The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 276

upon it, 11nd the light that is in it is darkness-" bow great I " Confusion worst confounded is therefore at least one motto of the trnnsaction proposed by Simou; for, fearful as WM the degree of it, its darkest condemning lies in the kind of matter in which it exercised itself (Ps. cxxxi. 1). 4. It was in that presence, and did nut humbly, earnestly pray for a personal experience of its mighty and gracious energy, but only to have the official dignity, the self-exalting dignity, or tho literally gainful dignity of being the channel of conducting it to others. What could be more suspicious? What more unnatural? What more hollow, when the question once becomra a question of matter of the highest concernment? How can any man sincerely work for the salvation of another who has never found, never sought his own ? How can any man purpose to be the servant of God and of God's Spirit in orde:;· to convey spiritual gift and spiritual grace and sanctification t,o others, if he is not himself in constant and living recipience of the same kind of gifts? Yet many propose this thing unconsciously which Simon proposed in eo many most outspoken words. For how often are men glad to think of or even t.o see the devil cast out of others (Luke x. 20), who have never sought deliverance themselves, and never submitted to the humbling stroke that should break the chain of their own captivity to him I And how many with the lip speak patronizingly of Christianity and pray for the spread of true religion, who never illustrate tbe possession of it? Confessedly there a.re some outer things which one may be the means of conveying to others by the mere hand, and e.s the mere deputy of some original giver; but as certainly the attempt is as impious as it is impossible in other things. The higher you ascend in gift, the more absolute and patent is the inherent impossibility, until, after you have traversed all the ascending realms of mental bestowment e.t1d attainments, you reach that realm of pure spirit ; crossing over into it, you cease for ever to assume to convey to others, except that" which you have heard . . . seen . . . looked upon, and your hand has hand.led" in the matter" of the Word of life." It might be that the blind man should pray if haply he might find the way to give sight to other blind-though still most strange if he pray not for himself, "Lord, that I might receive my sight." But if the case be that of a man spiritually blind, who prays and with his prayer offers money that he may be the " chosen vessel" for com- manding spiritual light to others benighted as yet, yet prays not for spiritual sight himself, you say he is the most benighted of all, blind indeed, and, short of limiting God's power in the gift of repentance and the grace of his pardon thereupon, you say self-stricken, hopelessly blind I And of this there is every dread appearance in the instance of Simon. II. 1N WHAT IT FOUND ITS PREDISPOSING CAUSES. 1. In a long career of profession. Simon's very profession was t.o make profession. And it was of the very essence of dangerous profession, since it was profession about self. Self was the object as well as the subject. The ill odour in which self-assertion, e.s a mere individual act, is held is well admitted.. But how much worse when this has become habit I worst of all when it has become the bread and livelihood of a man. "Giving out that himself was some great one" sounds the irony of biography. It was all that and more for him. 2. In a professional career that rested on the basis of deception. "Of long time he had bewitched the people with sorceries." Whatever reality there was in the sources from which he derived power to work" sorcery," there was no reality of benefit flowing to a deluded people from his works. When "they all gave heed to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, 'l'his man is the great power of God," they were " all" the victims of Simon's most purposed and systematic deception. And however much they were to blame, he more by far who prostituted persuasive powers to mislead and to rob his fellow. creatures, instead of to guide and enrich them. By all this, whatever else, whatever harm he did to others, he was effectually branding his own conscience with a hot iron, and putting out his own inner light. 3. In the habitual recourse to methods which, 60 far as they were not mere deception, were the result of some sort of league with the powers of evi1 Whether this were really so, and if so_ to what degr~e it obtained, may be held moot points still; but two things must be said on the subJect. (1) That it is hard to escape the conviction that the Scriptures of both the Old and New Testaments pnrport to BB.Y so and to give that impression. And (2) that if it be not proved that in notable periods of mankind's history bad men were permitted to be in some real league with the unseen powera of evil an.d darkness, it is n.ot yet disproved. Now, the OH, VJll. 1-40.] THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 273