The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 236

who would do cmd be something in the world: "Do the thing that lies nearest to thee; the second will hnve already become clearer. n V. Mo8EB' EXAMPLE WAS THAT 011' LOYALTY tm"DEB MISCONOEPTION. There is much pathos in the simple word that he thought his brethren understood that God was delivering them by his band; but they did not understand. So mighty is the strength derived from the sympathy of numbers, the common soldier becomes a hero at its electric touch. So chilling is mieconception and want of sympatl:y on the part of friends, it damps the spirit of the Heaven-born leader. For this reason, wl,en we sift the examples of moral courage presented by any time, those are the bravest and the greatest., and most prove their call of God, who show that they can go on, if needs be, not merely in spite of their open enemies, but in spite of their friends. 'l'he mis- construction of friends will be most felt when the action is in the conscience known to be most disinterested and sincere. Moses aims to reconcile contending brethen ; unity among themselves is now above all necessary. His action is misconstrued as ambition (ver. '.,l8). Thus does the sick man tum on the kindly physician, the subject on his prince, the slave .Jn his deliverer. Man often ignores the day of his salvation. 1\Ioses, like his great Anti type, was baffled in his saving designs by the ignorance and folly of those who would not be blessed. But he simply uses prudence and waits for a future opportunity. We can hardly construe the flight of Moses otherwise than as an act of prudence. He saw his life and with it his design endangered. To have remained woulcl have been foolhardiness, often confounded with true courage. He took the course of prudence, which is the course of the higher courage. Far easier to rush on an heroic death than to nourish a noble purpose under disappointment, solitude, and exile. The history of a nation's greatness is summed up in that of its great men. And in the life trials and struggles of great men God reveals himself from 11ge to age as the perseve1ing, unvanquisho.ble, and loving Saviour of mankind. His undying purpose, manifested in all his heroes, is to set us free ; and this in the knowledge of him and obedience to his laws.-J. Vers. 80-34.-The call of Moses. L THE MESSAGE BY FIBE. Fire is the sign of the presence of Jehovah. It denotes spiritual agency in its intensity. Fire penetrates and it purifies. It is, therefore, inimical to evil and conservative of good. Darkness of mystery is round about God, and when he comes forth from it to reveal himself to men it is in the form of fire. It is an emblem of the Holy Spirit. In the bosoms of men he glows, and the musing poet bursts forth into inspired song, and the prophet into "words that burn and thoughts that breathe of truth and power." When we ask that Goci will answer us by fire, we ask that he will make known his presence in the most vivid manner in feeling, and with the most mighty effect on the life. Specially the vision of the burning bush was a type of Israel unconsumed notwithstanding its fierce persecution in Egypt; of the glory of his great Representative, the Messiah- a bright flame springing from the lowly bush; of the Church amidst its agelong conflicts and trials; lastly, of all truth, which" like a torch, the more it's shook, it shines;" the more the breezes of controversy blow about it, the purer and clearer its illumination. II. THE LIVING VOICE OIi' THE ETERNAL. The sense of hearing as well as that of sight is addressed. So ever in the disclosures of the Divine. What we have felt in part through the hearing of the ear is illustrated and confirmed by the evidence of the more sceptical organ, the eye. Or what we have witnessed with a certainty not to be gainsaid, in actual fact is presently interpreted and connected with the great principle to which it belongs by some similar voice of teaching. The utterance here is simple. It is a declaration that tho God of history is the ever-present God. He wlio was with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob is here with Moses. Faith has always its past to fall back upon; it can renew its life in moments of weakness out of the living follllt of memory. Ill. 'l'rrn WONDER AND THE TERROR 011' THE DIVINE PRESENCE. First, Moses wonders at the burning bush. Wonder is the reflection in feeling of the E'Xtrnc1 rdinnry, auu it is the parent of curiosity. Why and whence, the spirit o.sks;this irruption into the course of no.turn 'l It is the appearance of tho living God, is the 011ly answer to the question. Here wonder passes into fear and trembling, which betray man's sense of utter  282 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, [<lll, 'ffl. 1-60,