THE K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
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Those who are Christ *8 are raised a t H is first coming (1 Cor. 15:23). These con stitu te the first resurrection (Rev. 20:2). There is a thousand years between the first resurrection and the second (Bev. 20:5, 6).—Haldeman. • v. 16, Conscience void of offense. Well would it be for us if w e only would de vote a few m inutes a t the close of each day to discover whether oui consciences accused us of a failure in heart, thought or behavior. The Holy S p irit pleads in the court of .conscience. We would be kept from many a fall, if we would be more careful to watch against the little rifts.—Meyer. v. 17. B ring alms. Referring to the collection from the ehurches of Macedonia and Greece, which he had taken such pains to gather. This one allusion in Acts to w hat is so frequently dwelt upon in his own epistles (Rom. 15:25, 26; 1 Oor. 16: 1-4; 2 Cor. 8:1-4) throws a beautiful light on the tru th of th is history.—Paley. v. 24. Felix and Drusilla. Felix had enticed Drusilla, the great granddaughter of Herod the Great, from h er husband. She was very young and beautiful and, like all the Herodian women, very wicked. Felix was an open adulterer. Therefore it is no wonder th a t when Paul reasoned before the guilty pair, conscience should have sm itten them and Felix should have trembled.—Exp. Bible. H eard him con cerning Christ. Perceiving th a t the new sect which was creating such a. stir was a development of th e Jew ish faith , he probably wished to g ratify the curiosity of his Jew ish w ife as well as his own, by a more particular account of it. Paul would no doubt so fa r humor this desire as to present to them the leading features of the Gospel. B ut his discourse took a practical tu rn suited to th é life which his two auditors were notoriously living.— Jam ieson. , v. 25. Reasoned of righteousness, tem perance, judgment. Righteousness in re la tio n 'to the . past, self control in relation to th e present, judgment, in relation to th e future.—Eliot. W hat kind of rig h t eousness? Gal. 3:21, 22; Phil. 3:9; Titus 3:5. W hat kind of temperance? T itus 2:11, 12; 1 P et. 4:1-5, W hat kind of judgm ent? J n 5:24; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 20:11.—Sel. P aul never shrank from ' de claring the whole counsel of God, He told Felix the. tru th w ith th e most fearless and unflinching plainness.—Torrey. F e l i x trembled. Felix was a judge, accustomed to put fear into the marrow of those who stood before him. This time the prisoner caused the judge to tremble. Note th a t
v. 13, N either can they prove. The things charged against Paul by the lower critics in his day could no more be proved than the things charged against him by the higher critics in our day:—Cook. v. 14. A fter th e Way. He cfoes belong to the followers of Jesus of N azareth (v. 5), bu t th a t is not a sect, it is “ the W ay ” (Jn . 14:*6). I t is not a divergence from the path in which the fath ers have walked; it is the one God-appointed path of life—“ the old w ay ,’-’ the only road by which a man ean travel to th e skies. P a u l’s whole doctrine as to the relation of Judaism to C hristianity is here in germ and in a fortn adapted to H elix’ compre hension. The law was revelation as well as precept, a “ schoolmaster to bring us unto C hrist.’’ Judaism is the bud. Chris tia n ity is the b right consummate flower.— Maclaren. They call heresy. I t is no new thing for the righ t way of worshipping God to be called heresy and for the best of God’s servants to be stigm atized and run down as sectarians. L et us never be driven off from the, Bible way by its'b ein g put into an ill n am e ,'fo r true and pure C hristianity is never the worse, nor to be the worse thought of for its being called heresy, no, not though it be called so by the high .priest and the elders.—Henry. God of my fath ers—the object of worship. “ Believing all th in g s” —rule of worship, v. 15, “ Hope tow ard God” —the end of worship.—Inglis. Believing all things. Paul would be aw fully out of date if he were living now. Ju s t th ink of a preach er believing all things in the law and prophets. Paul ought to have taken a course in some of our modern theological seminaries to have found out which p art of th e Pentateuch and which p a rt of the prophets to believe. Y et P aul was a rath er successful preacher a fte r, all, and possibly his name may endure afte r some of the modern scholars are forgotten.— Torr.ey. Law and prophets. Our Lord be fore him testified to H is fa ith in the Old Testament. He declared they bore w it ness to Him (Luke 24:27, 44; Jn 5:39). He verified the Pentateuch as w ritten by Muses and verified Moses as a personal and historic ia c t (Jn. 5:45-47). Again and again He confirmed the historicity of Moses (M att. 19:8; 23:2; Mk 10:3; Lk 20: 37; Jn 6:32; 7:19, 22,23). W hat spectacle then is this for the higher critic and the would-be wise men of some of our sem inaries to contemplate.—Haldeman. v. 15. Resurrection of th e dead. Paul believed in two resurrections. The Scrip tures teach the resurrection of the ju st and th e unjust (Han. 12:2; J n 5:28, 29).
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