hero mny bo so.id to glimmor forth one of the greater moral facts of our nature. To offer to ~hare nnd to be permitted to share the joy and prosperity of another can yield little praise to him who offers, may yield some to the person who permits; but to volunteer to share, while innocent one's self, the i6,nominy and suffering of another i8 nil honour to him who volunteers-in ordinary cases mostl1• humiliation to him who receives tho advantage o( that fellowship. 'l'o him, however, whose suffering of shame the apostles now rejoiced to share, h\)miliation of this kind there was none, II. 'l'IIE:Y REJOICED IN A FELJ,OWSihP OF SHAME WHICH, DY THE MEMORIES ATTACHl~O TO IT, W.AS TURNED FOR THEM INTO HONOUR AND OLOUY. 1. It. "gathered round., Christ hims~lf, One whom they k_new to be supremely great, supremely ~ood. The centre of this fellowship was their own old matchless Friend, who had been such a Teacher, such nn Example to them; whom they had seen do so many might.y and gracious works for others; whom they bad watched for three years, and more and more wondered at, admired, and loved; whom they had seen tried for no offence, and con- demned with no guilt on him, and crucified for sins not his own; whom a self-denyin" grave had restored, and a self-opening heaven bad received; and of whom a descending omnipotent Spirit had given abundant and most touching attestation that be ha<l not forgotten those same disciples, nor the ,vord of his graciou:1 promise to them_ 2. It "gathered round" One of whom each of those apostles bad, no doubt, his own indi- vidual a.nd most precious remembrances. 'fake one example-Peter. '.Vhat memories he had of Jesus! And now that, beyond all be believed of Jesu8, before be suffere<l death, being" the Son of the living God," be knew him to be such, how inte[lsified in significance many of those memories must ha.ve become !-but not least that of his own at one time great relucta[lce to share his suffering Master's shame, and his thrice- repeated de[lial of him I What a blesse<l revelation for Peter I And what a forgiving condescension of tbe great Master, that he permits Peter now to take the lead of his fellow-disciples, and gives him the opportunity of showing how he would, if be could, fain repair his old grievous transgression! Personal experience of Jesus Christ brings any one of us to a much more hearty and thorough readiness of surrender to him than all that mere description of him avails to do, though you add to it a willing admiration. 3. It" gathered round" One whose suffering and shame the apostles specially knew to be so unmerited, so absolutely uncauscd by self and unendured for any necessity of discipline, improvement, or punishment to self. And yet the suffering and shame had been extreme, and, they well knew it, bad been borne so patiently, so meekly, an<l so forgivingly. How thinking, grateful he:i.rts must have longed, when now at last they were fully enlightened, to share ever so small a portion of bis unmerited shame, though he himself bad passed on and up, if it should serve his cause! We wonder nothing at the true devotion of those released apostles, but is there no room left for a wonder at the rare reproduction amongst ourselves of the same devotion? Evidently the Spirit had wrought in those apostles a real sympathy with the heart of Jesus, so that they felt this an honour, not such ns the world giveth, that they were permitted, were "counted worthy," to stanu. in any sense on the same level of suffering and of shame with him. Though they might not, could not, suffer the same intensity of su1Tering as Jesus, yet they coul<l suffer for the same sort of reasons. III. 'J.'HI-:Y IlEJOICED rn THE ~'ELLOWSHIP OF SHA.ME WITH ONE WHO OWNED TO A NAME IN THE FUTURE GLORY OF WHICH THEY HAD UNQUALIFIED FAITH. "For his Name." Doubtless it has been these eighteen centuries the mightiest force and motive of all. The apostles did not rejoice to suffer with Jesus or in the track of him merely because of their grateful memories, but nlso because of their exulti[lg/ailh in him and the career that awaited him. Their very love to "his Name" did not feed only on past mercies and pensive memories; these, indeed, were dainty and tender pasturage for it; but it fed also on the stronger food of faith. "For his Name" w.1s equivalem to an assertion of all he would do aud all he would be to the world, as well as all he bad done and suffered for it. And hence we are immediately tol<l with what rcdoubleu oneroy, with what gladdened courage, the apostles did not cease to teach and to preach Chri~t "in the temple, a.nu in every house." 'Nell might men rejoice to be "counted worthy to suffer shame for his Name," when that Name means all that has been in living form most loving and most beautiful, anu. all that is to be gren.test and most powerful in the world's onward history, till its glory shall culminate in the day 186 THE .ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. [ell. V, 1-4.~.
c,f triumph in heaven. The Apostles loved the Name of Jesus; they hnd come to hnvo a perfect faith in it; they had been divinely endo1Yed with a full sympathy with All the~T could un<l<>rstand of it ; and now they were learning, in practical work and in rnlfering, the things which would make them really like to him who boro that Name. The "Name" of Christ turned the cross from shame into glory. It now docs yet more-it turns liYing men's estimates rii'.ht round from the falso anll the unreal to the real and the true. That in which they once gloried becomes their shame, nnd the reproach of Chri$t their riches, honour, and glory. So did this Master of men'd hearts, sympathie~, nn<l lives, among other things that he did by the humilintion and shame to which he bowed, secure also cfaciplos and servants of inflexible fidelity and quenchless devotion and love.-B.