The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 277

tampering with the unseen is ever hazardous, the mere familiarity of that kinn dangerous; but disastrous in the highest degree it is to enter into relations with such powers. So.mHon ta.ken of the Philistines (Judg. xvi. 21) is a type, but a very feeble one still, of that enthralled captive. 4. Yet once more, however badly things were looking for Simon, one thing might have stayed the filling up of the full measure of bis iniquities-might have stayed the utter. extinction of the moral eyesight; namely, if he had kept well within the domain of his darkened self and career, and not tried that worst attempt, to ally his evil unrenounced to the good. Long had he known the pride, the flattery, the intoxicating effect of a large and enthusiastic followin". The hour came when he saw all this slipping away from him, and he follows-follo;~s those who once followed him. It is significantly said, that "then," i.e. in the rear, not in the van, "he himself believed also." But it was no "belief with the heart," and none "to righteousness." And every step that he took by the side of Philip, as he " beheld and wondered at the miracles and signs which were done" by him, was a calculating step. He beheld with envious stirrings within; he wondered, and not least, how by any means be might become a sharer of that which he eyed with envy. That moment marked his fall certain. It was the turning-point. This thought filled his sordid ambition, to keep his darkness and get some light to work it to better result. And it was the supreme insult, the last wound to his moral nature. III. 1N WHAT SORT OF CONDITION rr FOUND rrsELF IN THE EYD. 1. It found for the first part of its reward the most trenchant and unsparing denunciation. This denunciation was just as justice could be, but it was of the severest and most scathing that Scripture records (ver, 20). 2, H brought upon itself uncompromising ezposure. The character is weighed and declared wanti11g. The heart is analyzed and is pro- nounced " not right." It is brought under "the eye of God" and is ruled wrong by that unerring estimate (vers. 21, 23). 3. It courted the visitation of a humiliating exhortation (ver. 22). Simon had been "baptized," so that, though be might writhe under ihe spiritual inquisition made of him and this spiritual monition addressed to him, he had put himself where he could not refuse to bear stripes. That his submitting to baptism and his continuing with Philip made some demand on his pride, and would bear some traces of patronizing condescension, is very possible; but none the less has he placed himself where the stripe cannot be evaded. 4. It ended the scene in an unmasked acknowledgment of miserable insincerity. Simon vanishes from our view, unregretted under any circumstances, for we cannot say that he was "not far from the kingdom of God; " but none the less so for the unwelcome echoes of his latest voice left on the ear. No tide of "repentance n stirs him to the depth; no movement of sweet penitence begins to sway to and fro a yielding heart ; no manly attitude in him wakens within us a particle of sympathy for an humbled career; no publica.u's prayer and broken-hearted petition for pity and the extended band of mercy," strong to save," part asunder his bloodless lips. All the contrary-a stranger still to his own guilt without a dawning or even dreaming conception of sin's exceeding sinfulness, he can only find it in him to beg with unreal tone and with cowardly simulation that those who have found him out will pray that his sins may not find him out. He would fain ask that they take on themselves the responsibility of praying the hypocrite's prayer, to pray the prayer which it is "an abomination " to pray-that his sins may not be reckoned against him, though unrepented their guilt, unpardoned their aggravation, and unsought any saving shelter for his own soul. Such a prayer never rose accepted; it never rose at all; it never had the wing on which to rise. It must needs drop out of view, as Simon now out of our view, into the uncovenanted, unknown.-B. Vere. 26-39.-..d life tru11 to light led to the Light true to life. From one of the most unwelcome exhibitions of human nature, we are led with grateful relief to an episode full of hope and the very suggestion of sunshine for the world. This alternate light and shade of a written record of human life, which exhibits a.like the appearances of a compendious description and a crowded epitome, is so far a ver,: faithful reflection of the tenor of humo.n history. And the faithfuln 7ss of the refl~ct1on goes som~ way to tell whose hand held the pencil of such graplnc effect. Incident abounds Ill the paragraph marked by these verses. But it is no disjointed, incoherent collection of ip.cidents. They como together, " bone to his bo11,e," " suiew and flesh e.ime up upon 40TB, T  THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. [ OR, '\1111, 1---40.