oomplainte. The practical ll!Bl!Ona to be learnt are these. 1. Never despise other people's grievances or m&ke light of them beca.use they do not affect you, Especially let no paetor of a flock underrate the temporal and personal vexations of any parishioner who may lay them berore him. To poor people even small losses seem very serious things. And if to the sense of loss there is added a sense of injustice or unfairness, the murmurs are very real, and represent deep-seated wounds. 'l'hey must be kindly and judicially attended to. 2. Again, all, and especially the clergy, should feel the full importance of impartiality in dealing with their people. Favouritism in dispensing charity or even pastoral care must be resolutely eschewed. Nobody must be" neglected" because others are preferred. :Murmurs are not always loud; but be sure that any unfair or supercilious treatment will rankle in the breast; that, if extended to classes, it will make a serious crack in the unity of the Church; and that it effectually prevents those who think themselves unfairly treated from reaping any profit from the ministrations of those by whom they think themselves so treated. 8. Lastly, the example of the apostles in this matter teaches those in authority not to attempt to do everything with their own hands, and not to be jealous of having able coadjutors to do the work thoroughly which they themselves of necessity can only do imperfectly. In leaving the choice of the new deacons to the congregation at large, instead of selecting them themselves, they showed a thoroughly liberal and wise spirit, and have left a lesson to the Church in all ages to trust the laity with all fitting power, and to evoke the latent energies of the body, by giving to every capable person some work to do for the glory of God and the welfare of his people. Vers. 9-15.-Fanaticism. Fanaticism has one respectable feature, that it is sincere. The fanatic believes what he asserts to be true, and he is earnest and zealous in the maintenance and propagation of his belief. But when we have said thus much we have said all that can be said in his favour. In fanaticism there is a culpable neglect of the reason which God has given to ma.n to be his guide. The fanatic shuts his eyes and closes his ears, and rushes on his way with no more reflection or discrimination than a wild bull in its fury. Fanaticism, too, has a fatal tendency to deaden all moral considerations and to blunt a man's perceptions of right and wrong. It is in vain to look for justice, or fairness, or truth, or mercy, from a fanatic. There is no violence of which he is not capable if he thinks his faith is in danger, no wiles and baseness to which he will not stoop if he thinks it necessary for the defence of his cause. Murder, perjury, bribery, subornation of witnesses, and defamation of opponents by lies and slander, have constantly been the weapons by which fanaticism of various kinds has ever defended itself. The end justified the means. It is, however, a curious feature in the history of fanaticism that it is often so closely allied with self-interest. And this is a feature which derogates considerably from its only merit, that of sincerity. In a pure love of truth there is no thought of self-interest. Truth1is a holy, Divine thing, loved for its own sake. But the fanatic's creed is not pure truth; and so it seems it cannot be loved with the same pure, disinterested love with which truth is loved. Hence it has often been the parent of crime; and hence it is, as we have just said, often allied with self-interest. It is so with Mohammedan fanaticism; it has been so and still is with Romish and specially Jesuitical fanaticism; it was so with Puritan and fifth-monarchy fanaticism; it is so with other existing forms of fanatical and unreasonable zeaL In the case before us in this chapter we need not doubt that these HelleniBtic Jews had a very strong and ardent attachment to the Law of Moses, and that their dread and dislike of Stephen's teaching arose from their apprehension that Christian doctrine was in its nature destructive of their own tenets. But if their attachment to the Law of Moses had been intelligent and pure, they would have welcomed the gospel of Chruit as being the fulfilment of the Law. If they had been actuated by a holy love of God's truth, they would not have sought to uphold the Mosaic institutions by violence, by injustice, and by fraud. Nor can we doubt that, as is the case of the chief priests and scribes and elders, who conspired to take away the life of Jesus Christ, so in the case of these heated partisans, the fear of losing their own places of influence and power, and having to yield the place of honour to the Gali.Iman teachers whom they hated and despised, h.a.d much to do with the unrighteous zeal of the members of the Hellen.iatic synagogues. 'l'he Christian should strive to have 11, zeal mr. vt. 1-10.] THE AO'I'B OF THE APOSTLES. 197
for Obrist and hle glory quite ae ardent ae that of any fanatic, but at the same time to keep the eyes and ears of his reason always open for the correction of any error into which he may inadvertently have fallen, and for the addition of any truth which he may not hitherto have known. Above all, he will never seek to bear down re&aon by violence, or to defend truth with the carnal weapons of unrighteousness, whether violence or fraud.