the disciples; we do not know how the ea.sting of lots was managed; we do not know whether Matthias ever really ranked with the apostles to any practical purpose, though he was "voted in;" nor do we know one authentic syllable of his succeeding work or of bis death. To conjecture is as unsatisfying .i.s it is easy. Setting aside any detail of mere curiosity, we should certainly have liked to know whether the transaction of this election was authorized; if it were not, whether nevertheless it was legitimate, or whether it was possibly a fresh illustration of the ready zeal, without authority, of Peter. It need scarcely_ be said, however, that in the absence of any evidence or of any strong reason to behove the latter, we asswne the leP-itimatcness of the whole proceeding. And on this showing we notice- 38 THE ACTS OF THE APOS'l'LES. [ou. I. 1-26.