The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 261

ZEAL, A.ND THE LOVE OF THE DIS0IPLE. The fire of the spiritual life in the soul ot' tlle saint burns brightest in the darkest. hours of earthly tribulation. The love of Christ, the hope of glory, the preciousness of the gospel, a.re never, perhaps, folt in their lh-ing power so fully as when the lights and fires of earthly joy and comforts a.re extinguished. Then, in the presence, so to speak, of Christ's unveiled power and glory, charity and boldness, zeal and self-sacrifice, are at their highest pitch, and the making known to others the glad tidings of great joy seems to be the only thing worth living for. So that the fruit of persecution is to be seen in a noble army of martyrs and confessors, qualified to the very highest extent, and eager in the very highest degree, to preach far and wide the unsearchable riches of Christ, and in extra.ordinary accessions to the numbers of the persecuted Church. lV. OTHER FRUITS OF PERSECUTION, SUCH A.S EXB:IDITING TO THE EYES 01!' TBB WORLD THE REALITY OF TJIAT RELIGION WHICH THEY DESPISE, HOLDmG '01' TO ITS A.DHIBATION THE TRUE CHARACTERS OF THOSE WHOM: IT PERSECUTES, AND SHOWING THE H0PELESS1'"ESS OF STAMPING OUT THAT FIRE WHICH IS FED FROM: THE LIVE COALS OF GOD'S ALT.AR IN BEAVEN, AND M:A1'.-Y HORE, IT WOULD BE EASY TO ENUMERATE. But these must suffice to teach us that the malice of Satan is no match for the power of God; but that the Church will eventually shine forth in all the brighter beauty of holiness for the efforts that have been made for her disfigurement and utter over- throw. Vers. 9-24.-The first heretic. The appearance of Simon Magus in the list of the first converts to the faith, and his enrolment among the baptized members of the Church, must not be overlooked or passed hastily by, if we would profit by the exhaus- tive teaching supplied by the Acts of the Apostles for the use of the Church in all ages. 'When the student of Church history begins bis studies expecting to find a record of faith and holiness, and to trace the triumphant victories of truth over falsehood through a succession of ages, and to feast his mind with the wise words and the righteous works of a succession of saints, he is soon disappointed and pained to find that Church history brings him into contact with some of the worst phases of human nature. The human mind never shows to greater disadvantage than when its contact with Divine truth stirs up all the foul sediment at the bottom of it, and suggests forms of deceit and duplicity, and varieties of impurity ar..d dishonesty, and specialities of baseness and selfishness, which could have had no existence but for such contact with what is spiritual and heavenly. We might have been prepared for the rejection of truth by the children of the wicked one, and even for those acts of hatred and violence by which unbelief seeks to put out the light of truth. Apostles in prison, and Stephen lying lifeless on the ground, and a Sanhedrim of priests and scribes and elders solemnly forbidding the preaching of the gospel, a.re events that we might have anticipated, and which, though they shock, do not so much surprise us. But a reception of the truth of the gospel going so far as to lead the receiver to holy baptism, and yet immediately allied with sordid motives, and coexistin!!: with imposture and sorcery, and issuing in a life devoted to the deprava.tion of the gospel and to the hindering of men's salvation, is an unexpected and a perplexing phenomenon. And yet it is the history of most heresies. Even in those days when the profession of the faith of Christ subjected men to persecution, and when the Christian body was a comparatively small one with a strongly defined character of purity and holiness, we find men joining the Church's ranks only to pollute them, and then to separate themselves and to found some accursed heresy. Either the motive was vile from the first, or the restraints imposed by Christianity were found too severe for the half- converted heart, and the heresy was framed to reconcile the claims of the reason which was convinced with those of the passions which refused to be subdued. Simon appears to have been chiefly attracted and overawed by the miracles which he saw wrought in the Name of Christ. It then occurred to him that he might pursue his old career of sorcery more successfully than ever if he could obtain some partnersliip in the tL.aumaturgy which had astonished him. He anticipated richer harvestH of gain as a Christian conferring spiritual powers by the laying on of hands than as a ma~ician (lmazing men by hia sorceries. And so he offered Peter money. The frothy levity of his :iiature WM sho'Wll 1111 much by liis terror at Pcter's rebuke ~ it ha<! bel}n b;y OH, VIII, 1-40,] THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 257 --------------------------------- his offer of a bribe to the apostle. And this rapid succession c,f sorcery, belief, baptism, simony, confusion, wo.e the sure index of a heart still held fast by the bonds of iniquity, and the natur~l prelude to a life of_ hose cunning, using holy things for base purposes of unholy gam. The career of Simon, as of many of the early heretics whom the Fathers denounce with such terrible severity, seems to leave us this lesson-that contact with holy things, if it does not convert, hardens the heart; that the light of Christ, if it does not purify the soul, plunges it into deeper darkness; and that familiarity with spiritual powers, which does not subdue and sanctify, has a tendency to stimulate the intelligence only to give it access into lower depths of intdlectual wickedness and more deadly sin. Vers. 25--40.-The Word written prepr11Ting the way for the Word pr=hed. The conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch ie a great text on missionary work. It illustrates with singular force and clearness the double need of the Bible and the preacher to bring men to the knowledge of Christ crucified. Without the evangelist to teach him, this seeker after truth might long have groped in vain after the meaning of the prophet; and if his mind had not been exercised by musings on the prophet, the evangelist would neither have had the opportunity to teach nor would his teaching have had such success. It was the concurrence of the two that brought this illustrious convert within the gates of the city of God. Hence the conclusion that the written Word and the preached Word are concurrent factors in the conversion of men to God; that both are necessary, and that neither of them can safely be dispensed with. The written Word, being "given by inspiration of God," is, as far as it goes, perfect and infallible, and yet it is not of itself sufficient. The preached Word, albeit far ini'erior, as being liable to error, imperfect and fallible, is yet necessary as the complement of the testimony of Scripture. The written Word stands immovable, the touchstone of truth, the standard of doctrine, the referee in doubt, the pattern and model, the crucible of error, the court of final appeal in all controversies of faith. The preached Word varied, modified, by circumstances of time and place, drawing its colouring, its clothing, its fashion, from its immediate surroundings, presents the eternal truth in the garb most suited to the wants and capacities of those with whom it deals. But in doing this it is liable to err. Then the sole appeal is to the written Word of God. All teaching not in accordance with it, however venerable for age and for the authority by which it is supported, must be mercilessly cut off. Blessed is that Church whose doctors explain but never darken the revelations of Holy Scripture. Blessed a.re the people whose teachers guide them into the meaning of Holy Scripture, but never turn them from it. Happy is that disciple whose min<l, being deeply imbued with the truths of the Word of God, is aided by a faithful evangelist to adjust those truths in their true proportion and relation to each other, and to fill up their interstices with harmonious and homogeneous materials. As regards missionary work, the lesson is, sow the Bible broadcast to prepare the way for the foot of the missionary. Let the version of the Holy Scriptures given to each nation in his own tongue be to the modern world what the version of the LXX. was to the old; so that the evangelist may find the ground already ploughed, and ready to receive the seed of eternal life, when he preaches the salvation which is by Jesus Christ.