The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 273

elsewhere, he goes "down to _the ?ity of Samaria." Whether it were he or they, it cannot be supposed thnt they 1magmerl that they and their gospel were sure by mere change of pince, of escaping per_secution. They probably saw very clearly 'and were very Mure of the reverse of this-nor les11 sure that they carried with them what woul<l again and again win for itself and for them the heartiest welcome 1 waken the truest joy, reap a harvest of unending gratitude. And such was now the earliest e~IJerience of Philip. How kindly. ca~e the brief sunshine in place of persecution's b1tmg blast I So God often helps his faithful ones on another stacre and ordains that his own cause shall triumph through alternate storm and sun~hine. The city of Samaria found great joy, after a short period of Philip's visit. Let us consider this joy, what account it can give of itself. I. IT WAS A JOY THAT HAD FOUNDAT.ION ON WHICH TO BEST. It came of "Christ preached" and Christ proved among the people. Philip preached Christ, and this is clearly stated first. His preaching was attended with signs and wonders followin"'. Notice: 1. That the exact nature of those signs and wonders-miracles uf hcalin"' to the body-does not derogate from the great principle here forcibly illustrated. S~me may think that because present ages a.re not ages of bodily miracles, neither the preaching nor the preacher of the gospel has a cha.nee to compare with that of Philip's time. But the mistake is patent. The criterion is not that one bodily kind of miracle should be forthcoming, but that some practical fruit should certainly be found. Christ preached must have some result of a practical kind. Christ is not among men to be nothing among them, to be no force among them, to be an indifferent possession, or to be mere passing excitement. No time is to be wasted, with Christ as the pretence of it, as he never wasted any. 2. The practical effect of Christ preached must be, really and everything ta.ken into account, good in itself and in its bearing. It is true that a.while much of what shall seem of an opposite character may be stirred up. It is true also that Christ preached and refused must be condemnation to those who refuse. And it is true that much of Christ's practical work, while it is in progress, lies in discriminating, in moral judgment of men, in separating and showing the infinite disparity there is between certain kinds "of ground" on which the seed of his Word falls. These things nothing hinder the fa.et that, if Christ has been at work, it may be shown and must be shown that good has been at work, and goodness come thereot: 3. The practical good effect of Christ preached is not disadvantaged in the present day by the absence of physical signs and wonders. These were the shadows, not the things that now purport to have succeeded them. They were but simple, elementary types compared with the substance of which they forewarned. It might with much more verisimilitude be said that the physical miracles of Jesus Christ and his apostles shared the class of disadvantages attendant upon his own persona.I presence in the flesh -when men might love the person rather than the character, the body rather than the soul, the limb restored rather than the soul saved. Where to-day, Christ being preached, _sins are forsaken, hearts a.re changed, lives do different works and those the works of godliness, the miracle is not what makes men alone wonder and throng and be glad exceedingly, but it makes them and hosts of angels also wonder, throng, and be glad to Heaven's joyfullest music. 4. The practical 11:ood effect of Christ preached ii; bound to be efficacious in attracting "the people." We here read that they "with one accord gave heed" to the things that were spoken, because of the things that were done. Though many an indi'.vidual has by one method or another shut himself, alas! too surely, too successfully, out of grace, this has never yet been found true of the mass of people (unless it be judicially the case for e. while with the Jew) when the gospel has been preached amongst them. So soon as some real fruits have become apparent, standers-by, ay, and passers-by, not a few, look, and gaze, and ask, a.n_d mova toward that truth that can act, and then they yield ere long in tumult of devot10n a':ld unbounded subjection to it. No work, no public moverue~t, no sample ?f revolution eve_n, eve~ showed more genuinely the siO"ns of adaptation for spreading (ay, to the idea ot "coverina the earth as the w~ters cover the seas") than " Christ preached'' has shown. It offers us'ii. grand idea of what the scene will ~e! what th~ rate _of g;,owth, what the grand transformation of sceue, when the _set ~ond1t10ns, t~e. set t1~e shall have come. 5. Christ's gospel does not only not d1sd1nn these c~d1t1ons o~ its accept- ance, but proposes them and gives prominence to them and desires w be itself tested  270 THE AOTS OF THE APOSTLE& [OB. vm. 1--.0,