The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 311

HI. IT IB IIARD TO KIOK AGAINST OONBCIENOB. If the conscience is alive and in full Ute, to sin against it in both disobeying it and also taking the offensive, makes its repr~ach tenfold. If it be already half dead, it hastens its destruction for the present lifo; and if it be "on the point of death," the death-,troke now falls. JV. IT 1B IIARD TO KIOK AGAINST ANY FORCE THAT 18 PLAINLY GREATER IN DEGREE OR THAT 18 BUPERIOil L.~ KIND. If it be only greater in degree, the peril lies in the inevitable mercilessness of the opponent. He holds the vain strog"ler in his grip. And if it be a greater force because it is superior in kind, then h~ who struggles strnggles "against his own soul," and drives the deadly disease within. V. But all these are faint warnings of what hardness may mean, WHEN A MAN'S soUL AND ETERNAL LIFE, CHRIST AND THE SPIRIT, are on the one side; and the man himself, driven in darkness, error, and recklessness, is on the other. 1. It is hard, intrinsically so, hard on every account and in every bearing of it, to go against the interest of your own soul. The soul is so inestimably valuable, the injury so inestimably cruel. Eternal life is so unboundedly to be desired, the loss of it so unbonndedly to be dreaded and wailed over. Saul was doing this very thing, beneath all other guise and disguise, when his career was stopped. If he could have had his way, his way shut him right out from "life, life eternal," and led him straightest path to death. And all the while he had been resisting light and evidence, miracles and signs and mighty wonders of apostles and of Stephen, which had availed with others; he was kicking against thl3 highest welfare and interests of himself. Convictions are some of our strongest friends, and to kick against them is to inflict some of the keenest of pain and most cruel of injury upon self. 2. It is hard, essentially so, to resist the hand as kind as it is strong, as strong as it is kind, of Jesus. "Strong to save" is, indeed, his truest name and his best-loved name. But if he is to the last refused in this force, it must be, alas I he is swift to destroy. It is especially hard to resist Jesus: (1) Because he means nothing but kindness. (2) Because his meaning makes no mistake, incurs no slip nor charge of good intention only, and he does nothing but kindness. (3) Because he first did so much and suffered so much for one only purpose-that he might be qualified to show that kindness to the full. (4) Because his is the initiative always, in proffering that kindness to those whose initiative always is the front of hostility to himself. (5) Because all his kind meaning and his kind doing are in the train of perfect knowledge. He knows all that we shall want:to bear us through; and to bear us up on high, a.11 that we shall want to eave us from falling through and falling into" the lowest hell." What folly we often observe it to be to stand up against or to neglect knowledge superior to our own I But oh I but what extent and what kind of superior knowledge is thial .. No eye but his might ever bear To gaze all down that drear abya. Because none ever ee.w so clear The shore beyond of endless bliu 1• '"The giddy waves so restless hurled, The vexed pulse of this feverish world, He views and counts with steady sigh~ Used to behold the In1inite I" (6) Because him refused, him lost, there is no other can plead our cause in our last extremity, there is no other Saviour I When such a one spe1rks, touches, urges, then the ainner who resists him is one who has no mercy, no mercy at all on himself, " body or soul." 3, It is hard, most rui11ously so, to resent the persuading address of the Spirit. Hardening as it is to neglect the lessons of reason, the persuasions of the affection of others, the call of duty, the dictates of conscience, and the Word and work and impassioned invitation of Jesus, this is the worst of all-to resist and reject the Spirit. For he is the life itself. Light and Life are hie twofold name. All round creation light will be attended ere long with symptoms of life; and nowhere roLmd the whole sweep of creation does consent to dwell with perfect darkness. They seem almost synonyinous, perhaps, but as they are not the same in nature, so neither can they be counted the same in rrracc. And still, therefore, this twofold name spea',s something of the que.lity and prer;gative of the Spirit. He brings Christ himself and hia truth •  308 THE ACTS OF TUE APOSTLES. [ OH, II, 1-43,