The light shining in darkness—Lystra.
The heathenish state of the population. So much the brighter seemed the light. The effect of the miracle on the cripple. A warning against making a superstitious use of men's credulity—as the Romish Church has done.
I. A REAL TRIAL OF THE APOSTLES.
1. Of their faithfulness to the truth. Had they been willing, as the Church afterwards was, to mingle heathenism with Christianity, they might have accomplished more in captivating the minds of the people.
2. Of their humility and self-sacrificing zeal. They put aside men's worship that they might be free to serve God. What an example to their successors!
3. Of their inspired wisdom and discretion. They knew how to restrain an excited people whose homage might easily be turned into fury. They made the occasion an opportunity for preaching a gospel of love and purity.
II. AN EXAMPLE OF THE WORLD'S WANT OF THE TRUTH AS IT IS IN JESUS.
1. Gaping after wonders. Led by priests; worshipping men of like passions with themselves. Ignorant of the true character of God. Ungrateful in the midst of his abundant mercies. Unobservant of the witness which he bears to himself in nature and in the course of providence.
2. The glad tidings brought into the midst of such a world. At first not understood; but the preachers must follow the example of the apostles, and, beginning at the testimony which surrounds men in their own life, lead them to the higher truth of revelation. Missionaries should study the field in which they labor.—R.