The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 118

erring (Mitt. xxii. 29 ; Mark xii. 24, 27). 2. The doctrine they had been preacl1ing t0as 11ot imprisoned. " Many " who had heard it " believed." Fresh wings were gi,·en to it to fly abroad. Either the additional, or more probably the total, number of believers was now "five thousand." And the imprisonment of Peter and John is certain to have had these two consequences upon them, viz. that fresh thought would be stirred up in every one of them, and lresh utterance of the mouth of every one of them be provoked. Thus it is very far from being n case of all loss, 'l'he "Nnme of Jesus Christ of Nazareth" wrought great things this day, and truth made great advanoe.-B. Ver. 25.-The true importance of ancestry-what it is, These words were some of those addressed. by Peter to a crowd of wondering and admiring specto.tors, and of attentive hearers also. These were gathered for him by the fact of the man whom he had delivered from his lameness resolving to cleave as long as he could to the side of his deliverer. The "common people" did on this occasion gladly hear Peter, as formerly they gladly were wont to hear his Master and their own. We are grateful to be able t.o recall these circumstances and this connection of the text; because on certain other occasions Peter, Stephen, and Paul, and many a time Jesus himself, had t-0 refer to the ancestry of the Jews in order to point severest reproof and condemna- tion unrelieved. But it is not so now. Reproof and condemnation are only partly aimed at here. We have here- I. A WORD OF REMINDING IN DUE SEASON. The office of reminding may seem but an humble one. But how true the'friend sometimes who undertakes it-who waits not for some grand occasion of instructing, of informing you of what you did not know, or of charming you with the latest discoveries of science or applications of art, but who simply brings afresh to your thought what you had long known I Conscience is such a friend when we will listen to it. It does not teach what is new, but does remind and remonstrate. Goa's Holy Ghost is such a Friend when you will listen to him. He both reveals the new and brings to remembrance the old, specially those de~ old words, of priceless value, of Jesus. The written and spoken Word of God is such a friend. How many of its messages are but the pronounced repetitions of your own reason, experience! They are your own judgment and observation, now ushered in with all the added impressiveness that comes from ihe " endorsement" of the Divine page and pen. And now Peter tells his hearers no new thing. 'fhey had long ago known it, and had built much upon it. They built, though too ignorantly, large part of their hopes of salvation upon their being the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Their trust was in the covenant God made with Abraham. Their great charter was "Moses and the prophets." But had it not often come to this, that they eagerly remembered their boasted rights bnt kept a poor memory for their duties? They would enforce their claims, ignore the correlative demands upon themselves, long more than due I "We have Abraham to our father," was their ever-ready cry; yet they had "killed the prophets," and" stoned them that were sent to them," and had "crucified the Prince of life." "Of him," says Peter," all the prophets spoke," from Moses the greatest, and Samuel the second greatest. And surely you won't forget that " you are the childre11 of those prophets," and won't consent to act unworthily of that relationship I Was not this a word of reminding in due season ? And was it not put very kindly by Peter to his congregation? Perhaps all the same tone of thought, all the same suggestion for memories, awake enough at the point of rights and claims, but that fade at the point of duty and responsibility, characterizes to a very large degree the present day. Men do not forget they are Englishmen; they do not forget to boast their freedom. Are they touched in one of these or the like respects, they resent it as though the apple of their eye was t.ouched. But they forget they are the children of those who got these things for them "through much tribulation;" who fought, suffered, died, for their privileges. They forget they are the children of'Reformers and Protestants, who "resisted even unto blood," and for conscience' sake were burned at the stake ; that ~hey are children of those who loved, spake, and did the truth, cost what it might. It was a very effective point which Peter made when, viewing it as a kindly reminder, he said. "Ye are the children of the prophets." IL ,A WOBD CONCEIVED IN TBE VEQ( OJI' JtlBtJK.E. While it is not at 1'11 11eces~arY OH, III, 1-20.] THE ACTS OF 'l'HE APOSTLES. 113