The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 283

I. SIMON'S A0KNOWLEDGMENT OF A DIVINE FOBOE m CHRISTIANITY, The degree of his sincerity in professing belief e.nd submitting to the rite of baptism needs careful consideration. He may ha.ve been c~rried awa;y: by feeling. He may have been guileful throughout, e.nd only seen a lngher force 1n the power of the apostles than he knew of, and designed to get the control of t~is force for his own purposes. Or the two may have blended. He may have been earned away. At first he may have sincerely taken UI;> with Christianity, but soon yielded to a guileful spirit, which suggested that a splendid fortune could be made out of the new force. But whatever Simon's motives me.y have been, we have from him an important testimony to the genuine persuasion and power accompanying the early preaching, and to the truth of the miraculous pawers exerted by the apostles. Simon well understood the ways of sorcerers and 3ugglers, and he knew and openly acknowledged that the apostles were not such. Show the importance of the testimony to Christ and Christianity rendered by those outside and even opposed, such as Rousseau, Napoleon, J ~ S. Mill, etc. ' II. SwoN'B MIS'l'AKE IN PROFESSING BELIEF IN CHRISTIANITY. Because true disciple- ship is no mere profession, no sudden excited impulse, no vanishing sentiment, but a sober, calm judgment, a full and hearty surrender, an entire consecration of heart and life to Christ. Simon did not sit down first and count the cost. Simon had no idea of taking a lowly place in Christ's service. He wanted still to be " some great one." He was "weighed in the balances, and found wanting," when Christ's testings came. "He the.t would be great among you, let him be your servant." "He that exalteth himself shall be abased." Show with what mistaken notions men take up the Christian profession now, and how certainly life tests and tries them, and they fail in the testing day. Simon's faith had not a moral, only an intellectual basis. He expressed no compunction for having deceived the people and blasphemed God. The whole ethical side of Christianity, its power of bringing man into peace with God, and of making man like God, was shut against him. For that he had no ear. .Against that his heart was closed. He believed, therefore, without being cmverted. Impress how the money-getting spirit had so hardened Simon's mind that it was difficult to gain access for the Christian truth and claims. " How hardly shall they that trust in riches enter into the kingdom of heaven 1"-R. T. Vers. 14-17.-17ie gift of the Holy Ghost. There are signs of an impartation of the Spirit by the apostles which we do not appear to understand fully, because it differs from any impartation of the Spirit with which we have experience. The apostles were enabled to repeat for their disciples their own experience. They were first called to dis- cipleship and then endowed for work. So those to whom apostles preache<l. were first brought into the new kingdom by faith and confession, and then sealed and entrusted with particular gifts for service by the Holy Spirit of promise. The apostles were at first the only agents through whom this further gift of the Spirit came. How far they were permitted to pass this agency in the giving of the Spirit on to their successors has been a matter which the various sections of Christ's Church have regarded differently. Two things require study and consideration. I. THE NATURE AND OBJE0T OF THIS GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. It was evidently regarded as essential to the full standing of the Christian. A man must be converted and sealed. St. Paul found at Ephesus some disciples who knew only John's baptism, and he asked them this, as a searching, testing question," Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" as if this alone could be accepted as the assurance of their full Christian standing. The gift or endowment may be regarded. 1. In relation to the apostles as agents. They never assumed that the gift came from them; it only came through them. God might havo seut his Spirit directly and apart from any human agency. Probably he used the human means in order that the source whence the gift came should be recognized and men should not treat it as an accident, but as a triist ; u.lso that its connection with Christ should be recognized, and the use of the endowments in Christ's service should be realized. It was a bestowment entirely within the Christian limits. 2. In relation to the believers, who were the recipients of the gift. It was a sealing them as Christ's. It was a taking o_f them ~ver to Christ's service._ It was a solemn convincement that a new and Dtv1ne life was m them, and so a subll!ne urging to purity of life and an ennobling assurance of all-sufficient preseut grace for  THE AC'rS OF THE APOSTLF.S. [ott. VID. 1-40,