The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 275

Vars. 9-24.-The type of one stTicleen with riligion-blindne811. It may be at once allowed that it were clifficuU to measure with any exactness the amount of moral guilt in Simon Magus. Happily we are not ea.lied to clo this. That we cannot do it will not binder our noticing the pbenomen~ of what may well strike upon our own know- ledge o.nd ~u! own _li_ght as o.n amazrng _development_ of the very obliquity itself of moral or spmtual v1s10n. Confessedly with most various amount and kind of effect does the glory of the no.tural sun strike on the profusion of the objects of nature. What brilliant effects some of these return I what rich and mellowed effects others! How do some seem to give out all they have in gratitude's welcome, and otheis rest in their joy I till, when we come to the range of human life, we can by no means couut upon any correspondingly uniform or correspondingly varying responses. Now aome- thing within asserts itself greater, more sullen, more given to contra.diction and resenting of external force than the coldest granite, the gloomiest yew, the dreariest of scenery. Yet these things within men make no such stubborn and successful fiO'ht against a whole world's source of light and heat as they do often against the p7ire light of truth, the purer light of God in the face of Jesus Christ, the purest and most vitalizing force of light of all-God in the searching gaze of the Holy Spirit. An early type of this religion-blindness of human nature is before us. Wherever the slightest allowance may possibly be made for the individual in whom it is now illustrated so broadly and undisguisedly, there must the indictment press but the more :heavily on the state of fallen nature itself. Let us notice respecting this religion- blindness- L IN WHAT IT STOOD SELF-CONVICTED. 1. It was in the presence of the greatest power of heaven that could be on earth, and (to begin with) did not stand in awe of it, nor recognized it as a presence 'to inspire awe. On occasions of far less direct mani- festations of the like great power of God, it had been far otherwise with Peter, and often had it been far otherwise with the miscellaneous multitude; and in particular on occa- sion of a manifestation of strong resemblance to the present-on the day of Pentecost- it was far otherwise with such a multitude. But Simon, a picked man, a taught man, a man acquainted with "mysteries," is not cognizant of high emotions, of deep stirrings of the moral nature, as were they; but stands there still with covered head, with thoughts that run on business, and with a hand ready outstretched to do business ! 2. It was in that presence, with moreover the strongest added symptoms that an unwonted holiness attached to it, and yet it was eager and was presumptuous to challenge intrinsic responsibilities in partnership with it. Forwardness to rush into responsibilities of the most sacred kind has always meant but one thing, and rarely enough led to an,; but one end. And yet the forwardness with which Simon may now be charged was not that of hasty impulse, of youth and its inexperience, of inconsiderate rashness. It has to be credited with a much worse and more ingrained genius. It was a calculating eagerness, an old and far too familiar impulse to be longer justly called impulse at all, the unaffected outcome of a heart indurate with self. 'l'hi~ sort can surely no further go than when it intrudes its callous candidature for the most sacred partuership that Heaven itself has to name, nor suspects that it is at all specially to blame in duing so. 3. It was in that presence, and dares to offer money, that with it may be purchase,l a share of its most sacred prerogative or own nature. The "corruptible things " of "silver and gold" are proposed as an exchange value for the most incorruptible, living Holy Spirit! Once Judas, for the getting of money,to himself, volunteers to be the betrayer of Jesus; but in real fact, human insolence of thought dared a higher flight of incredible audacity when it purposed to pa.rt with money for the attempted purchase of the gift of the Holy Ghost. Then not the leader of the rebel angels who kep_t not their first estate, more really affronted the holi~ess and the majesty an~ t~e sovere1~ty of God, than did Simon in that thought of his heart and word of his lip. In wh:ch lay implicit in pa.rt, and in pa.rt explicit, (1) the treasonous thoug;ht ~hat the sovereign gifts of God could be swayed by human inducement, and (2) the 1mp1~us thought that money could avail as the inducement. If there be any eye at all which sees but yet sees not the utter disparity between the symbol that makes ,the. exchange "'.a~ue of one earthly thing against another earthly thing, aud He~ven s gift _niost ~nt1cal, most mysterious, most gracious of all gifts, then that eye ~s _colour-blmd with_ the worst deprivation, it is emptied of its own proper nature, religious rays have vamly struck 172 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, [oH. vru.1-40,