The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 310

which be had oome, or WRS ready immediately " by the grace of God" to come. Men l!ometimcs ask a question indifferent to its answer; they sometimes ask B question for the ~ake of the merest information; they sometimes ask a question for aollle critical purpose or to block a question waiting on themselves; but this question wBs none of these. This is like a question indeed. Angels listen to it, and lis~n to its answor too, to ring out Heaven's wild ".Amen." Jesus listened, and a soul was saved. Trnvel, then the circle of" the earth and the world" and" the heavens," and there is not a questio~ we could address to any or all of them which could equal the momentousness of this, when, at last turning to Christ, a man asks," Who art thou, Lord?" To Jesus Saul had borne himself ever so proudly, as many, many do now-their will ungiven to him, their trust flitting everywhere else but not settled ou him, their love· and allegiance unyielded t.o him; and when he, even he, asked, "Who art thou, Lord?" it meant the coming down for ever of pride. So the confession which we have seen to hide here, and the keen desire we have seen to bud forth here, led to the utter renunciation of self-trust, and t.o the simplest and most entire trust in Christ. None can ask this question for you; you must ask it yourself. No11.e can answer it but Jesus, and he will answer it.-B. Ver. 5.-The considerateness of a love already infinite. "It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." [Note.-Tbere is ample evidence that Paul himself narrates these details of his conversion (eh. xxvi. 14), and that their proper place is not here. They "ill, however, be considered here, and reference made to this place from eh. xxiL 10; xxvi. 14.] Saul, when now he was called Paul, and after he bad been some while in the service of Christ, himself tells us what passed in those wonderful moments when Christ and the Spirit wrestled with him thrown prostrate to the earth. They are never forgotten by him, nor will he for a moment try to hide those detail1:1 describing Heaven's remonstrances with him where they might most infer humiliation to himself. The humiliation of Saul at this time has its counterpart in some sort in the condescending- ness of Christ. The risen Lord will still use human language and human figure, even to employing a proverb. The proverb needs no explanation, and the interpretation of it needs ouly illustration and enforcement. And it may be led up to profitably by inferior applications of it which none will gainsay. How, then, will they be able to gain.say that illustration of it and that application of it which Jesus himself thinks it worth while to utter from an open window of heaven? L IT IS HARD TO KICK A.GA.INST THE EARTHLY LOT ASSIGNED TO us. That lot is a very complex thing, but it is made up of some very manifest elements, It is a com- bination of the date in time's long calendar at which our life is placed, of the bodily and the mental endowments which we own, of the circumstances and surroundings which we inherit, and of the very dispositions which belonged to those who went before us-our parents' and theirs. None can give any account of these elements, but every maa has to use them and to seek to use them t.o the best advantage. Some of them no man ever finds fault with or murmurs because of them, or most rarely. Very, very few: ever complain that they live ,ww, for instance, and did not live long ago-that they live now and not rather a century or two hence. They see, they feel that to do this were insanity itself: and they do not kick against their lot in this respect. Yet they often do in other respects. Well, this is hard-hard as for the bird of plumage to beat against the wires of its cage; nay, harder far than that. It is hard for loss of time, for loss of temper, for loss of strength, for loss of trusting loving obedience,:and because ,w good can come of it, oo success can be _gai~ed in th_e vain, U~pian, and wore~ than foolish struggle. Let every man ~truggle m h1_s lot to 1!11pr~ve hi'ITUielf! and he will not fail to improve it also. But let hrm never" kick" against 1t; for so, 1f hurt at all, he hurts himself the more. He " kicks against the pricks." IL IT u JIA.RD TO KICK A.GA.INST DUTY. The discipline of duty may often be painful at present. There is none, however, more strengthening and health-giving. Many a heavy burden becomes lighter if borne manfully. It always becomes more irritating in proportion as it is not willing!! taken up and b?rne. And dutr know~ how to take keen revenge. When its obligations are ~nly _part1~1ly and grudgingly discharged, the penalty it assigns iB the misery of utter dissat1Bfact1on; and when they are altogether ne~lected, the pen.a.lty ia a forfeiture of unknowll amoUilt and kind, <1.11, u, 1-48,] THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 307