The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 435

It reads thus:" Thou, the one God, the greatost, the most glorious Name, help ua all, we bose<>ch thee." 'l'he unrest and anxious inquiring of Sergiua Paulus are further indicated in the fact that he bad come into the power of Elymas the sorcerer, who evidently persuaded him that he could settle all his doubts. 'l'ho subject introduced by this incident mny be considered under the following divisions:- 1. THE NATURAL DISPOSITION OF MAN TO SEEK FOR GoD. Remember St. Augustine's words, "Man is made for God, and can find no rest till he finds rest in him." Seeking God is necessary to the dependent creature, who must lean, and must find some one on v,,hom he may perfectly lean, "A belief in some personal power, the arbiter of man's destiny, above and beyond himself, is a primary necessity of the human mind. Man- kind can never dispense with this belief, however superfluous in certain cases and for 11 time it may seem to be to the individual " (Canon Farrar). Much ho.s been made of th~ fact that some tribes of men have been found which had no name for God, and indeed no knowledge of him or concern to hear about him; but it may fairly be urged, from the utterly degraded condition of these tribes, that men have never lost their care for God until they have virtually lost their manhood. Degraded to be like the beasts, they cease to have uplooking eyes and yearning hear'.s. Humanity is knit in brother- hood by its great united cry for its Father. II. THE THINGS TRA T MA y TEMPORARIL y SATISFY THE SEEKING. These take one of three forms; either: L The absorption of a man in purely material and selfish interests, which may overlay and crush down the soul's great needs; just as now the world and its business and pleasure so often silence the soul's cry in the Christian. 2. 'l'he teach- ings of a philosophy which attempt.s to put "thoughts" and "ideas" in the place of a iiving being. 3. So-called false religions, which give unworthy views of God, but, by ceremonial, seek to satisfy the religious instinct. Such religions offer, what man appears to need, a doctrine about God, and a cult or worship of him. It may be shown that, in subtle forms, men are enticed from their seekings, even in these Christian days, by one or other of these evil influences. ILL TEE ID.""REST WBICB SOONER OB LATER RETURNS. For man can only find permanent rest in that which is true. The false has no "staying power." It may i;eem to fit at one time, but life advances, new needs arise, new thoughts stir within, and the false theory will no longer serve,-the man finds himself looking out again, as anxiously as in the early days, and with the feeling that life is passing and the time for the quest is brief, for the truth and God wherein are final rest, Sooner or later a man wakes up from his sleep of delusion, feels the darkness all about him, and puts out his hand, feeling after God, if haply he may find him. The unrest that surely comes to men within the world's care and pleasure, within sceptical philosophies, and within merely ceremonial religions, is our constant plea for the preaching of the gospel and the revelation to men of God, in Christ manifest. IV. TEE RESPONSE WBICB GoD SURELY llAXES WBEN A WHOLE SOtJL I8 TURNED TO BDL He waiteth to be gracious, stands at the door ready for the opening, really want.Ii every man to be saved, in the mystery of his great Fatherhood has a real need of souls, deirires their love, finds his own joy in their trust, and so is sure to respond when men turn and seek him, And finding God, and coming into personal relations with him, is the end of man's quest. .Against God, and everything in life is hard and dark and wrong. .Apart from God, and all life and relations lie bathed in the lurid glow of stormy passion and self-will With God, and earth, life, duty, and fellowship catch the soft, sweet. sunlight, and everything takes on itll beauty and perfection. If we have God we have all; and we have all in God, in the God whom St. Paul preached, of whose glory Jesus the Man is the express and blessed image.-R. T. V81"1. 24, 25.-John BO!)tist', rdationa with fJhrist. These verses are part of an address which should have peculiar interest for ue, seeing it is the first recorded speech of St. P:i.ul the missionary, and gives us intimation of the r,oint.s which were promi- nently before his min1l as the thewes of his ministry, It is singular to find St. Paul from this time more prominent than the elder man, Barnabas. It may be an example of the commonly observed fact that, sooner or later, the man of power and adaptation comes to the front place. St. Paul's power as a speaker is shown in this address, He wai, not a rhetorician, and was only in rhe higher 118Dli8 eloquent. He was too intenae to on, xm. 1-62.] THE AO'fB OF 'fHE APOSTLES. 438