The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 238

Thus did the lines of ancient and recent evidence converge upon the present, and give to it a aolen:in significance. 3, The renewed contrll!t of the divinely accepted and the humanly re;ected. (Vere. 88, 89.) Moeee was the channel of ancient revelation. He received loving words to give to the people. And Jesus had said that the words he apake were not his, but the words of him that sent him. Yet Israel in the desert and Israel now were found alike unwilling to obey. The Divine presence was manifestly with Moses. In the desert the angel of God was ever at his side. So had it been with JesUB. Had not one of this very Sanhedrim confessed to Jesus that God must be with him, seeing the works that he did? Yet both Moses and Jesus had been rejected. And in both cases, when the voice of God said, "Forward I" tb.e heart of Israel turned back. In the one case they longed for the comfort and the luxury of Egypt, in the other for the sensual joys of an earthly kingdom. Better to retain power and position than to go on the idle chase after the ideal and the spiritual; so the low mind, the carnal heart, argues in every age. It was the choice of the flesh and the denial of the Spirit that was in each case the cure of the sin, as it is everywhere and always. 4, The lapse into idolatry. The worship of a visible form is far easier than the lifting of the spirit to an invisible God. Idolatry is the making to one's self a god; spiritual religion is the constant exertion to rise to him who cannot be reproduced in finite forms of the intelligence or of art. The element of self-denial or of self-pleasing predominates in each and every form of worship. An upward and a downward movement is always proceeding in the religious life of a people. Some are ever trying to bring God into the service of their passions and interests; while true religion tries to mould all life into conformity with God's will. Idolatry brings penal consequences. Men are given up to their hearts' desire. The moral nerve decays. Spiritual energy being lost, they become weak in the presence of their enemies. Those touches of reminiscence from the past were enough to touch tender chords in the minds of Stephen's hearers. Well they knew idolatry had been the curse of the nation. Defeat, slavery, exile,-all came in its train. All might be traced back to the bitter root of disobedience, as that to unbelief in the living God. And what if now a similar vista of calamity were opening; if history were to repeat itself, and disobedience to the voice from heaven in Jesus should lead to a final downfall? Our history mirrors our sins and our mistakes. If we do not heed its warnings, nothing can avert our fate. No act of disobedience to conscience bas passed unpunished in our lives. The worst of madness is deliberately to repeat old errors and stereotype our moral failures. If the ghosts of the past, as they appear in memory and reflection, do not deter us, what will or can ?-J. Vere. 44-53.-Lessons of sacred history. I. TJIE SACRED PLACES OF lBII.A..EL, 1. The tabernacle. It was the tent of witness or of attestation; otherwise the " taber- nacle of the assembly," or of the congregation. It was the visible centre of Israel's natural and spiritual life, the hearth and home of the people and the altar of God. He met with them to declare his will, to make known his laws, and they with one another as a community having a common weal. Religion is the true foundation of society. She is the" oldest and holiest tradition of the earth." When a house of God is erected in the wilds of .Australia or of America, a centre of civilization is fixed. It is the earthly representation of a heavenly reality. Moses made the tabernacle after a Divine archetype or model given to him. So worship on earth must ever aspire to and reflect the "life above," the risen life, the life of spiritual freedom and victory. God is ever saying to new societies, as to the new society in the desert, "Make me a house after the pattern you have seen;" that is, have a place and a recognition in your life for the holiest ideals, the most sacred purposes of life. 2. The temple. Both the tabernacle and the temple were designed and constructed after the analogy of human dwellings; t~e ~a.barnacle was but a more richly furnished tent. As the wealth and power of the nat10n mcreased, it was fitting that this should be reflected in the greater magnificence of the house of °:od; and as they became settled in the Holy Land, that the tent of the D;O~ad shoul_d give way to the palace of a King. The temple of So\omon represented_ rn ~ts ~a.gn1- ficence the greatness of the victorious kingdom of David. The outward mst1tut1ons of religion in a people should keep pace with its growth in mate~ial prosperity. It is miser- able that the church should be worse flllnished than the ordinary d welhngs of the wor-- 284: THE AO'l'S OF TllE APOSTLES. [ctt, vu. 1-60.