oan be now no doubt of the signi.ftcance of the symptoms which then appeared. Let us notice in this passage- I. Wh.st may be called TBll: FIRST EFFORT OF THE CIItJ"BOB TO PUT OH FORM, Effort though it was, there can be little doubt that it Wl\8 most unconscious of its nature. The occasion, interesting from a merely historical point of view, is much more eo from a moral point of view. Hitherto the brief and wonderful career of the Church had been all "spirit and life "-stem and bough and twig all concealed beneath flower and fruit. Suddenly, however, the rudiments of organization com- mence to be seen ; and it was a consequence of some of the less lovely aspects of human nature. These do not fail to thrust themselves into notice at a time one would have most desired their absence, and while they labour under the rebuke of many II faithful suggestion of Christian feeling and principle, Plainly up to this time the apostles had themselves distributed the offerings that had been laid at their feet (eh. iv. 35; comp. with eh. vi. 2), availing themselves of just such help as might offer. Inspired apostles could not; do everything. Though "murmuring" might not be lovely, and very probably was not so now, yet, as they recognize some foundation for it, they proceed to propose a remedy (cf. Exod. xviii. 13-26). TI. How IT WAS GUIDED BY APOSTLES INSPmED. 1. They summon the whole body of the disciples together, and point out to them the aspects of the case. 2. They throw upon this body of disciples the responsibility of choosing those helpers who shall serve the needs of the occasion. 3. They insist on the moral, nay, more, the high spiritual, qualifications of these. Though they are only "to bear the vessels of the Lord," yet must they in high sense be "pure" and "clean;" for they must be men "of good report, full of the Spirit and of wisdom." 4. By a service most simple, of prayer and laying on of hands, they set them apart for what might seem their comparatively humble and business kind of duties. Christian dignity and honour are set upon the work of these men, as dignity and honour belong to it, in the Name of the Master for whom and for whose Church it was to be done. IlL SOME SUGGESTIONS OF GENERAL PRINCIPLES ARISING FROM THIS OCCASION, 1, Division of labour is a principle to be observed within the Church as without it. 2. A gradation in importance of work (though not necessarily of the workman) is plainly implied by the words of the apostle (ver. 2). 3. 'l'he character of Church organization, whatever of it there might come to be, seems plainly shadowed forth, It is not to be place and office and dignity for the sake of them, or for the show of hierarchy. 'l'he offices of the Church are not to be the filling up of an apriori con- stitution. They are only justifiable in the interests of the use of the Church, and are to be assigned in faithful analogy with the illustrious model-principle of "the sabbath made for man, not man for the sabbath." 4. The possession of the Spirit is the foundation-qualification of every order of Christian workman. Men "of good report, a.nd . . . of wisdom" may be the manifest qualifications of men of business, whether Church business or not. But the apostles require that those who are "appointed over this business," i.e. "to serve tables," shall be also "full of the Holy Ghost." 5. The discretion of the Spirit is still reserved-unfettered in each order and in each individual For of these seven "deacons," now elected and with solem11 service set apart, we hear no more, except of two of them ; and both of these aro doing distinguished work, not as deacons, but as "preaching Christ," and doing "great wonders and miracles" (comp. vers. 8, 13-15, with cl:.. vii. and viii. 5-8). 'l'he conclusion of all may be understood to be that the truest Church will be that which earnestly bids for life and movement, and allows only so much form as the tide of life and the directing of that life may fairly require.-B.
Ver. 7.-0onvincing testi=ies to the force of the new faith. •• And a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith." The obedience of "a great cowpany of the priests to the faith" was beyond a doubt, in the nature of things, a cowmanding witness to the force of that faith. When that faith made its successful a,sault upon the serried ranks of such "a company," and persuaded the throwing away of weapons so peculiarly their own, and endeared to them by an almost inveterate attachment, a great victory was won. 'l'he glory and especially the moral impressive• ness of victory will often be proportioned in the directest manner, not to the 11trength CR, TI. 1-15.] THE AC1l'S OJ!' THE APOSTLES. 205