May 1927
288
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
Professing Cream—Practicing Skimmed Milk B y K. L. B.
T HE accidental division of chapters 4 and 5 of' the book of Acts hinders many from noticing that the action of Ananias and Sapphira is set over against the -beautiful action of Barnabas. Failing to notice, this, we miss a strong point in the story. “Barnabas . . . having land, sold it and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet—BUT a certain man named Ananias, etc.” Barnabas was evidently being greatly admired because of his noble and genuine sacrifice for the Christian com munity. Did Ananias want credit for being just as mag nanimous, while secretly enj oying what he had made peo ple believe he had surrendered ? , This seems to be the point of the story. Ananias did something more than “tell a fib.” Nor. was his sin in bringing only a part of the price of his land, for Peter plainly tells him in v. 4 that he was not obliged to bring any o f his money if he did not choose to do so. His sin was that he professed cream and practiced skim med milk. He tried to make out that he was on a very high spiritual level, and made a public transaction out of it. He claimed that his all was on the altar when he was a liar and he knew it. He went to greater length in his profes sion than his inner life would stand. He deliberately mocked the Spirit of God by saying to himself, “These people will never know, the difference and if God knows, He cannot reveal it.” This was where he fooled himself for God had a peculiar way of revealing to certain Spirit- filled followers of His what was down inside of hypocrites. No S udden T emptation Sapphira “was privy to it.” This was no sudden temptation. It was carefully worked out between husband and wife. Ananias and Sapphira came under the stroke of God and the first burials in the early church were a pair 6 f hypocrites, as the first death among the apostles had also been that of a faker. Many have said : “The punishment was too severe. I cannot believe it.” But wait! Remember that Ananias and Sapphira had been in closest contact with the powers of the Holy Spirit recently poured out. He was manifesting His presence in their midst by signs, miracles and wonders. They had the highest spiritual privileges and in such an atmosphere they deliberately planned to trifle. The Holy Ghost therefore vindicated His authority. He impressed His actual presence upon the church and made an example of this first aggravated case of deception in the name of piety. Another significant thing is the connection of Satan’s name with the incident: “Why hath SATAN FILLED TH INE HEART ?” Had he not already tried to kill the infant church from the outside by persecution, and failed? Why not get on the inside and rot it to the core with hypocrisy ? The “hoof prints” of Satan may be seen all about the place. This was his battle against the Holy Ghost. Had he not made out to kill the infant Christ? Perhaps now he can kill the infant church.
T he A nan ias of T oday But if true—what does all this mean to us now ? God no longer seems to inflict such instant judgment on sins of sacrilege. The tares wave their heads among the wheat. Is He any the less displeased with hypocrisy? Has He changed His mind as to the hatefulness of such sins ? By no means! Ananias in his broadcloth and Sapphira in her silks sit in many a church today doing it more harm than the critics on the outside. The devil’s most subtle work is always done on the inside. Atheists declaring the heavens to be an untenanted space cannot do one quarter the harm that can be done by Ananias on the inside parading his religious spirit but keeping back the real price of disciple- ship. We have said much about the danger to the church from evolutionists and liberalists. Is that the CHIEF danger? What about the half-way life that is lived by so many church members ? What about the church officials whose lives make it next to impossible for men of the world to believe? The following appeal for reality in Christian life is taken from a sermon preached before a great crowd in Chicago. The preacher’s name we reserve until the close. “If we are to make others see the winsomeness ■ and attractiveness of our faith, we need the spirit of reverence and devotion in our presentation of that faith. We men of the clergy, and you, our helpers among the laity, are apt to fail in commending the faith because we have little appreciation of the simple ideas of religion in the heart of the average man. To him religion means unselfishness, generosity, sin cerity, cleanliness of soul, a genuineness and straight forward honesty that despises cant and is chary of religious professions, an abiding faith in goodness, a very real humility because of his own defects—which we are quite justified in calling penitence—a readi ness, therefore, to forgive defects in others; with it all, a general consciousness of God, of whom he is rather vaguely aware and about whom he finds it almost impossible to speak easily and naturally. For such men there must be the simplest and most vivid preaching of the Gospel story. “May I , say to the clergy, that the one thing which most often drives people away from church is the feeling that those who minister at the altar have so slight appreciation o f the awful realities of their holy office? Do we remember that all the preaching in the world about the Divine Presence, by those whose obeisance is mechanical, cannot make men accept the teaching ? Only as your own heart is stilled into reverence can you make other hearts hushed. “We say that we have received his actual pres ence in our hearts, and we are only as other men— often a little more petty, a little more contentious, a little more uncharitable; seldom a little more Christ-like.” The words we have quoted are from the “Congress Sermon” preached by the Roman Catholic Bishop, Charles Fiske. They should fall with a serious and solemn weight of awe. May our hearts be ^searched, and may partial consecration, inward unfaithfulness and hypocritical vows be brought to light and put away forever.,
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