The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 377

no ruBn may add thereto or take therefrom; and no man's testimony can be of any value ea.ve a.s it can be tested _by the revealed Word, And yet, though this may be fully admitted,. we may recog_mze the. fact t~at, through .spiritual insight or through intellectual ski!}, men do bnng to light missed _and hidden things, or they do set received truths m forms that are new, and by their newness arrest thoucrht and even arouse opposition. In this way every truth of the Divine revelation is br~ucrht promi- nently bef~re men's ~houghts_every few_y_ears. God sends among us great thought- leaders; stirs, by their preachmgs or wntrngs, the stagnancy of religious thought, and makes fresh and living to us truths which had become mere dead formalities. St. Peter had but a fresh hold of an ancient truth, one long revealed by psalmist and prophet : still, he had such a new grip as made him a. power ; even the a.gent that fulfilled Christ's will, and "op1med the kingdom of heaven to all believers." II, THE INDIVIDUAL WITH A FRESH TRUTH MUST EXPECT OPPOSITION. It will surely come from : 1. His fellow-workers, who will feel a secret jealousy of his being made the medium of Divine communications, and who will keenly feel how the new truth interferes with their teachings. 2. '!'hose of conservative tendency, who think the absolute and final truth is in their charge. 3. The earnest but timid people who fear that everything fresh must put God's truth in peril. 4. The friends of theological or ecclesiastical systems, who consider their systems complete and needing no changes, nor having any open places in which new truth may fit, St. Peter found that an imperfect report of his doings at Cresarea had gone before him to Jerusalem, and when he himself reached the holy city, he was assailed from the very narrowest platform, and accused of the very small sin from our point of view, but very large sin from the Jewish point of view, of" eating with the uncircumcised." He very wisely refused a discussion on this mere feature of the matter, and explained fully what had happened. '!'hose who contend often take a mere point of detail, and are best met and answered by putting the question in dispute on the broadest, deepest grounds. III. PROOF OF DrvmE LEADillGS OUGHT TO SILENCE ALL OPPOSITION, This I.a the great lesson of St. Peter's conduct and c.arrative. All through he pleads that he only recognized and followed the Divine will as revealed both to him and to others. God spoke to him in trance, and vision, and providence, and inward impulse. God spoke to Cornelius by angel-form and angel-voice. • God sealed the work of St. Peter with the gift of his Spirit, and, as a faithful and true man, he could only go where God led him, and speak as God bade him. To his audience it was the best of all answers, the one that would disarm all opposition. A sincere Jew must be loyal to God's will, how- ever it might be revealed, and however strange to his feeling it might seem. And this is essentially the answer which every thought-leader and every advanced teacher now must be prepared to make and to prove. If he only speaks, as a man, some religious fancies and feelings of his own, we are rightly sceptical; but if it is plain to us that a man has been "taught of God," and if we can see signs of acceptance and Divine bene- diction on his work, then we too must hear his testimony with open and unprejudiced minds, seeking grace to enable us to express our old faith in the new form, or to add the new thought to our received doctrines. God may, indeed, not speak to us now by dream, or trance, or vision, or voice; but we need not therefore think: that direct com- munication with our soul is impossible, Still we may say, "Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth;" and still we have with us that Holy Ghost, whose work it is" to lead us into all truth, and to show us things to come." And it should be our abiding con- viction and inspiration that " the Lord bath yet more light and truth to break. forth from his Word."-R. 'l'. Ver. 16.- Well-stored memories. A topic suggested by the expression of St. Peter, "Then remembered I the word of the Lord." ,Some explanation may be given of "memory" as a distinct mental faculty, but the one on which the acquisition and increase of knowledge greatly depend. A faculty capable of culture, but taking differ~nt features in different individuals. Some have verbal memories, others memory for prm- ciples, Some have trained memories in particular subjects, but little power to retain general knowledcre. Formal aids to memory are suggested, but its true culture lies in its ~s~. As a ;ental faculty, it comes und?r qhris!ian sanctify~n~, as wel_l as into Chnstian use, In ordinary education attention 1s paid to the trnmmg of tlrn, power, 074 THE ACTS OF THE APOS'l'LES. ( Oil, XI. 1-30.