The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 107

IV. TnAT Bl!l BLEBBEB WJIOM HE BERVEB WITH THE SUPREME BLEBBmG. (Ver. 26.) What would we give to those whom we would fain serve? Health, fortune, power, fame, human love? Jesus Christ blesses by" turning a.way every one from his iniquities." What o. transcendent blessing is this I Consider: 1. How much it involves; viz. the removal of the penalty and the power of sin from each iDlll.ividual soul. 2. How much it implies; viz. the restora.tion of each soul to God (for to fear him, to love him, and to strive to please him, is the only way to escape from a state of sin), and entrance upon eternal life (for the sphere of sin is the region of death, and to be delivered from the former is to enter the kingdom of life, the life which is spiritual and eternal). 3. By what means it is effected; viz. (1) by the sacrifice of himself (Heh. ix. 26), and (2) by attracting us to himsolf and his service (John. xii. 32; 1 John. iii. 5, 6). V. THAT, COMING TO REDEEM THE RACE, HE OFFERS BIS SALVATION FIBBT TO THOSE WHO HAD REJECTED Hllll, (Vere. 25, 26.) They to whom Peter spoke were "the children of the prophets; " but they had '' denied the Holy One and the Just," and "killed the Prince of life." Yet to those who had so sba.mefully abused their privileues the apostle said, " To you first," etc. Jesus came to" call sinners to repentance/' to restore those who had fallen the furthest, to cleanse the most leprous, to raise the spiritually dead, to win those most utterly estranged and most bitterly opposed to himself. So great a. Conqueror is he.-C. Vers. 1-10.-The healing of the lame man, I. THE ANTECEDENTS OJ' THE CURE. Peter and Joh:i were going up in company to the temple at the evening hour of prayer. Here we see: 1. The fellowship of different orders of minds in Christ. None more diverse in character and temperament than the impulsive Peter and the contemplative John. 2. Prayer one of the bonds of this fellowship, as expressed in the beautiful hymn, "How blest the tie that binds I" 3. An example of the profit of set times and seasons for worship. (See on the three times of daily prayer-the third, sixth, and ninth hours-- Dan. vi. 10 and Ps. Iv. 18.) And the good also of a fixed place of prayer. The temple, the synagogue, the Church, or the meeting-house; each has its hallowed and happy associations. How greatly devotion is helped by the imagination, and the imagination how dependent upon association, must be obvious to all. 4. The path of true devotion is often found to be the path that leads to useful service to others. II. THE SUFFEBEB. Lame from his birth, deprived of that power of independent activity in which so much of the enjoyment of life consists, he is the type of a deeply pitiable class. To have health is so great a blessing, because it carries with it that of command over one's powers, and therefore freedom and independence. He was help- lessly dependent-borne by others. Such sufferings remind us of the presence of moral evil, which can neither be explained nor explained away. But there a.re compensations. The lame man had friends. Seldom does such misery fail to stir up pity and enlist help. Outward evils are ever balanced in the Divine wisdom by inward good. Ws never know the kindness of man to man till sickness and sorrow reveal it. They carried him to one of the splendid gateways of the temple, that he might be in the way or the charitable droppings of alms from those that went in. 'l'he religious duty of almsgiving was preached up by the rabbis inr,essantly and in the strongest way-even to excess, as we may see from Lightfoot and other authors. One noted saying was that God suffered the poor to exist that rich men might earn heaven. Our theological and our practical views of the subject have changed. But at least we have a good example here: we should exert ourselves to place the sufferer within reach of help. The great problem of true charity is to bring the supply and the need into practice. If the intention be loving and good, something better often comes of it than is hoped for, as in this case. The sufferer, intent upon the minor boon, receives the higher blessing. So does a Jiving Divine purpose shape our actions to nobler ends than we designed. Ill. THE CURE. '!'here is human means with Divine agency. I. The human mean1. 'l'he apostles fix their eyes earnestly upon the sufferer. Thus his attention is aroused; his thoughts are collected; he is brought into a concentratio~ of thought an~ feeling. It is not to the wandering mind that God reveals either his thou11:ht or his power. The eyes must be lifted up to the quarter whence help comes, He who is conscious of bearing God's message to the souls of men may cry," ~ook_on ll:le; liste~ tom~ I" Faith is not passive; it ie an energy, expressed by lookmg, listerung, commg, domg. 102 THE Ac·rs OF THE APOSTLES. [ OH, 111, 1-26,