The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 187

the God or 011r fathers, wns he who" raised" Jesus, and who" o:-tl\lted" him, 111e l\l'e ltis •• witncsse~,·• in these glorions wonders, of the history of his Son Jesus. And Peter Rdds, in onc of the most pronounced of the claims of inspiration peculiar to revelation, 1hnt, in i;nyin~ so mnch, he rneA.ns that" the Holy Ghost" in them is the real ,vitnesH, that Holy Gho~t whom God gives t-0 those who obey him. 'l'hA.t God is to be obeyed, probably the now jud::es of the apostles would not presume to deny. Poter and tho apostles have made out their case when they have proved that this is nil to which their censured and imprisoned conduct amounts. So the close of theil' defence clenches the opening of it. III. THE INOIDE~"T or A FRESH EXPERIENCE OF RELPI,ESS INOAPAOITY m THE coUNcIL. This experience Wl\s ushered in, indeed, by one of a far more pronounced character. In a word which itself expresses an intensity of suffering, we are told that they of the council "were cut" to the quick, and in the fir~t paroxysm of agony saw no option but to slay their prisoners. The apostles were again called upon to retire from the court (eh. iv. 15) while the state of things was deliberated. And "in the multitude of counsellors was found safety" of some sort at least, and of somo brief duration, thanks to the sage prudence that dwelt in one of them, and apparently only one. Note here to what different issue men have been cut to the heart. 1. Some to deep penitence, contrition, conversion; so Peter (Luke xxii. 61, 62), aud the first converts (eh. ii. 67). 2. But other some to deeper condemnation, and suicide either actual or moral; so Judas (Matt. xxvii. 4, 5), and those here described, with many an ancestor, many a descendant. The blindness of intense anger and the malignant action of intense chagrin may be ranked among the certain precursors of incapacity, but here they reveal it too. And that we read under these conditions, "they take counsel to slay them," serves little more than to make assurance doubly sure that helpless floundering is the present order of things at the ostensible seat of j L1stice. IV. THE INCIDENT OF A FRESH U1''DIGNIFIED ESCAPE FnOM AN UNDIGNIFIED POSITIOX• .A Pharisee-save the mark !-leads the way out. And the way out leads just baclc by the way they came in. 'l'hat the members of the council put themselves ns far as possible just ,vhere they were before they stirred at all in the matter is the policy which Gamaliel propounds. It comes to this, that he forcibly argues it were by far the best thing to eat their own, both words and deeds. 'l'he conservative shrewdness and blandness of this advice, and of the courteous way in which it is advanced, are equally unmistakable and in a sort admirable. It were uncharitable, however, to deny that it is open to intrinsic commendation also. 1. Gamaliel has noted and treasured and now uses well the lessons of history. 2. Evidently he is before bis time, and has a large, and open eye for the principles of even civil liberty. 3. More remarkably still, he ~eems to have grasped the principle and the very basis of the principle of religious liberty. "These men" (ver. 35) are to be looked at, as some possibly sacred thing should be looked at. "These men" (ver. 38) are to be "let alone," as men possibly doing "the work of God." And their present would-be judges are to "refrain from'' them, because they ought themselves to shrink, for their own salce, from incurring even the distant responsibility of "fighting against God." The principle of religious liberty always postulates these two aspects-one presenting the view of the harm that may bo done to others by hampering their moral convictions or nature; the other the harm that may be done to self in challenging the most solemn and critical responsibilities which even "angels might fear." 4. It is difficult to resist the impression that Gamaliel was one of those who were" not far from the kingdom of God." The narra- tive scarcely warrants our saying that he had a leaning to "these men" himself. But this "doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people" (ver, 34), does seem to have had this of reliuion in him, that" he feared God," and that he dared to say it in connection with taking a very unpopular side. 'fo the advice of Gamaliel his fellow- councillors "agreed," glad to escape the position i? which they agai!1 found t~emselvee, They retreated from it for reasons which Gamahel takes the credit of putting beforo them but which should have been before them long before, and should have saved them' from being where they now were. They do retr~at, the,r know they arc in the wrong, they are morally again beaten; but the only tlun:r_ which would have taken from their retreat the description undignified is withheld, ior they do not confess their error. On the contrary, we notice- Ok. \t.1-12.] 'l H!i: ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 18,)