The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 316

Il. Wemay11sk,"Wrrors THE PRAYING lllAN? ANDWBATllIB STATE?" The man who prays is the man who has come into a certain new state towards God--a state that mnkes him desire also to come in a very new attitude into hie presence. 1. It is the state of one who has discovered a ,ieed of a kind, a depth, an amount, and an urgC'nc:· he had never dreamt of bcforo. 2. It is the state of one who has become read:· and anxious to make a thorough confession. Pride has gone. Self-satisfaction has gone. Trust in the world's short resources has gone. Blindedness and delusion are dissipated. 3. It is the state of one who bas been shaken by conviction of sin. The firs~ prayer is not for mercies tempora.l, but for mei·cy-the mercy that e. creature wants who has been growing up a long time, but not growing up in either perfect or even conscious relations with his Creator-Father. Conviction is the grandest inter- preting exposition of the prophet's dictum, " Be sure your sin will find you out" (Numb. xxxii. 23). 4. It is the state of one who, let him be what he may, let him have been, have done, what he may, toward God, or toward man, or toward his own heart and conscience, has been visited by some glimmering ray of light, and has felt the warmth of some feeble flame of hope. Real prayer and absolute despair, real prayer and utter darkness, never go together. So prayer is the pulse of vitality. Its feeblest expression is the radiation of the spark of God's light, life, love, not extinct. 5. It is the case of one long sore sick, for whom the crisis of fatal danger is past, the disease stayed, and on whom, with more than the fondest solicitude of the tenderest parent, the Lord Jesus looks down and vouchsafes to point out the blessed symptoms, sayit:g, "Behold, he prayeth ! " III. Let us consider WHO IT IS THAT 18 HERE SPOKEN OF AS PRAYING. He is a Jew, well taught, of pious fore[athers, of strict Pharisee school, full of earnestness, frP.e from immorality, given to striving for superiority and profiting above his equals, and given to sayinJ: prayers. So that, whatever a certain kind of light and moral character and virtue might avail, he had the benefit of them. On the other hand, "the light that was in him was darkness;" his zeal was bigotry; his high character was to the scale of human measurement only; he had never touched deep ground; he was a sinner and didn't know it; he persecuted "saints" and di<l.n't know it; he kept the raiment, and consented to the stoning, of them that stoned Stephen, and didn't know what he was doing or what they were doing,-till now, in the full career 1>f a very successful "breathing out of threatenings and slaughters," he is flung to the ground, and becomes as one stunned. Yet spoken to, he knows the Lord, and in a moment owns bis rightful Master by word. The prayers of the crucified Jesus, and of the first martyr Stephen- ., Lord, lay not this sin to their charge;" "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do "-are answered; and he who was just now breathing out those threatenings and slaughters, now breathes the deep, earnest, pleading accents of prayer. And there is no mistake, deception, nor unconscious delusion ; for he who knew all says, and hushes every doubt and objection while he says it, "Behold, he prayeth ! " IV. Let us notice, lastly, WHY JEsus BAYS," BEHOLD I" 1. To the risen Jesus, at all events, no real surprise could be possible. Only a God's wonder-whatever that may be-might be understood here, if the charmed words had been words of soliloquy. But they are not words of soliloquy. They are condescendingly spoken in order to disarm the very faithlessness of human distrust, which, nevertheless, insisted on expressing itself. Jesus calls attention to. what may teach us a large lesson of liberality, of charity, but above all of trust in the force victorious and "more than conquering" of his gospel and his Name. 2. Jesus calls attention to what we may think little of, and think amiss therein. Many are the things we think little of- little sins, to wit--of which he thinks much, to hate them. Many are the things we think little of-little kinditesses, little cups of cold water, to wit--of which he thinks much, to love them. And much-oh, bow much !-will waken our astonished attention one day, soon to come, that moves us with not a ripple of either surprise or interest now. Still, he that hath ears to hear may hear now that heavenly "Behold I" It speaks in most strikin" contrast to the "Lo I here," and "Lo! there," of earth and men. 3. Jesus says "Behold°!" because he would call attention to a change that was a pattern miracle of h~ power and grace. He calls attention to it, n.ot as unique, but as a model instance. Such a character revolutionized I Such a life and force of life, and combined elem@nta of life, and chare.cterilltica not all unmingled bad, changed I What, then, shall IJtJ. IJ:. 1-43,] THE AOTS OF TIIE APOS'rI,ES. 813