The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 137

Ver. 22.-Spiritual inflezi'biliey: a sermon to t11ose in the midst of ;life,,: The words of the text indicate that there was one fact which contributed "reatly to sustain the miraculous character of the healing act that had been wrought. "'we mi"ht inter- polate beLween this verse and the preceding-there could be no manner of doubt thr,t this work wa,.9 of God, "for the man," etc. We instantly recognize the force of the reasoning. When a man has suffered for forty years from physical deformity or rigidity and is restored in a moment, there is obviously some supernatural power brought into exercise. Long continuance in such a case immensely aggravates the <l:fficulty and enhances the virtue of the cure. In this, as in so many other respects, the moral world answers to the material. l. IN THE EARLIEn YEARS THE SOUL 18 RESPONSIVE TO THE TOUCH OF TRUTH. .As God made us, and before we are acted upon and injured by the forces of evil, we are impressionable and flexibla of soul. The mind is eager to learn and ready to receive; the conscience is quick to approve or to rebuke; the heart is tender and affectionate, readily responsive to goodness and to love; the soul is appreciative of that which is spiritually fair and beautiful; the will is open to change if cause be shown for reformation and return. ThiR is the time when moral maladies can best be cured, when we may well hope that the heart will be healed of its sicknesses, and that the spirit will "be made whole" by the great Physician. II. CmrTINUANCE IN BIN INDURATEB THE SOUL. When a human soul has continued for forty years in an evil habit or in a state of sin, it has become hardened in its way. Conscious wrong-doing acts harmfully on every faculty of our ne.tnre. 1. It blinds "the eyes of the understanding." 2. It hardens the heart. 3. It weakens and blunts the conscience so that its stroke is decreasingly effective. 4. It stiffens and fixes the will in its chosen course. Thus it makes the man hims.elf unapproachable, unimpres- sionable, incurable. They who are passing on from youth and young manhood into middle life, not having entered the kingdom of God, have urgent need to "consider their ways." They are reaching the moral condition in which their conversion to God is a thing of greatest difficulty and serious unlikelihood. In the Book of Life, ii their name should be recorded, will it not be added, as a proof of the wonder-working :eower of the Spirit of God, "for the man was forty years old," etc. ? Remember the.t (1) salvation is never impossible: at twice forty years of age it is within the reach of penitence and faith; but (2) it becomes growingly unlikely as the perioda of human life pass by. 'l'he Holy Ghost saith, "To-day."-C. Ver. 23.-.7Vie use of freedom. "Being let go, they went to their own company." We have here an apt illustration of- I. .AN ACT INCIDENTAL TO LIBERTY. "Being let go "-the hand of restraint being taken off them-" they went to their own company;" they followed the bent of their own inclination, and went to those with whom they were in sympathy. This is the constant accompaniment of human freedom. As soon as the parental he.nd is relaxed, as soon as the teacher's eye is off them, as soon as the restraints of home and the gu!l.rdianship of elders are removed, the young take thair own course, follow their own bent, choose their own company. '\Ve never know what men really are until we take away the bonds by which we hold them in check, nnd they go" whithersoever they will "-whither their own principles allow, and their own tastes direct them. II. TnE WISDOM OF THOSE WHO ABE nESPONBIBLE FOB OTHERS. It is of little use to hold the reins so tight that, as long as they are held by a firm hand, there can be no wandering. What is to be the event when the reins must be thrown up? What will be the course chosen when they whom we gue.rd are "let go"?_ If we do nothing more and better than carefully imprison within w_alls of correct benaviour, "'.e shall be bitterly disappointed with the result. It is our wisdom and our duty to provide for the hour when those fol' wp.om we are res;pon.sible will be" let. go," and when they will  THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. [OR, IV, 1-37,