The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 427

keeping warm the Ohurch; they are prevailing in prayer with God; they are "ubduiDg tho body and keeping it under subjection. How often might five men eave and bleM a Churoh, and call down richest blessing on it I III. EMPHATIC HONOUR IB BET ON THEBE FIVE MEN. 1. The Spirit "speaketh expreeRly " to them, in the mid8t of their prayer and fastings BDd devotion ( eh. x. 3, 4, 10, 19, 30). It ie possible that this occasion may have found the Church gathered together also, but it cannot be affirmed that it was eo, Any way, there were more than "two or throe gathered together in the Name" of Christ, 2, The Spirit speaks another "call" to them. The forces of the Church are growing. Two of the five are "called" to go far away to the Gentiles. The other three are "called " to "separate" the two designated for " the work." " Doubting nothing" and "without gainsaying," they do this. Still does the Spirit keep the choosing and the designating, and should be honoured and glorified for doing so. And still does the Spirit delegate the outer and visible carrying out of his will to the ministers of the Church. Note: (1) What a happy ., separating" this compared with the many of which the Church, and, alas! the world, has heard, through all the succeeding centuries I (2) The -eho<l of "separating" Barnabas and Saul. It is (a) after fasting; (b) by prayer; and (c) with the accom- panying sign of laying on of hands, (3) The probable object an<l advantages of this service. If there seem ·any ceremony about it, it is not vain ceremony. It is full of meaning, and may be full of use and advantage, (a) An object, high, holy, not self-serving, is very distinctly placed before those thus ordained. (b) They are reminded that the eyes of witnesses are upon them. (c) They are reminded that he who calls them to be "separated" will hear their call to him when perils abound, when flesh is weary, when the heart is sore and weary, when enemies press in, and when all things seem against them. (d) They are taught that in this "one thing" they now do, their :Master and their Judge, the one Being to whom they are responsible, is above, the great invisible but ever sympathizing One. How blessed and how useful have the memories of self-consecration often been in the subsequent periods of life I The heart has dwelt with them and been refreshed and enriched by them. And what added impression, stimulus, and sustained energy have often come to us in the memory of those, if only of earth, who once beard our vows and witnessed our consecration I But these have most possessed the heart and ruled it and governed it entirely, when to the rest has been added the unswerving conviction that the Spirit called, and that it was his call and nothing less th&n his, that we once heard and never could forget.-B. Vera, 11, 12.-0bstroction of the truth 1Ummari1y visited: tM 'blighter 'l,lighted. We can imagine something of the earnestness of Barnabas and Saul as they set out on their new mission, feeling that they had "the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ" in their charge, Others felt this too, or, if they did not feel it, feared it. And one, in his iniquitous attempt to neutralize the force of it, courts his own discomfiture and strengthens the cause he had designed to undermine. Notice- I. THE GUILT HERE PUNIBHED. It has been already in trenchant language denounced {vers. 9, 13), but deed is to follow word. The guilt had certain aggravations, 1. It is the guilt of a man averse himself to light and conviction. 2. It is the guilt of a man who was thus averse chiefly because he saw true light, wonld stop his dark ways and probably put an end "to his gains." 3, It is the guilt of a man who had loved it long, and long habituated himself to a career of deception of others and taking Heaven's Name in vain. 4. It is the guilt of one who, misled himself, sets himself to mislead others. 6. It is the guilt of one who would mislead another in matter of deepest, dearest, tenderest moment to him. 6. It is the guilt of one who will do this in those sensitive, critical moments when decision trembles in the balance, and his fellow-man is looking to the light and inclining to it. 7. It is the guilt of a•man who will lay himself out to crush with tenfold vigour the events of the conversion of one whose l?iood character, position, end influence would count for much if he should tum to the light. So correspondingly ~reat would be the forfeiture and destruction of good, the responsibility of which would lie at the door of the tempter. . ll. THE PUNIBHIILENT ITSELF. 1. Elyma.s has preteuded, probably for II long, long ~1me, to work signs and wonders among a deluded people. He shall now in punishment, t.DOurred by the filling up of the full measure of his iniquities. learn wha, a real aigu  THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. [tilt. xtn, 1-82.