The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 231

the bodily Beneee in a wondroua form; in such form that Moses felt that, in a very unusual de~ee, be stood nrar to hie Cre&tor. Jesus Christ now manifests himself to ue as he does not unto the world: (1) in the privileges of his house and table; (2) in the inspiration and indwelling of his Spirit; (8) in the spiritual wonders he works in the hearts and lives of men with whom we have to do. IV. Drvrm: oo:MPASSION. (Ver. 34.) To the toiling and suffering Israelites God must have seemed very far away. It must have appeared to them as if he wero h\ind to their miseries, deaf to their sighs and groans, indifferent to their wrongs. llut they were mistaken. All the while he was observing and pitying them, and was ready to interpose at the right time on their behalf. When to our fainting and distrustful heart it seems as if our Divine Lord were unobservant or unmoved, we may rest assured that he sees, that he oompa.ssionates, that he holds himself ready to put forth his redeeming strength on our behalf when the hour for our deliverance has struck. V. HtrnAN INAPPRECIATIVENESS. (Vers. 35-39.) If we were to contend that the best and noblest men who have rendered the most signal and splendid service to our race are cert.a.in to be appreciated according to the height of their virtue and the value of their help, we should go in the teeth of human history. Some of the very best and wisest have been least understood, most despised and ill used. Moses, one of the very greatest, "attaining to the first three," most eminent in privilege, in character, in accomplishment, was one "whom they refused" (ver. 35), "whom our fathers would not obey" (ver. 39). We may work, hoping to be appreciated and honoured of men, accepting gladly and gratefully the esteem and the love they award us; but we must not build upon it as a certain recompense of our endeavour. We must be prepared to do without it, to be able to say, "I will work on, 'though the more ubundantly I love the less am I loved.'" Our true reward is in the smile of the Saviour, the approval of our own heart (1 John iiL 21), the consciousness that we are serving our generation, the blessing which awaits the faithful in the land of promise. VL HuM.A.N RESEMBLANCE TO THE DIVINE. (Ver. 37.) The Christ that should come was to be "like unto" the faithful servant in the house of God (Heh. iii. 5). As he was to be like one of us, so we are to strive to be "like unto him." And we may bear his image, breathe his Spirit, live his life, do in our sphere the work he did in his: "As he is, so are we in this world." "As my Father bath sent me, even so send I you."-O, Vers. 39-50.-Sin and righteO'Usness. These verses suggest to us some thoughts on the nature and the award of sin and of righteousness. L TRAT BIN LIES IN THE WRONG ACTION OF THE SOUL. (Vers. 39, 40.) Stephen says that the children of Israel " in their hearts turned back again into Egypt;" they were as guilty before God as if they had actually faced round and marched back into bondage. The sin was in the spirit of disloyalty and disobedience which dwelt ,,ithin them. "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, . . . Llasphemies " (Matt. xv. 19). "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is ho " (Prov, :,xiii 7). It is the secret thought, the hidden motive, the cherished purpose, the lingering desire, the burning passion, that constitutes the essence of the evil in the 5ight of him who looketh on the heart, and not on the outward appearance. Beneath a fair exterior some men hide a false and guilty heart; beneath a broken nnd faulty behaviour others have a soul that is struggling on and out-on to a better life, out of the entanglements of an evil but regretted and repudiated past. I1 THAT SIN'S WORST PENALTY 1B PAID IN TBE SPIBITUAL DETERIORATION IN WHIOB IT ENDS. (Vers. 41--43.) For their rebelliousness the children of Israel were punished by being made to wander in the wilderness, instead of being at once admitted to their inheritance; also by being subjected to the rule of foolish and faulty kings like Saul, instead of wise and righteous prophets like Samuel; also by being sent away into captivity, even "beyond Babylon." But the worst effect of their sin was in their being led into darker e.nd more aggravated evil. Their culpable impatience-" We wot, not what is become of him "-led them to an act of positive idolatry: "Make us gods to go before us;" and "they made a calf .•. and offered sacrifice unto the idol;" and this act of theirs led on, in course of time, to idolatrous actions more flagrant and heinous still (ver. 42); and their wrong-doing culminat.ed in the worship of Moloch, e.n iniquity of the very deepest dye. This ie the course and penalty of sin, Oile ~DI OR, VJJ, 1-60.] THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 227