The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 237

dependence in the presence of the Almighty and the All-holy. The eight of the unspeakable glory is shrunk from, In ordinary life nature and custom conceal God, and mercifully; for bow could one glimpse of absolute truth, of Divine perfection, be endured? But terror passes into reverence which is the blending rf fear with love and confidence as the mind becomes more i~ured to the experience. 'lie sandals are thrown off, as in the presence of an august sovereign. How good to !eel that nature, the daily scene of a wondrous drama, the occasional theatre of magnificent spectacles, BS in the tempest, the thunder-voices and fiery revelation betokening the presence of creative might,-is holy ground I But the mind becomes deadened by custom, And well is it, therefore, that in those places specially consecrated to meetings with God-the church, the private oratory-l1abits of outward submission and reverence should be cultivated which may have their right influence on the whole moods of the soul. IV. THE OALL. 1. The call of man by God is ever to service on behalf of the suffering. All human suffering has an echo in the heart of God. He is the God of all compassion. He is not merely love, but love as an active will. He determines to save. Now it is a nation from outward captivity, now a generation from bondage to ignorance and fear. Light and health are the images of his energy and influence. 2. The called man is a man sent. He has a mission, and it is ever a mission to the lowly and the meek. So has it been with all the great prophets; so above all with the Christ. "I send thee into Egypt." "Where lies the Egypt to which I am sent, and where the fulfilment of my life-call must lie?" the Christian may ask. John Howard found his Egypt in the prisons of Europe, and "trod an open but unfrequented path to immortality." Our Egypt may be close at hand. Wherever we see an obsolete custom, a corrupt habit of thought, an ignorance of any kind, a spell laid upon the imagination, or a vice tyrannizing over the will of others, there is a house of bondage. God needs the co-operation of many :finite deliverers that his design of an infinite deliverance may go forward. If we, like Moses and like Elijah and Isaiah, are ready with our " Here am I ; send me," it will not be long before we receive our directions and our marching orders.-J. Vers. 35-43.-Moses, and Israe7,'s 'bearing towards him: a figure of (Jhrlst. I. TBB REJECTED OF 11:EN wAB IN EACH CASE THE HONOURED OF GoD. The Israelites refused Moses as their ruler and judge; and God sent him as ruler and as emancipator to the people. Moses went into exile, and there was honoured by a revelation of the glory of God; and with a special mission Jesus bad been slain in Jerusalem, and in that very city had come back in the power of the Spirit, to clothe the disciples with fiery eloquence, to vibrate through their hearts with power, and to put forth mighty power to heal through their means-thus being proved Leader and Saviour of the people. Human blindness and folly only bring a new reaction of the power and mercy of God. :So often with us all We resist the leading thoughts of the day. We hate the new truth which brings change with it, the fresh revelation which calls us to larger freedom. We think to silence the new teacher by contempt. But lo I in some unexpected quarter power breaks forth to seal the teacher aud his message, and we are silenced, II. THE CA.REEB oF MosEB AND THE COBREBPONDENCE IN THAT OF CHRIBT. Grandly the figure of the desert lawgiver rises before us in the sketch of Stephen. 1. His mighty works. Those in Egypt, when be outdid the profound magicians, and established the supremacy of Jehovah over Pharaoh and all the gods of Egypt, were one of the originating causes of Israel's freedom. The memory of those deeds lived in the heart, could never be forgotten. They laid the foundation-stones of the great structure of their history. So did Jesus lay the foundation of hie kingdom in works, the power of which and the purport of which he coulJ appeal to as evidence of hie Divine mission. 2. Hispropheticforecastanditsfulfilment. The memorable prophecy of the great Teacher to come, found in the Book of Deu~rono_my, was one of Israel's lights shining in a dark place. Though Stephen does not identify the prophet to come with JeSW! in so many words, his meaning is evident to all the Sanhedrim. "\Vas there a hint in that prediction which was wanting in the actual chara::ter of Jesus? And if the Sanhedrim had rejected him, how could they fail to incur the j udgment threatened in that great passage of the Law? Some of th~ later parables. of Jesus (as thM of the wicked husbandmen) were also, perhaps, fresh m the recollect1on of many. «JH. VU, 1.-60.] THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 233