The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 329

instructions o.nd his force alone. If dying should be a qniet scene, nor harsh soun,l of earthly life disturb its solemn experiences, who knows what the coming to life may be1 and what it may require, and what may best suit it? Ah I perhaps in reality, n0t ln merely the recovered life of this present, but in the real, perhaps there the wakin:.:; life mny open its eye to see "Jesus only" (as it was once on the Transfiguration Mount), 1md its car to hear in new-born exquisite sense the whispering of Jesus. Arnl that will ask peace and silence and the banishment of earthly life, its crowd of sight and of sound. But as the Lord appeared to Zacharias in the holy place, while the expectant people were shut without, so did the mighty Lord appear to Peter in that holy chamber, and from the upper chamber of death didn't it become the antechamber of heavenly life indeed? And all this was condescending honour put upon human gratitude. lt entered into "the ears of the Lord God of sabaoth," and be descended with power to reward it. Ill. THE DECISIVE llIAitKS OF HEAVEN'S MOST KINDLY SYMPATHY WITH HUllUI Lfll'E- W ANTS, 'rhe scene would seem almost unmatched in Scripture, in just this one respect. Here is no question of love direct to God, to Christ, to their work on earth as such. But it is an occasion of innocent feeling, yet earth's sort of foelin~; innocent excitement, yet caused, not by the loss of a great spiritual benefactor like the Master or like Stephen, but by the loss of a kindly, good-hearted, and most homely and neighbourly bene- factor. Yet the power of the Divine Spirit owns it. And as Jesus in the days of his flesh condescended to the genial atmosphere of the marriage feast, and made them yet more wine there, so does he in his perhaps yet mightier power, but certainly mightier majesty and glory, condescend to the sympathies and regrets of this widow group and disciples' gathering. He reminds us surely of his constant, gentle, faithful care for us. " What we shall eat, and what we shall drink, and wherewithal we shall be clothed,"-he shows us that he has not forgotten his early words hereupon, nor those other words, in which he has taught us that he will accept our works for his II little ones," e.nd for his poor and needy ones, as works done personally to himself.-B. Ver. 2.-" The Way." This seems to have been the earliest name for what we now call Christianity, That it was used as a distinctive appellation of the Christian religion may be seen by comparing eh. xix. 9, 23 ; xxii, 4; xxiv. 14, 22. A fuller expression is employed in 2 Pet. ii. 2, " By reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of." Our Lord had used the term in a very significant manner, saying, "I am the Way" (John xiv. 6); and the previous prophetic figure of the Messianic times- " An highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness"- would be in the memory of the disciples, and therefore they would be likely to accept the term if it was first started by their persecutors. Compare the name " Christian," which began as a taunt, and became accepted as an honourable title. In introducing this subject, reference may be made to the interesting fact that, from this point, Luke's record becomes almost entirely an account of St. Paul's labours, probably because roUD<l him centred the missionary work of the early Church, and he was its greatest representative. The kind of religious authority over nil Jews exercised by the San- hedrim, and the limitations of its power to imprisonment and beating e.nd excommunication, require consideration. Saul probably went to Damascus for two reasons-(!) because in the scattering the disciples were likely to have foUDd shelter there; and (2) because many Jews dwelt there, and especially those Greek Jews, who were most likely to become converts to the broad principles e.s taught by Stephen's party. It was against this particular party that Saul was so greatly incensed. Their teaching most effectually plucked the ground from beneath mere formal Judaism. Reverting to the term," the Way," as descriptive of the Christian religion, and filling it with the larger meaning of our later knowledge, we may notice that it is- I. A WAY OF THINKING, It is characteristio of Christianity that it has its OWll peculiar way of thinking about (1) God, (2) man, (3) sin, (4) redemption. Its" way of thinking" is plnced under the guidance of special Divine revelation. And the starting-point of its thinking is that God has, "in these last days, spoken unto us by )1is Son." Probably the exact reference in this verse is to that" way of t~inki1;1g" which Stephen introduced and taught, because that appeared to present special points ef antagonism to the dootrine and authority of the Sanhedrim. 'l'here is still e. " Wll3  326 'l'HE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. (oe:, IX, 1-4.3.