The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 447

I. THE BUFFERER A?m HIS FAITH. 1. His complaint was congenital, and, according to ordinary ways of thinking, incurable. This brings all the more his faith into relief. It is the very power and property of faith to conquer what seems to reason unconquerable. It is impossible to show that any diseases are in themselves incurable; they may baffl~ human skill! but not the healing energy of God. 2. "Faith comes by hearing, and heanng by the Vl'ord of God." 'l'he sufferer seizes on the truth that God is a Saviour, and that iu him is to be found full, present, immediate salvation from passing ills. Faith realizes the unseen as if it were the seen. 8. Faith recognized by the minister of God. Paul sees that the lame man has faith to be healed. There is eympo.thy between souls in God. The minister of God's mercy, of Christ's saving energy, is directed to his object, and the object is directed to him. If God has entrusted us with a good to dispense, it will not be long before we find the soul who needs it. So Paul bids the sufferer arise; the word of authority is echoed by the consciousness of new power in the sufferer's breast: he rises, he walks, he bounds ,vith joy. It is a representation of what ever will take place and does take place when true words are spoken to the souls of men. Oh, let us believe in the energies of the soul, by which we may lay hold on Divine power in our own weakness, both that we may receive good and impart it to others ! II. 'l'RE EFFECT ON THE MULTITUDE. 1. They thought that they were receiving a visit from the gods. The air of the ancient world was full of such stories. Doubtless the story of Zeus visiting Philemon and Baucis was well known to them. These so-called "myths" contain a deep meaning; they are prophecies of the human heart, of that intercourse between God and man which the gospel declares to be the fact of facts in religion. 2. They were mistaken in the 1TWde of the truth. Paul was not Zeus, nor was Barnabas Hermes. But they were not mistaken as to the substance of the truth. They were mistaken in offering worship to men like themselves, but not mistaken in the he.a.rt-instinct by which they recognized behind the healing power put forth the energy of God. The understanding may be in error when the heart speaks true. When this is the case, instruction, missionary effort, has always hopeful ground to work upon. The error and nnbelief of the heart alone is invincible and Cata.I. III. THE CO!."DUCT OF_ THE A.POSTLES. 1. Their horror and indignation. 'fhey rend their garments, and rush into the crowd with exclamations of astonishment and anger, We must be capable of a holy anger if we are capable of a holy love. Worship belongs to the Divine a.lone. What would the apostles say now to the worship of their bones or other relics, real or pretended ? 2. Their clear protest. " We too are men of like passions." Suffering, sorrowing humanity is no object of such honours. To accept them is to dishonour the Divine majesty, and to do injustice at the same time to ordinary humanity. The true te.acher will never magnify himself, and will ask for nothing more than seriollB attention to his arguments a.ad teachings. If the teacher shows that he considers himself on a level with ordinary humanity, the unconverted and self-humiliated will look up with hope of their own deliverance from misery; and the awakened a.re warned not to confound the imperfections of the teacher with the substance of his message. The treasure is in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of ns. 3. 'l'rue views of God set forth. (1) He is the living God; and all in the world not derived from him and resting on him is of no value. All worship directed to finite objects misses its supreme mark, and is a vanity, a "nothin~." The idol itself is" nothing in the world." "All love is lost save upon God alone." (2) He is the Creator. This is a thought brought into emphasis in the preaching and teaching of St. Paul, as in his Epistle to the Romans and his discourse on Mars' Hill. Having made all things, he contains all things in himself. Man is his creature; and if man offers even his whole self upon the altar to God, God but receives his own. (3) He re:,pects the freedom of man. The nations were suffered to walk in their own ways and to work out their own course of life. And in their aberrations they justified the truth and ways of God. Our freedom is our solemn heritage for weal or for woe. No explanatiou cau be found for the dark facts of human sin, except that which goes back to the freedom of the soul to decide between good and evil. (4) The unfailing goodness of God. The &eaBOns fail not; food and enjoyment are provided out of the abundance of the earth. In every happy and healthy mood of mind the heart breaks into song, and uiankh God for the boon of existence. In dVery sunny scene, every glimpse of. OIi, XIV, 1-28,] THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.