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testimony in the beloved cause, we shall indeed wonder at the triumph of his own personal faith. Shortly previous, in the tenth of Acts, we read of him, the hon ored guest of a Roman of authority, and the cluster of admiring Gentile listeners, to whom he preached with marvelous ac companiments of divine power. Suddenly he is silenced of men, and set aside-of God. How like Elijah, quickly transport ed from the magnificent publicity of Car mel to the miserable isolation of the juni per tree in the wilderness! Truly in the Canticles is the church’s experience lik ened unto the moon, how waxing, how waning, and anon eclipsed, as the earth casts its shadow over- her. But He, the sUn.from whom the Church derives her light, shines on, ever “the same, yesterday, today and forever.” : In this hour of calamity, Peter’s fellow- disciples make a full estimate of Herod’s power, and their weaknesses, and the Church’s damage; and with truly spiritual wisdom shut themselves in to the one ef fortless effort of praying. “Prayer with out ceasing” is literally “intense prayer.” The -same word is used of our Lord in Luke 22:44, where it is said llis agony of earnest prayer brought -forth great drops of blood. The Word indicates the character of the prayer made for Peter. It is not its protraction or patience to which: the Holy Ghost Calls attention^ but its compacted fervor. We can not but notice in this1connec tion the manner of God’s dealings with His people. One saint He suffers to be slain;:. so hurriedly, perhaps, that there was no time to pray -for his release. An other' he allows to be imperiled, but per mits a delay which enables1the church to become the immediate instrument of his deliverance. Thus we see that the prom inent instruction contained in this narra tive is intended for the church collective!, rather than for the individual believer. By personal humbling and personal tempta tion, the Lord effects His discipline in is olated members, but in no other way can the church as a unit be reached than through some such events as those re corded in the twelfth of Acts., Indeed it is painful to mark how Christians fail in apprehension concerning these things. When a spiritual and useful man is re moved from our midst, startled souls ask, “Why has God visited us. with such afflic tion? Could not some one less needed have been better taken?” Such forget that our Father’s dispensations have a govern mental aspect towards the whole body, as well as a chastening one for individual members. And perhaps in no better way can a band of believers be aroused from a state of separated self-interest to one united spirit of energy and unworldliness and trust than by the removal of such, upon whom they have been accustomed to lean. To die is always gain to the ready saint; and it is great gain to the church if by such means she be softened, and drawn unto Jesus Himself, in firmer trust. ' “Rise up quickly,” said the angel sent to liberate Peter, striking him such a sharp blow as Peter himself once gave tc the High Priest’s servant. But imme diately the angel was deliberate enough, as if he said, “Hurry, Peter, do not hesi tate from doubt,” and then, “Now you are aroused, do not hasten from fear.” This is one of the natural touches of the story, which makes us feel the Bible is no stilted,
judgment on the faith of others, and say they did not believe the answer to their own prayers. ‘‘They were aston ished” (v. 16). The word “astonished” contains no thought of unbelief. It de scribes the joy of faith. They certainly looked for Peter’s deliverance, but who would have expected him to show up at the prayer meeting? Have we not often found when the answer came that it seemed too good to be true? —o— P ith and P oint ' Count it a blessing when God delays an answer to your prayers to enlarge your capacity to receive (v. 6). Make it your business to please men and you will be easy prey to the devil (v. 3). Times of public distress should be pray ing times (v. 5)i The devil may surround a praying man with stone walls and. iron bars, but he has no way to roof him in. The promise of God is not simply to the act of prayer but to the habit of prayer EB b b . . . 1 I Prayer has put light into many a dark prison place (v. 7). We never know how precious the Church is until we’ve been- among its enemies for a spell (v. 12). The prayer closets of God’s, people are where the roots of the Church grow. —o— S uggestive Q uestions What other sleeps of Peter are re corded? (v. 4; cp. Lk. 9:32; 22 :46). What may Peter have recalled when he was taken prisoner’just following James’ martyrdom? (Mk. 14:31). Was this the first time Peter had been helped out of jail? (Acts 5:19). Of what'do the unusual precautions of the authorities remind us ? (v. 6; cp. Mt. 27:65). What may be- the believer’s assurance, even though surrounded on all sides? (Psa. 34:7; 27:3). If we desire guardian angels to direct us, what must we do on our part? (Prov. 3:6). Who can break our chains (Isa. 61:1) and make us free indeed? (Jn. 8:36). Was Rhoda the only damsel who rec ognized Peter’s speech? (v. 14; ,cp. Mt. 26:69-73). —o— . G olden T ext I llustration Many are the afflictiqns of the righteous! but the Lord delivereth him out of them all—(Psa. 34:19). A blacksmith who had been converted, and who had been a faithful witness for Christ, was subject to much persecution from his rough companions. One day one of these unbelievers asked him how he stood so much persecution. “You have had a constant string of trouble,” said he, “ever since you became a Christian.” The black smith was tempering a piece of iron for a carriage spring. After heating it, dip ping it in water, and pounding it, he fi nally cast it aside to the scrap heap. “Too brittle,” he remarked, as the unbeliever waited for his answer. He found a good piece and hammered it unmercifully, find ing it satisfactory. “Well, I’ll tell t you,” he remarked, “when God wants a man for His service, He has to temper him with persecution. I am in His hands. I am kept by His power, and His word says that ‘when He has tried me I shall come forth as gold! That’s how it is.”
B y M rs . G eo . C. N eedham 'T 'HE touching story recorded in the twelfth chapter of Acts groups to gether three facts which seem inseparably bound up with every true Christian e x p e r i e n c e , viz : Suffering, Suppli
cation, Succor ,—the old trio of man’s need, man’s cry, and m a n ’s deliverance. The need provoking the cry ; the cry bringing down the deliverance. T h i s has ever been God’s
method in dealing with His people. He per mitted Israel to groan in Egypt, until their insufferable bondage wrought out earnest cries for help. And then God made haste to say to Moses, “I have ,surely seen the affliction of my people . . . and have heard their cry . . for I know their sorrows, and I .am come down to deliver them,’I | (Ex. 3:7, 8): The modest flower you trampled on yielded forth perfume, but you never knew it possessed such frag rance till you had crushed it. The early church wpuld have missed thé grand op portunity of. united, protracted, urgent prayer, had not -Peter’s necessity called forth the gift. Thè three men made prominent in, this narrative. were a privileged brotherhood. Peter, James and John were close com panions, of our Lord; they were, selected to behold His power in the death-cham-' ber of Jairus’ little daughter; they were the choseii spectators of His majesty upon the Mount of Transfiguration; with one added listener, they were the trusted ser vants to whom He revealed the awful destiny of Jerusalem and the circum- stancès of His second coming ; and they were the three whom alone He retained near Himself, in His hour of fathomless agony in the garden of Gethsemane. James is the only one of the apostles of whose death we. are informed ; for while other ,books máy canonize or glorify the departure of precious ones, thé Bible ex alts only ONE death—the death of Him who was horn to die “that through death Hé might destroy him that had the power of death.” We can not but observe from this his tory the immense trouble taken by the earthly powers of that day to crush out Christianity. The purposes of God, wise and holy and faithful, are set in tremen dous contrast against the intentions of men, foolish, and evil, and uncertain. Herod’s grandfather had slain all the chil dren of Judea. His uncle had killed John the Baptist. And he was busy slaughtering the leaders of the new faith. Manifestly, Christianity was regarded as a gigantic foe, and a stern troubler of men’s con sciences. But while Herod was so anxious to guard his purposes against defeat, Peter was calm enough to sleep, untroubled by results. The same assurance which after wards enabled Paul amid diverse and in creasing afflictions to say, “None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself,” sustained and quieted the ever active spirit of this impulsive man. And as we take in fully the imme diate circumstances of his extraordinary bondage, with the sudden check which it had imposed upon the apostle’s zealous
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