The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 88

The "fellowship" ~poken of in ver. 42 doos not ml\rk merely the fact of Msocla• tion with the apostles. Nor does it describe association with one ,mother from th11 attractions of friendship, of new-born natures, or of worship. It marks n newer thing, and, considering the numbers of those concerned, a very new thing, Jesus, with the little circle of his twelve disciples, had suggested, possibly enough, the germ of this. But the number of twelve or thirteen living together on a common purse, and with no selfishly individual object whatsoever in view, was but the suggestion of a principle; and that now, as mnny scores, or possibly hundreds, should attempt a similar thing, was a bold thought; it was the daring of a high and unwontedly noble impulse, and host of nil was the deed of it. Those who made up this new community first did a thing, that would have been called nothing else than utopianism while only talked about. It is something most reinvigorating to a Christian's faith in the hidden possibilities of a regenerate human nature, to think of the real proofs of sincerity and of uttor earnestness that came out of the conduct of men who sold their lands and possessions, and brought all to one common stock. It was certainly a beginning of a "new earth," and none the less so that it was but temporary in the then form of it. It betrayed and it displayed a genius lying in the new-found forces of Christianity never to be forgotten. For a while there was no want and no wealth, except that best wealth, absence of want. The snare of wealth is vanished, and the charm of loviug contentment smiles in the world. lll. 'I.'HE Th"'FANT CHUllCH BRINGS WITHOUT HESITATION RELIGION INTO DAn.Y LIFE, The "breaking of bread" certainly did not mean simply the taking of the ordinary meals of day after day. There could have been nothing remarkable in individual men " continuing steadfast" in this. The "breaking of bread" referred to was that of a united rucal, and this was the particular significance of it. A.gain, the life of those few weeks in Jerusalem would have been a life of mere desultory and unfruitful idleness, except for an unusual reality in occupations, which would generally be counted as at most the lu.....:urious enjoyments of religious service. But these evidently become the works of religious service, and then was the fulfilling of the admonition, given some years later to the Hebrews (Heh. L 24, 25), beautifully anticipated. They considered "one another, to provoke unto love and to good works," and they did not forsake " the assembling of themselves together" for that very purpose. Thus they assemble, and thus break bread day after day. On the one hand, we witness association "in breaking of bread•• with its more or less of direct religious reference brought into the daily home and the daily life of those who composed the infant Church ; and, on the other hand, we witness religious thought and religious purpose and religious work become for a season the staple occupation of " the common days." Perhaps all of us will agree that if ever works merited the title of religious, the works of those days did which had for their (secular) business the sale of lands and goods, to the end that 1' the· price " of thel!l (eh. v. 1) might go to the common treasury of the new-born Christian society. IV. 'fHE L',FANT CBUECH BTILLOBBEBVEBTHBTEMPLEHOURBOFPBAYEB, 'fhehistory' of temple prayer was rightly charged with 111LCredness to the pious Jew. A.sup to the last Jesus paid all due reverence to both temple and even synagogue also, so the young community of his disciples do not forsake the temple prayers, Public prayer was offered three times a day: at the third hour (eh, ii. 15); at noonday (Ps. Iv. 17), or the 6izth hour• and in the evening, at the ninth hour (eh. iii. 1; x. 3). The general history of the ~ation's prayer must naturally have abounded in interest, and many a touching allusion is made to it (1 ~ings viii. 30-~~.' etc.; D_an. vi. 10; ~- 21; Ps. ~• 7 . xxviii. 2 · Iv. 17; lxv. 1, 2; cx1x. 164; cxxxv111. 2; cxh. 2; Isa. lvt, 7; Luke 1, 10; xviii. 10; etc.). But not the least interesting fact in its h~tory is that befor_e u1. While all things else--sacrifice, and feast, and ceremony, and pnest, and the furniture of the temple, and its very stones-are ~oomed ~~d about to di~ppear, its prayer, bud rut blossom bear fruit afresh. The pornt of lmng contact with God lasts. The old Ch~ch and the new join hands here. Prayer is the golden link between these, as it is between all earth and heaven.-B, Vere. 43-47.-The Ohwrch'a i,m,ndiak aaeertion of her own moral force,. "And fear came upon every soul . . . daily 1uch as should be saved." For many an institu- tioll of human BOCiety it ii most euy to tix the date for the commencement of itli OH, II, 1-47.] THE ACTS OF 'fHE APOSTLES.