Bible Commentaries
Acts 2

Verse 4

Whitsun Day

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.— Acts 2:4.

1. The Day of Pentecost, or Whitsun Day, is the birthday of the Christian Church. On that day the Divine society was constituted. Not till Pentecost were Christians a distinct corporate body. On that day the Divine life, the life of the Holy Spirit of God, was infused into its members, and the first cry of the newborn Divine society was praise—“They spake in other tongues the wonderful works of God.”

The day chosen was striking and suggestive. Proselytes from various countries were all gathered together with the Jews of Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Weeks. It was Pentecost, the fiftieth day—a week of weeks—since Passover. At Passover a sheaf of ripe barley had been waved in the Temple; at Pentecost the two loaves of fine flour made from the newly gathered wheat were now being waved in the Holy Place. And it was harvest. What better occasion for the outpouring of the Spirit, the “Giver of life,” than this feast of Pentecost, when the first-fruits of the great Spiritual harvest of both Jews and Gentiles were offered unto the Lord who had redeemed them?

Moreover, Pentecost was celebrated as the anniversary of the giving of the law from Sinai, after the wanderings of the children of Israel for seven weeks from the first Passover in Egypt. How fitting a festival for the first outpouring of the Spirit, whereby that law might be observed in its fullest meaning, not as uttered amid the terrors of Sinai, but as revealed in Him who fulfilled the law and the prophets to the uttermost.

2. On this great festival the apostles and disciples were assembled together in Jerusalem. They were praying. They were waiting for the promise of the Spirit. Suddenly the whole place was shaken as with a tempest, and bright flames, like tongues of fire, flickered for a moment over every head. These were, indeed, wonderful outward signs; but we must not think of this rush of tempest, and this shower of flaming tongues, as the most wonderful thing that happened. They were but the outward signs of something more wonderful still. The Holy Ghost filled the hearts of all that were present—not only the apostles, but also the men and women who were with them; and they burst out into loud shouts of praise and thanksgiving to God.

3.“They were all with one accord in one place.” There is no absolute certainty what that place was or who were the recipients of the gift there bestowed. Some have thought that it was within the precincts of the Temple, and the early testimony of Josephus ( Antiq. 3. 2) is appealed to in support of this. He says the term here used (οἶ?χος ) was applied to describe the thirty Chambers which ran round the Temple of Solomon; but though open and easily accessible, none of them could have held so large a multitude; and it is extremely difficult to believe that the Priests and Pharisees would have allowed such a gathering of the despised followers of One whom they had crucified but a few weeks before. Although, then, it would have been intensely significant had the New Covenant been inaugurated within the very shrine of the Old, we are compelled to look for some other scene. Tradition has placed it in that Upper Chamber, in which we know that the first Christians were wont to hold their religious meetings.

4. On whom was the gift bestowed? It is impossible to say whom St. Luke intended when he spoke of “all.” Perhaps the more general belief has limited it to the Apostles, as the Whitsuntide preface in the Book of Common Prayer unhesitatingly teaches; there is ancient testimony, however, to the inclusion of “the one hundred and twenty,” and some extension beyond the Twelve is almost necessitated by the language of Joel’s prophecy, which, St. Peter says, was fulfilled on this occasion. The expression was perhaps intended to embrace all the believers in Christ then congregated in Jerusalem.

Can it surprise us that the world, which has no eyes and no heart for spiritual things, usually appreciates this feast least of all, and rather seeks its satisfaction in the enjoyment of nature than in gratitude for the copious outpouring of the Spirit? Men must in some degree be filled with the Holy Ghost in order to value aright the blessing of this day; they must with the eye of the Spirit have seen something of the glory of the New Dispensation, in order to know fully the value of the declaration: “The promise is to you and to your children, and to as many as the Lord our God shall call.” Just this is the glory of the feast of Pentecost, that it not merely renews the remembrance of a most interesting event in the past, but, moreover, points us to the source of richest blessing for the present, and opens to us the brightest prospect for the so frequently beclouded future. 1 [Note: J. J. van Oosterzee, The Year of Salvation, i. 475.]

I

The Coming of the Holy Spirit

The words of Jesus concerning the Holy Spirit seem to have made but little immediate impression upon His sorrowing disciples. Probably they were too full of trouble to comprehend their meaning, and too indifferent to consolation to care to understand. Love in tears is apt to be petulant. The suggestion of any possibility of compensation for impending loss is resented as an insult and a reproach. The promise that Another should fill His place brought no comfort. They did not want Another. To speak of a successor was a reflection upon their devotion, and to say the exchange would be to their advantage could be nothing but the exaggeration of compassion. Grief for impending loss refuses to be comforted. So the promise of the Paraclete brought little light to their understanding, and apparently less comfort to their hearts. It was not until the Ascension that their eyes were opened. The Resurrection filled them with a great joy, but not until they witnessed His return to the Father did they realize the true greatness of their Lord and the meaning of His Mission in the world. As they beheld Him rise, the mists lifted from their understanding, and they returned to Jerusalem, not like bereaved and broken men, but rejoicing and praising God. The vision of the opened heavens had given them a new conception of all things in heaven and on earth. Infinity had received a new centre, for the eternal glory was embodied in a Person they knew; prayer had a new meaning, for it was through a Name they uttered with familiar affection; faith had received a new basis, for it was in the Christ they had loved and proved. For ten days they waited with their eyes set upon the heavens where they had seen Him disappear from their sight. With Pentecost came the fulfilment of His word, and the gift in which they found the complete realization of all that He had said.

1. Let us first see how the disciples were prepared to receive the Gift.

The coming of the Holy Spirit involved the preparation of a people to receive Him. There was an extended and an immediate preparation. The extended preparation of the disciples covered the whole course of Christ’s ministry and fellowship. Unconsciously, they had come to know the Spirit in Christ. Everything in the life, teaching, and work of Jesus was a manifestation of the power and method of the Spirit. As the end approached, He prepared their minds for His coming by definite instruction and promise. He talked with a glow and enthusiasm of the Spirit calculated to kindle their desire and expectation. They were told of His wisdom and power, and the wonders He would do for them, exceeding all they had seen in their Lord. Faith cometh by hearing; after the Resurrection they seem to have heard of little else but the wonders of the Coming One; and the last words of the ascending Lord were words of promise concerning Him. “Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence.” “Ye shall receive power when the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” If they had not heard they would not have expected, and could not have received.

The final stage of their preparation was in united and believing prayer. The baptism came to the prepared. For ten consecutive days they remained in prayer. They were of one accord and in one place. A common object drew them together, a common expectation focused their faith, and focused faith always prevails. The fact that they continued for ten days proves both their earnestness and their faith. They waited earnestly for God, pleaded the promise of Christ, and had faith in His word.

2. The coming of the Holy Spirit is symbolized in the elements of wind and fire. Let us then consider the meaning which underlies these Symbols.

Wind

What a gentle thing wind is! What a powerful thing wind is! You hear of an evening the gentle breeze whispering so sweetly through the trees; you turn your face to it, and the wind falls so softly on your opened eye, that even that eye, which the smallest speck of dust can injure, is unhurt by it. The bubble which a touch of your finger will destroy floats unharmed in it; the thistledown is borne unbroken for miles by it; and, even in winter, the snowflakes, so fragile that your touch is destruction to them, are whirled round and round uninjured in their purity and beauty. How gentle the wind is, but how strong! Those great trees of the forest that have stood for ages, and clutched the earth far and wide with their spreading roots, fall before the storm; and the mighty ships, that seem so majestic in their power, are driven to destruction before the tempest, and cast in splintered wreckage on our shores. Even so is the Spirit of God: speaking so tenderly to the heart of some little child; filling young souls with every true, and beautiful, and loving thought that they have, and moving the strongest men to penitence and faith. The Spirit of God is gentle as the breeze, strong as the storm.

The wind is a favourite Biblical image for the movements and goings of God’s Spirit. Prophet and psalmist alike speak of the wind as symbolizing God’s power. “Come from the four winds, O breath,” cried Ezekiel, in the vision of the dry bones. “The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet,” says the prophet Nahum. In the Book of Job the poet represents God as speaking in the wind. And so, too, Jesus, who came to fulfil the sayings of the prophets, said: “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” 1 [Note: D. L. Ritchie.]

(1) One of the psalmists speaks about God bringing the wind out of His treasuries. That must be the wind that blows healthily to heal our sicknesses; whose every kiss is tonic, whose rude and wild embrace is strength. Whether it comes rushing over the mountains, or tearing down the gullies, or skipping over the summer sea as a gentle breeze to cool the fevered brow, it comes as a cleanser, as life-giver, as health-bringer. Its very buffetings are health. Now that is what God’s Spirit is to the spirit of a man. It is life and health and peace. When Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about birth by the Spirit and compared it to the wind, the reference was to the evening breeze just whispering among the olive groves. A ripple and a rustle and it is gone, and thou canst not the whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

It is an old Jewish saying that Moses died from the kiss of God. How true it is to say that many people, especially young people, live because of the kiss of the Spirit. One imprint on their young hearts and they give themselves in love to the great God and His Christ. Yes, God’s Spirit still comes like the zephyr, wooing and winning, like the breeze which you can scarcely feel upon your hand, though you know it on your more delicate brow. So He comes to many hearts in pensive hours, in times and seasons of holy quiet and blessed meditation; so He comes, too, in life’s morning to young souls. 1 [Note: D. L. Ritchie.]

The Lord of brightness and of warmth,

Of fragrance and of dew,

Who having joy in life and growth,

Finds pleasures ever new;

To herbs the earth, and trees the heaven caressing,

Alike He gives His soft and sunny blessing. 2 [Note: T. T. Lynch, The Rivulet, 149.]

(2) But the Holy Spirit also comes as a mighty rushing wind, as He came of old, and then He comes with great and stirring power; and the Church has so known the Holy Spirit’s coming in the times of great revival. He comes to spirits, invigorating and renewing them until they have a new life, as if it were life from the dead.

And every virtue we possess,

And every conflict won,

And every thought of holiness

Are His alone.

Oh! that God’s Spirit would come in both ways to the Church to-day, kissing spirits until they live, moving and thrilling the heart of the Church until there is a great revival of spiritual religion, and a quickening and bracing of all the powers of righteousness in our beloved land.

Hail, mightiest and bounteous wind,

Distributor of wealth,

Who giving, comest to confirm

Or to restore our health;

A blessing thou, bright energy diffusing,

For every other blessing’s happiest using. 1 [Note: T. T. Lynch, The Rivulet, 149.]

(3) And there is another function of the wind. It is sometimes a winnowing wind, separating chaff from grain, the false from the true; or it sometimes comes as a blight. There is, for example, the sirocco that starts in the heart of Africa, and, with its blighting breath, passes over whole tracts of country, leaving nothing but destruction in its train. Yes! the wind blights as well as gives health and strength; and so does God’s Spirit. God’s Spirit gives health and vigour to every virtue we possess, and it seeks to blight for ever every sin that besets our nature or reigns in our life.

A rushing, mighty wind across the sky,

A swirling, swinging, roaring, ringing breath

Which seems to fill the world, as, flying by,

It sweeps the pathway both of life and death.

Into our hearts it blows, and bears away

All evil thoughts, all hate, and strife, and sin,

All dust of hopes and fears and sorrows grey,

To let the light of love and truth within.

So Charity shall come, a living flame,

A fire divine, a firm and steady glow,

The pulsing light of life, for aye the same,

To make us tender kindly words to know.

Thus, year by year, the nodding, bending trees,

Whose sentient branches swiftly bear along

The cleansing, rushing, purifying breeze,

Shall sing Earth’s mighty Pentecostal Song of Solomon 2 [Note: M. A. B. Evans, The Moonlight Sonata, 118.]

Fire

Fire has three uses—it gives light, it gives heat, and it purifies.

(1) The Spirit of God comes to us as light. It comes to enlighten us, to show us the meaning of God’s blessed Word, to explain to us what God is, and what our blessed Saviour’s life and death meant for us; and so to teach us many things which we cannot know without Him. So we say in the Collect for this day that God did teach the hearts of His faithful people, by sending to them the Light of His Holy Spirit. And so, according to one interpretation, the Day of Pentecost is called Whitsun Day because God gave to His disciples “wit,” i.e. “wisdom,” as the word “wit” used to mean. 1 [Note: T. Teignmouth Shore.]

“It is with man’s Soul,” says Carlyle, “as it was with Nature: the beginning of Creation is—Light.” And of Conversion he says: “Blame not the word, rejoice rather that such a word, signifying such a thing, has come to light in our modern Era, though hidden from the wisest Ancients. The Old World knew nothing of Conversion; instead of an Ecce Homo, they had only some Choice of Hercules. It was a new-attained progress in the Moral Development of man: hereby has the Highest come home to the bosoms of the most Limited; what to Plato was but a hallucination, and to Socrates a chimera, is now clear and certain to your Zinzendorfs, your Wesleys, and the poorest of their Pietists and Methodists.” 2 [Note: Sartor Resartus, Bk. ii.]

Spirit, guiding us aright,

Spirit, making darkness light,

Spirit of resistless might,

Hear us, Holy Spirit.

(2) Fire gives heat as well as light. The Holy Spirit not only teaches us about God and about Christ, but He makes our hearts flame up in love to Him.

With feet of burning brass,

When times are dark as night,

Thou through the world dost pass,

Consuming in our sight

Dry trees and withering grass,

With dreadful, happy light.

O thou consuming fire,

Why should I fear thy flame,

Who purpose and desire

To burn what Thou shalt blame,

Ill weeds, and every brier

Of folly and of shame?

With shining beams that smite

The chains of darkness through,

Thou smilest in the height,

And all things smile anew;

Thy heat, in subtle might,

Works with the gentle dew.

O Thou creating fire,

I feel thy warmth benign;

My hopes a flowering spire

Arise, unfold, and shine;

And fruits that I desire

Shall soon be mine and Thine. 1 [Note: T. T. Lynch, The Rivulet, 121.]

(3) And fire is used to purify. Have you ever seen a piece of ore? It looks like a bit of common, hard, dirty rock, with just here and there a little, tiny, bright spot. You might hammer away at it for a long time trying to get those little pieces of metal out of it, and you would splinter it all about, and not succeed in getting the metal after all. But take it to a furnace, and there the fierce red and white heat will burn up all the dross, and the pure metal streams forth. A great deal of what is earthy is mixed up in our natures with a little that is pure; then the Spirit of God descends like illuminating and purifying fire. By all our trials and discipline, that Spirit purges out of us all that is base, and false, and earthy. “Our God is a consuming fire,” but He will consume only the dross, and will set free the true gold of our nature, so that it may be one day pure enough to be formed into part of the Crown of the King, and to flash in its loveliness and beauty in the eternal glory of the Father’s presence.

Those delicate wanderers,

The wind, the star, the cloud,

Ever before mine eyes

As to an altar bowed,

Sighs and dew-laden airs

Offer in sacrifice.

The offerings arise:

Hazes of rainbow light,

Pure crystal, blue, and gold,

Through dreamland take their flight;

And ’mid the sacrifice

God moveth as of old.

In miracles of fire

He symbols forth His days;

In gleams of crystal light

Reveals what pure pathways

Lead to the soul’s desire,

The silence of the height. 1 [Note: “A. E.”]

II

Filled with the Holy Spirit

Let us now inquire what is meant by the words “filled with the Holy Spirit.” Very many people have had their minds more or less exercised touching the blessing of the “baptism of the Holy Spirit,” as it is often termed. Not a few have been hindered, if not actually thrown back, in their spiritual course, simply for lack of a little instruction in the very first principles of the doctrine concerning the Person, offices, and work of the Holy Spirit.

1. The first point to be recognized, as clearly set forth in the Scriptures, is the fact, that all Christians have the Holy Spirit. They have not only been brought under His influence, but they have received the Holy Spirit Himself. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” ( Romans 8:9).

2. At the same time we must recognize the fact that to have the Spirit is one thing, but to be filled with the Spirit is quite another thing. We know from what is recorded in St. John’s Gospel that even before the Ascension the Holy Ghost had actually been given to the disciples, that Christ breathed upon them the Holy Ghost. But on the Day of Pentecost they were filled with the Holy Ghost.

There are upon the whole two main aspects or phases of the fulness of the Spirit. There is a special, critical phase, in which at a great crisis it comes out in marked, and perhaps wholly abnormal, manifestation, as when it enables the man or woman to utter supernatural prediction or proclamation. And there is also what we may call the habitual phase, where it is used to describe the condition of this or that believer’s life day by day and in its normal course. Thus the Seven were not so much specially “filled” as known to be “full”; and so was Barnabas. Into this holy habitual fulness Paul entered, it appears, at his baptism. On the other hand, the same Paul experienced from time to time the other and abnormal sort of filling; and it thus results that the same man might in one respect be full while in another he needed to be filled. 1 [Note: H. C. G. Moule, Veni Creator, 211.]

3. What, then, have we to do in order to be “filled with the Spirit”? The answer to this question is not far to seek, for Christ has said, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” For “if ye being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?” ( Luke 11:9-13). If, therefore, we want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, then indeed we are not far from receiving the rich blessings of the gift, but we must want the blessing and want it earnestly, for the Holy Spirit will not fill unwilling hearts. But we have great encouragement to ask. He has promised, and He has repeatedly fulfilled His promise. We cannot ask more than He has already given in many lives.

Did we dare

In our agony of prayer,

Ask for more than He has done?

When was ever His right hand

Over any time or land

Stretched as now beneath the sun?

III

Transformed by the Holy Spirit

“They began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

The words of the text are significant, and not the less so because, in some measure, symbolic. We must find the meaning which the symbolism contains. We have already been thinking of the symbols under which the Holy Spirit came— wind and fire, and how these Symbols characterise the work of the Holy Spirit in us; we shall now see how the same symbols are connected with the gift of speaking with tongues. Wind is symbolic of power; fiery tongues are symbolic of inspired speech—“they spake as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

i. The Immediate Results

1. Speaking with tongues. The Authorized Version by speaking of “cloven” tongues, and Christian painters by their pictorial representations, have imported into the scene an unauthorized feature. It has been supposed that a bishop’s mitre, with its divided crest, was first suggested by this erroneous idea of the shape of the tongues which rested upon the heads of the Apostles. The word translated “cloven” should be rendered “dividing” or “distributing themselves.” The flame-like forms descended into the Upper Chamber in a body or compact mass, and then at once scattered themselves over the assembled company, one lighting upon the head of each. The original language seems to imply that it rested there for a moment only, and then suddenly vanished, symbolizing perhaps its transitory nature as a gift of tongues.

Now in histories of this kind we are always under a temptation to seize upon the most extraordinary feature of the story, and to take that as the essence of the whole. Thus one of the popular ideas of Whitsun Day has been that it commemorates the gift of languages to the Apostles, by which, though uneducated men, they were qualified in a moment of time to preach the Gospel to every nation under heaven. But, indeed, this gift of tongues (even if it were what is here supposed) is but a small part of the matter. The gift of tongues concerned only one generation, at any rate, and a very few individuals.

2. The greatest miracle of that day was the transformation wrought in the waiting disciples. Their fire-baptism transfigured them. Every part of their nature was vitalized, invigorated, and transformed in fire. Its effect upon their knowledge was all that Christ had promised it should be. Their eyes were opened, their memories quickened, and their minds inspired. How clear all things appeared now that the Spirit shone upon them! The Cross, the Resurrection, and the Kingdom were all seen in their true meaning. Peter’s address reveals an illumined intelligence, an apt and accurate interpreter, an Apostle on fire. The coming of the Spirit had turned the fisherman into a teacher, orator, and evangelist. The tongue of fire gave forth the word of wisdom and of power. As men listened they found their minds informed, their reasons convinced, their souls convicted, and their wills persuaded. The Apostles themselves became new men. They now no longer coveted wealth or power, or the honour of this world; they no longer desired to have again the kingdom restored to Israel, so that the Jewish dream of earthly dominion should be theirs, one of them sitting on the right hand of the King, and one on the left, each and all anxious to be first and highest. No, the unseen and everlasting world had been opened to their gaze, and they now saw all earthly things in their true light. The only real wealth was wealth within, purified and loving hearts. The only real honour was the honour that comes from God, the honour of God’s likeness; above all, the honour of bringing many sons to God, multitudes of men and women delivered from evil and saved eternally. So they now preached with power; even the power of the Holy Ghost Himself; and this very day of Pentecost three thousand were added to their number, three thousand who the other day might have been among those that cried, “Crucify him, crucify him.”

The moral change wrought in the disciples, by the new baptism of the Spirit, is strikingly displayed in the case of one man. A difficult service was to be performed in Jerusalem that day. Had it been desired to find a man in London who would have gone down to Whitehall a few weeks after Charles was beheaded, and, addressing Cromwell’s soldiers, have endeavoured to persuade them that he whom they had executed was not only a King and a good one, but a Prophet of God, and that, therefore, they had been guilty of more than regicide, of sacrilege; although England had brave men then, it may be questioned whether any one could have been found to bear such a message to that audience.

The service which had then to be performed in Jerusalem was similar to this. It was needful that some one should stand up under the shadow of the temple, and, braving chief priests and mob alike, assert that He whom they had shamefully executed seven weeks ago was Israel’s long-looked-for Messiah; that they had been guilty of a sin which had no name; had raised their hands against “God manifest in the flesh”; had, in words strange to human ears, “ killed the Prince of Life.” Who was thus to confront the rage of the mob, and the malice of the Priests? We see a man rising, filled with a holy fire, so that he totally forgets his danger, and seems not even conscious that he is doing an heroic act. He casts back upon the mockers their charge, and proceeds to open and to press home his tremendous accusation, as if he were a king upon a throne, and each man before him a lonely and defenceless culprit.

Who is this man? Have we not seen him before? Is it possible that it can be Peter? We know him of old: he has a good deal of zeal, but little steadiness; he means well, and, when matters are smooth, can serve well; but when difficulties and adversaries rise before him, his moral courage fails. How short a time is it ago since we saw him tried! He had been resolving that, come what might, he would stand by his Master to the last. Others might flinch, he would stand. Soon the Master was in the hands of enemies. Yet His case was by no means lost. The Governor was on His side; many of the people were secretly for Him; nothing could be proved against Him; and, above all, He who had saved others could save Himself. Yet, as Peter saw scowling faces, his courage failed. A servant-maid looked into his eye, and his eye fell. She said she thought he belonged to Jesus of Nazareth: his heart sank, and he said, “No.” Then another looked in his face, and repeated the same suspicion. Now, of course, he was more cowardly, and repeated his “No.” A third looked upon him, and insisted that he belonged to the accused Prophet. Now his poor heart was all fluttering; and, to make it plain that he had nothing to do with Jesus of Nazareth, he began to curse and swear.

Is it within the same breast where this pale and tremulous heart quaked that we see glowing a brave heart which dreads neither the power of the authorities nor the violence of the populace; which faces every prejudice and every vice of Jerusalem, every bitter Pharisee and every street brawler, as if they were no more than straying and troublesome sheep? Is the Peter of Pilate’s hall the Peter of Pentecost, with the same natural powers, the same natural force of character, the same training, and the same resolutions? If so, what a difference is made in a man by the one circumstance of being filled with the Holy Ghost! 1 [Note: W. Arthur, The Tongue of Fire, 63.]

ii. The Permanent Results

1. The descent of the Holy Ghost was preceded by “a rushing mighty wind” which “filled all the house where they were sitting.” It bespeaks the irresistible force of the Spirit, and the fact that it filled the whole chamber would seem to be emblematical of the universality of its influence. Apart, then, from its immediate effect upon the assemblage there gathered together, it was the first-fruits of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the whole mystical Body of Christ’s Church in all places and through all time. It is this that marks off the Dispensation of the Spirit from those Dispensations which had preceded it. God had deigned to be present with special people, and at special times; He had even caused an embodiment of His presence to be manifested in a special place, resting like a cloud of glory above the mercy-seat. And again, God had been present in the Person of His Incarnate Son among the inhabitants of Palestine, but in both cases the Divine Presence had been circumscribed and local only; but from that first Whitsuntide and onwards God has enabled men, through the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity, to realise His Presence everywhere, and what before seemed to men to be local only has become universal.

2. To the Jews in the wilderness and to the people in Palestine, the Presence of God was wholly external, outside of themselves, but now it is within; “Know ye not,” says St. Paul, “that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” He meant to remind us of the inspiring thought that as the indwelling Spirit is felt to be ever prompting us to do what is right, so it should act as a deterrent from doing what is wrong. He meant us to realize that every time we yield to temptation, we sin not only against a God above and about us, but also against a God within us.

3. The life so filled is transformed. There may be some who will ask, Does the Holy Spirit still fill the hearts of men and transform their lives, as we read that He did in the days of the Apostles? The answer to the question is one which rests on experience; it is not a matter of correct interpretation of symbols. We may easily go astray in interpreting symbols, and we need the valuable reminder which Dr. Swete gives us that when we have translated the words of the Bible into the terms of modern philosophy we have only substituted one set of symbols for another. The modern symbols may be more intelligible and less likely to be misunderstood than the old ones; but the ultimate truths will not be reached until we have passed, in the words which Cardinal Newman chose for his own epitaph, ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem. 1 [Note: The Guardian, 3rd February 1911.] Let us quote the words of Dr. Swete in answer to this question: “Communion with God through Christ in the Holy Spirit is not a theory or a dogma, but a fact of personal knowledge to which tens of thousands of living Christians can testify as the most certain of actualities.” 2 [Note: Swete, The Ascended Christ.]

Let us go back a century and a half ago, and compare the condition of things then with the condition of things to-day. In the year 1724 “gin-drinking infected the mass of the population with the violence of an epidemic.” It is said that every sixth house in London was a gin-palace. Hogarth’s cartoon retains the sign which stood outside the doors of these drinking dens—“Here you may get drunk for a penny; dead drunk for twopence—straw provided.” The public-houses were open all night. Public opinion did not hold the character of any man to suffer through drunkenness. Dr. Johnson says to Boswell: “I remember, sir, when every decent person in Lichfield got drunk every night and nobody thought the worse of them.” It was the mark of a gentleman to get drunk, and the standard of comparison was as “drunk as a lord.” Again, in the social habits of the upper classes profane swearing was held to be a mark of good breeding, and to take the name of God in vain in almost every sentence was the mark of a gentleman and even of a lady. Look again at the sports of the people, perhaps the truest index to their character. On the Sunday the people gathered for cock-fighting, bull-baiting, and other cruel sports. If we could have stepped into the midst of the eager and excited crowd we might have cried indignantly—“This ought to be put down by law.” But how impossible it would have seemed. How indignantly it would have been scouted. The members of Parliament were the ringleaders of the sport. The clergy thought themselves fortunate to own a winning bird. Now where is all that gone? What has made drunkenness a low and beastly habit? What has made swearing an utterly vulgar thing? Why has the law stepped in and put down cruel sports? Do you say that education has become more general, and that culture has brought in other and more refined tastes? No; it was the educated and cultured classes who led the fashion in these things. There is but one explanation. Wesley and Whitefield were filled with the Holy Ghost, and as they preached here and there a little company of men and women were converted—not many in comparison with the masses of the nation. And these converted men and women went forth amongst the neighbours and began to live a Christlike life. Each became a new moral standard amongst them. Each was a skylight through which the heavens shone down into the midst of the little community. Each of them witnessed that there was another life than that to which they had been accustomed, and that in every way a better and happier life. Each became a living conscience in which things were so much more definitely black or white than they used to be—blessedly good or uncomfortably bad. Each was a window through which men and women saw beyond the little present out into the eternities and the infinities. That wrought the reformation—witnesses unto Me. 1 [Note: M. G. Pearse.]

Oh, turn me, mould me, mellow me for use.

Pervade my being with thy vital force,

That this else inexpressive life of mine

May become eloquent and full of power,

Impregnated with life and strength divine.

Put the bright torch of heaven into my hand,

That I may carry it aloft

And win the eye of weary wanderers here below

To guide their feet into the paths of peace.

I cannot raise the dead,

Nor from this soil pluck precious dust,

Nor bid the sleeper wake,

Nor still the storm, nor bend the lightning back,

Nor muffle up the thunder,

Nor bid the chains fall from off creation’s long enfettered limbs.

But I can live a life that tells on other lives,

And makes this world less full of anguish and of pain;

A life that like the pebble dropped upon the sea

Sends its wide circles to a hundred shores.

May such a life be mine.

Creator of true life, Thyself the life Thou givest,

Give Thyself, that Thou mayest dwell in me, and I in Thee. 2 [Note: Horatius Bonar.]

Whitsun Day

Literature

Adamson (T.), The Spirit of Power, 1.

Benson (R. M.), The Final Passover, iv. 628.

Chadwick (S.), Humanity and God, 205.

Church (R. W.), Pascal and other Sermons, 336.

Fuller (M.), The Lord’s Day, 303.

Hopkins (E. H.), The Law of Liberty in the Spiritual Life, 203.

Jowett (J. H.), The Transfigured Church, 9.

Keble (J.), Sermons for the Christian Year: Ascension Day to Trinity Sunday, 269.

Luckock (H. M.), Footprints of the Apostles, 54.

Macmillan (H.), The Garden and the City, 326.

Miller (J.), Sermons Literary and Scientific, 1st Ser., 259.

Oosterzee (J. J. van), The Year of Salvation, i. 475.

Ritchie (D. L.), Peace the Umpire, 123.

Robertson (A.), Venetian Sermons, 247.

Shore (T. T.), Saint George for England, 109.

Westcott (B. F.), Village Sermons, 213.

Wheeler (W. C.), Sermons and Addresses, 188.

Woodford (J. R.), Sermons, ii. 67.

Verse 42

Apostolic Christianity

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.— Acts 2:42.

1. In these words are set forth the characteristic marks of the new Christian life to which the converts of Pentecost were pledged by their Baptism. The Apostles stand out as the core of the Church. About them the new disciples are gathered; from them the doctrine and discipline of the infant society proceed; they constitute a visible centre of unity.

2. The Church was not only holy, catholic, and apostolic, but it was also one. The world recognized that unity, and felt its power. A bishop of the Church in Ephesus was a bishop of the Church in Lyons, and a member of the Church in Alexandria was a member of the Church in Arles. The Church newly planted in Armenia was immediately brought into relation with the Church wherever it was already existing. There was a principle as real in the Church which was producing this unity, as the principle of gravity in the solar system which is binding it into unity and harmony. It is not difficult to discover that principle. If we turn to the inspired history of the Church, we shall find that principle of unity clearly stated. “They continued steadfastly in the Apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Here are four things— the teaching, the fellowship, the sacrament, and the worship.

We greet one another cordially as brethren, and we meet in committees and on platforms and in various other ways. Some of us have become members of the Evangelical Alliance, and we have various ways of expressing the unity that remains to us across the divided lines of our Churches. Ah, but there was a time, gone by long, long ago, when all those who in any place confessed a common Lord exercised their unity around the same communion table, and in the courts which Christ had set up, and not in such committees and alliances as we have been compelled to plan because we had fallen from the others. There was a time when it entered into no Christian mind that, in any place, those who confessed our common Lord were to sit down contented with a unity that was not expressed and could not be in Christ’s ordinances and Christ’s institutions. There was a time when, if anything fell out to break it, men were grieved and humbled and Apostles wrote moving letters to the Churches concerned; and after the Apostles were gone, the Church of Rome sent her letter to the Church of Corinth to entreat them to be visibly one in the institutions and ordinances which Christ gave them to express and to exercise their unity. There was such a time, and if since post-apostolic times the Church has gained something—and I think it has gained much—yet surely it has lost something too. There was something they had in the early Church, when they met around the same communion table and in the same institutions just as naturally as they went to one martyr-death together—there was something then which we have not now. Therefore we are bound to aim at it—we are bound to seek it as we Song of Solomon 1 [Note: R. Rainy, in The Life of Principal Rainy, i. 168.]

There are two notions of unity in men’s minds. One of them is really the notion of uniformity. It has no place for diversity. It wants almost complete identity between the things which it compares. The other rejoices in diversity, and finds its unifying principle in the common motive or purpose out of which an infinite diversity of many actions may proceed. How vain the search for any unity but this! It is the unity of nature. The budding, bursting spring is full of it; a thousand trees all different from one another are all one in the oneness of the great life-power which throbs and pulsates in them all. And souls the most unlike, most widely separated from each other, are one in Christ. Christ is their principle of unity. The thinker pondering deep problems, the workman struggling with the obstinacy of material, the worshipper lost in his adoration, the men of all centuries, the men of all lands,—they are all one, if all their lives are utterances of the same Christ. It is beautiful, the way in which each new Christian strikes into this unity and becomes a part of it immediately. A man has been living by himself, seeming to find all his sources of activity in his own life. By and by the change comes and he is Christ’s. The pulse of universal Christian life begins to beat through him. Now he is one with all men who, anywhere, are doing anything by Christ for Christ! How he lays hold of and comprehends the ages! 2 [Note: Phillips Brooks.]

The text names four elements as expressive of the variety in unity of primitive Christian life. They continued steadfastly—

I. In the Apostles’ Teaching.

II. In the Fellowship.

I. In the Breaking of Bread.

II. In the Prayers.

The great Christian thinker and preacher of Protestant Lausanne, as he compared the splendour and enthusiasm of the Roman Benediction with the shorn and meagre rite of Genevan Calvinism, exclaimed in melancholy tones, “Rome has worship without the word, we have the word without worship.” But the earliest Church, as delineated by its great historian, combines all these elements, and appeals to man through all his faculties. It appeals to his intellect by its doctrine. It awakens his social feelings—whether towards contemporary Christians, or spirits waiting in the world unseen, or great predecessors in the faith; nay, something higher still—“And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his son Jesus Christ.” It deals with the soul in its most mysterious depths by the consciousness of a Presence at once awful and blessed. It has treasures, and it opens for every one of its children a language of sobs and rapture, of penitence and joy—a wealth of words that set themselves to some far-off music, which linger along fretted roofs, yet nestle in our hearts, and in our last hours sing us into the sleep of death as if with the lullaby of God. Thus, as in the description of her first structure, the Church is doctrinal, social, sacramental, liturgical. She is a school of teaching, a centre of social unity, a shrine of sacraments, a home of worship. The child of heaven, destined to an inheritance so splendid, was strong and radiant in her cradle. All the possibilities of her history and her being lay folded in her heart from the very first. 1 [Note: W. Alexander.]

I

The Teaching of the Apostles

1. “ The teaching of the Apostles” was the necessary instrumentality for bringing the new converts to full discipleship. Their rudimentary faith needed a careful and continuous instruction, an instruction which replaced that which the scribes were in the habit of giving, so that in the most literal sense the Apostles might now be called scribes become disciples to the kingdom, bringing out of their treasure things new and old, the new tale of the ministry and glory of Jesus, the old promises and signs by which Law and Prophets had pointed onward to Him and His kingdom.

2. But, further, the teaching of the Apostles had a far wider range when their disciples were not converted Jews, but converted heathen. Then they had to create a new morality, to lay firmly that foundation which the Jews had received from their long tradition of legal righteousness, to adapt the principles to the novel conditions of Gentile life.

3. Can we tell what the teaching of the Apostles chiefly consisted of?

(1) Even a superficial study of St. Paul’s Epistles enables us to understand the magnitude of the task which rested on the Apostles as religious teachers. Take, for sufficient example, the First Epistle to the Corinthians. We find clearly indicated there a teaching extraordinary in depth, range, and variety. St. Paul brings to the Corinthians the knowledge of Christ’s life and death, and the substance of His revelation. He interprets the Old Testament in the light of Christian belief; he develops a detailed doctrine of the person and work of our Saviour. Consider how large a background of theological knowledge, built up in the Corinthians by systematic teaching, is implied in such a verse as this: “But of him ( i.e. God) are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” Is it not suggestive that we should find the great keywords of the Pauline theology in the least theological of his Epistles? In this same Epistle to the Corinthians we find a very definite and rich teaching about the Holy Spirit, an eschatological doctrine of great range and richness, the most careful moral teaching, and the delivery of practical rules, customs of the Christian society, which the Apostle does not hesitate to impose on the Corinthians. No doubt St. Paul stood out from the apostolic company as a great constructive theologian, and we cannot suppose that the other Apostles, with the exception of St. John, were able to bring to their converts so rich and varied a volume of sacred science; but then we must remember that St. Paul, to use his own phrase, “laboured more abundantly than they all,” and that, even in the apostolic age, his Epistles were widely disseminated. In the New Testament, then, alone we have abundant evidence of the active vitality of the teaching of the Apostles.

(2) But we can also bring evidence outside the New Testament. Two documents have come down to our own time with the claim to embody “the teaching of the Apostles,” and though neither can vindicate an apostolic origin, yet both do certainly perpetuate aspects of the work of the Apostles as the teachers of the Christian society. The oldest of these documents is a curious moral treatise dating probably from the first half of the second Century, though it may be much older, and actually entitled The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. It illustrates the work which, especially among the Gentile converts, fell on the Apostles as creators of a Christian morality, which should replace the depraved and perverted traditions of heathen life. The other document, later in actual composition, is not less apostolic in character. It is known throughout the world as “the Apostles’ Creed.” Of course we must be watchful against the anachronism which would credit the Apostles with precise dogmatic forms, such as were afterwards received in the Church on the authority of their names. But though the so-called Apostles’ Creed did not exist in apostolic times, we must admit that the substance of its teaching was primitive. The Ignatian Epistles, which are the connecting link between the Pastoral Epistles and the Apologists of the second century, prove that instruction was given in Antioch on all the points characteristic of the teaching of the developed creed.

(3) But by the “teaching of the Apostles,” in which the first Christians continued, we are not to understand a detailed moral code, or an elaborated creed, but rather a progressive instruction, which included both morals and doctrine, which addressed itself with rare versatility to the novel and ever-varying requirements of a quickly expanding society; and always laid the emphasis on the things which were fundamental.

I like the advice which Mr. Birrell gave at Whitefield’s Institute: “Do not worry too much over the many things you are in doubt about; hang on with all your weight to the things, however few, about which you are certain, and on the top of these certainties pile up work, work, work!” May I take a little liberty with one of the great sayings of Shakespeare, a liberty which does no fundamental violence to the text, “The truths thou hast, and their adoption tried, grapple them to thy heart with hoops of steel.” 1 [Note: J. H. Jowett, in Examiner, 9th February 1905.]

4. Thus from the beginning, the Church has possessed and depended upon a “teaching ministry”; and, though in later times the reason of that dependence may seem less evident, and though, for obvious reasons, the functions of the ministry have taken a less exalted character, yet, when we consider that every generation comes fresh to its problems, and that the unalterable principles of the Gospel have to find application to circumstances which are always novel, we shall be little disposed to question the title which the teaching ministry can still advance to the regard and consideration of believers. It is still the case of loyal and prudent Christians that “they continue steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching,” when they impose on themselves as a standing obligation of a well-ordered Christian life, the regular and devout attendance on the work of the Christian preacher. 2 [Note: H. H. Henson.]

II

The Fellowship

The word translated “fellowship” (χοινωνία ) comes from a root which means literally sharing in common. The practical nature of the fellowship is very clearly seen by comparing the ways in which the same word is translated in other places in the New Testament. As a rule Scripture is its own best interpreter. In Romans 15:26 the same word here translated “fellowship” is rendered “contribution”—“It hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem.” In 2 Corinthians 9:13 it is “distribution”—“Your liberal distribution unto them, and unto all men.” In Hebrews 13:16 it is “communicate”—“To do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” In 1 Corinthians 10:16 it is “communion”—“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ.” While in Php_1:5 ; Php_2:1 ; Php_3:10 it is plainly used in the sense of “participation.” From all these Scriptures, the meaning of the word is clearly defined. It was the word used for the collection of money for the poor saints, and for the share which believers took in transmitting these alms to those in need. Fellowship in this sense is a most exalted and noble thing, and a privilege not to be lightly esteemed. It showed the oneness of the whole body of the faithful in state, in privilege, and in Obligation. Sharing thus in common there was created a spirit of mutual recognition, a manifestation of common interests, and a closer partnership with each other in the blessings and privileges of the Gospel—leading them to share joyfully their goods with others. Taking the word in the meaning thus given, we cannot fail to see that the contribution or collection became a regular, an abiding institution in the Church of Christ.

1. There are thus three aspects in which to regard the Fellowship—

(1) It is evident that they encouraged each other in the things of God and continued to do so. They were as one loving family, and loving each other they took every means in their power to keep the glow of love aflame. “As iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.” What better means of encouraging the members of the Church can there be than by conversing freely together of the things of God? As the fellowship meant participation, communion; so in their intercourse with each other there was a constant interchange of thought in matters of spiritual experience.

I fear this aspect of fellowship has been sadly lost in these days. How seldom we talk about God! We talk about anything—everything else—about leaders, teachers, sermons, books; but how seldom do we find the conversation, even among a party of Christians, centring round God; and yet one of the sweetest of the “precious and exceeding great promises” is given to those who practise the habit of speaking about God, and the things of God. In the same chapter in which we read of bringing “all the tithes into the storehouse,” and so paying attention to the contribution, the collection, and proving the Lord of Hosts herewith, we also read these precious words: “Then they that feared the Lord spake one with another; and the Lord hearkened, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before Him, for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in the day that I do make, even a peculiar treasure, and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not” ( Malachi 3:16-18). 1 [Note: J. D. Gilmore.]

(2) They had a mutual regard for each other’s welfare, and continued to show it. Communion, participation, fellowship cannot exist where one member is indifferent in the smallest degree to anything that affects the interest of another. The member who takes no interest in the welfare of his fellow-members is guilty of violating the partnership in which all believers are embraced. If I am one with him, what touches him, touches me; his sorrows, dangers, duties, joys, prosperity, or adversity are mine. In true fellowship there can be no isolation, no independence: all are sharers in common. If we are members of the body of Christ, then, in a very real sense, “there should be no schism in the body; but the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffereth, all the members suffer with it; or one member is honoured, all the members rejoice with it” ( 1 Corinthians 12:25-26).

(3) There was also regular, systematic provision made for practical help as it was required. Continuing in the Apostles’ fellowship, it is clear that the members of the Church gave freely and willingly “as the Lord had prospered them” for the relief of poor saints, and that a regular distribution of the contributions so given was made to those in need. Later on, “when the number of the disciples was multiplied,” it was found absolutely necessary to appoint deacons to take this matter in charge, that they, overlooking the temporal affairs, might leave the Apostles free to attend to the purely spiritual matters. That these contributions became a regular institution, a weekly ordinance, in the Churches of Christ, is clear from Paul’s words to the “Church of God at Corinth.” Following immediately upon the greatest, the profoundest treatise ever written upon the fundamental doctrine of the “resurrection,” the Apostle, without pause or break, says, “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the Churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come” ( 1 Corinthians 16:1-2).

2. St. Luke, according to the translation adopted in our versions, links together “teaching and fellowship”; but he certainly does not mean that the early Christians were taught to combine as they did. They entered into an intelligent unity sustained by intelligent communication; but their intercourse was the spontaneous outflow of the new life which, as believers in Christ, they had received. It was a Divine instinct, a soul of brotherhood, a disposition which breathed the atmosphere of “the household of faith.” Good nature could find no sphere large enough for its expression. It was the observance of the second commandment in the most Christlike form the world had ever seen. It was the attainment of the mind of Christ in a measure which overflowed all human relationships. From the first we get an impression of wonderful unity and brotherliness as marking the Messianic Community. With what moving power would the Master’s words be rehearsed by men in whose imaginations the Speaker’s looks and tones, as He had spoken them, still lived and gave each saying life! In the atmosphere of soul thus created self-contained isolation was simply impossible to believers. The impulse to “fellowship” of the most intimate and complete character mastered every other feeling. And in that fellowship they found their strength and stability.

One of the most remarkable methods of preventing the encroachments of the sea upon the land, and fixing the loose sand along the shore, is by means of plants specially adapted for the purpose. These plants belong mostly to the grass tribe, though some are furnished with the flowers and foliage of higher orders. But they all possess in common the peculiarity of creeping underground stems, which at short intervals send up fresh shoots above the surface, and root themselves in the soil. These creeping underground stems enable them to subsist in the barren sand, and endure long periods of drought and sterility; while the rooting of the stems at frequent intervals, producing new individuals at every joint, all linked together, enables them to offer an effectual resistance to the storm. If undisturbed, these wonderfully constructed plants would speedily cover the largest tract of sea-shore spontaneously, prevent the loose masses of sand thrown up by the waves from drifting, and render the soil sufficiently stable to support higher vegetation. Man has taken advantage of the peculiar habit of these seaside plants, and planted them along the banks which he erects as a barrier against the sea, and which without these would be blown away by the first hurricane. The enormous dykes which the people have constructed in Holland, to keep out the inundations of the German Ocean, owe their stability to these plants, which are carefully protected by the Government; and along the low eastern side of England, where the sea is seeking continually to encroach upon the shore, and is with great difficulty kept back, a large quantity of dry land has in this way been reclaimed from the waters. It is the social habit of these seaside plants that gives them their wonderful tenacity of life, and admirably adapts them for the conditions in which they grow. Each separate plant is weak and fragile; and if left to itself it would speedily perish in its sterile situation, and would be uprooted and swept away by the fury of the tide. But when linked and interlaced in the closest fashion, by a vital bond, with the whole mass of similar plants growing around, it can hold its own against the strongest forces of the ocean. It is as nearly indestructible from natural causes as anything can be; and it is one of the most striking proofs of the power of feeble things that are endowed with life, to resist, when in combination, the mightiest forces of mechanical nature. 1 [Note: Hugh Macmillan.]

III

The Breaking of Bread

We pass on now to the breaking of bread. There can be no question that here we have “the Holy Communion in its primitive form as an Agape or supper of communion,” 2 [Note: F. J. A. Hort.] or rather as a commemoration associated with an Agape or supper of communion. For it is manifest that, in considering the language of St. Luke, we cannot separate it from that of his great master, St. Paul. We are compelled to seek in the First Epistle to the Corinthians the meaning of this simple expression, characteristic of the Acts, “the breaking of bread.” Now, in the tenth and eleventh chapters of that Epistle, St. Paul evidently describes the Agape as preceding the Eucharist. The latter he clearly asserts to be an institution of Christ, and to bear a character of the utmost gravity. He rehearses the history of that Institution, and bases on it some stern and awful censures of the profaneness which marked the Corinthian practice. The “breaking of the bread” was something more than the formal act by which a social festivity was inaugurated. It was more than an eloquent symbol—more than a solemn act of commemoration. It was the current phrase for a religious rite to which the Apostle evidently attributed the greatest importance. The very phrase had historic reference; it was an appeal to the devout recollection of Christians—it recalled and set before them the Master Himself in “the night in which he was betrayed.” The bread which then He blessed and brake was identified with the bread there placed on the table of the Eucharist, and the cup was the same. So the Apostle links together the profanities of the Corinthian Eucharist and that last supper in the room at Jerusalem, where Christ Himself had instituted the sacrament. “For as often as ye eat this bread and drink the cup ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup. For he that eateth and drinketh, eateth and drinketh judgment unto himself, if he discern not the body.”

How much lies behind that simple phrase “the breaking of bread!” However close the association of the Eucharist with the Agape was in the apostolic age, it never went so far as to submerge the distinctive character of the Sacrament. St. Paul’s Epistle to the Corinthians, not to say, also, the Gospel of St. John, which certainly reflects the eucharistic doctrine of the later apostolic age, absolutely prohibits the popular notion that the unique and awful significance of the Holy Communion belongs to the later period of the Church. 1 [Note: H. H. Henson.]

It is not uninteresting to compare with St. Paul’s language the eucharistic prayer preserved in The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. “As this broken bread was scattered upon the mountains and gathered together became one, so let Thy Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into Thy kingdom, for Thine is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ for ever” ( Didache, i. 4).

1. Now we have seen that St. Paul was very careful to dwell on the deep significance of the Holy Communion, and circumstances proved at this time how necessary this was. But the great precaution which was taken to guard the sacred observance of the Holy Communion does not preclude the joyful association which essentially attached to the “breaking of bread.” The “Eucharist,” the name given to that service, in itself indicates the manner in which the primitive Christians regarded it. “And this food is called among us Eucharistia, of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh.” 1 [Note: Justin Martyr, Apol. i. 64.]

In “The Breaking of Bread” the Apostolic Christians possessed one abiding and unchanging secret in which their whole spiritual being stood rooted, in possession of which they could face all that was before them, whatever the long and cruel years might bring. Here that secret was embodied. The innermost soul of this integral life was an act of organic worship, “the breaking of bread.” Christ has passed out of sight, they see Him no more, and they now therefore have sorrow. Sorrow there must be. Nevermore would they have His visible presence in their midst, His voice in their ears, His breath on their brows. Nevermore would they move and walk and talk together, and sit at the same table, and eat in the same room. Nevermore the intimate and enthralling joy of that brief earthly companionship. “And ye now, therefore, have sorrow, but I will not leave you comfortless; I will come unto you, and your joy shall be full, and that joy no man can ever take from you.” So He had promised, and the pledge of that promise being fulfilled came out of the heart of those days now gone, when they had eaten and drunk with Him as His friends that last meal in which the sweet earthly companionship had crowned its blessed intimacy, that last meal in which the old days of friendship had come to a close, and had said their last farewell—so that it seemed to them that a meal of wasted hope and broken hearts was indeed never to pass away. Protected from the fickleness and frailties of change, it was itself to become the undying form of that new companionship with the risen Master, by which and in which, through the working of the Spirit, He, with the Father to whom He had gone, would for ever come again to them and sit down with them, and eat and drink with them, and make His ever-living abode with them, drinking with them the new blood of the grape, as it is drunk in the kingdom of God.

2. Observe the witness which the Sacrament bears to the truths of Christian belief.

(1) And first of all the wonder that such a thing as this, a little bread and wine given as a keepsake by a Jewish man about to die the next day, should have become what the Christian Sacrament has been in the world for two thousand years, should have been found such as it has certainly been found by men—a treasure of truth to great thinkers; of sweet grace to saints and heroes; of simple blessing to homely and plain people; of deep mystery to philosophers and poets; that it should have gone with equal power through times so extraordinarily different, and among men of so many races and lands; nay, should have borne this witness of itself to men, who were engaged sometimes in keenest unhappy controversy about some part of its nature and meaning.

(2) Then what are we to say of Him who, on the edge of death, calmly appointed this thing? Nothing gives stronger witness to the Divine Power, hidden in the Death of Christ, than this, that these words and acts of a dying man became at once the best offering to God, all other sacrifice being put away. And the observance of it, not as a sad memorial of a departed saint, or prophet, or teacher, but as the glad remembrance of a living Lord, is the best of witnesses to the truth of the Resurrection. It was a great Protestant theologian in Germany who spoke of it as the “climax of the early Christian worship,” and found “in its continuing celebration the first proof of the constant belief of Christians in the Divine nature of Christ.” Could any mere memorial of the dead have kept its place, and shown the power of the Eucharist all down the centuries till now?

Sometimes I hear the happy birds

That sang to Christ beyond the sea,

And softly His consoling words

Blend with their joyous minstrelsy.

Sometimes in royal vesture glow

The lilies that He called so fair,

Which never toil nor spin, yet show

The loving Father’s tender care.

And then along the fragrant hills

A radiant presence seems to move,

And earth grows fairer, as it fills

The very air I breathe with love.

And now I see one Perfect Face,

And, hastening to my church’s door,

Find Him within the holy place

Who, all my way, went on before. 1 [Note: Horatio Nelson Powers.]

IV

The Prayers

Finally, there is mention made of “the prayers.” These, in Dr. Hort’s opinion, are probably Christian prayers at stated hours, answering to Jewish prayers. If we knew more of the synagogue services in Palestine as they were before the fall of Jerusalem, we should perhaps find that these Christian prayers replaced synagogue prayers (which, it must be remembered, are not recognized in the law), as the Apostles’ teaching may be supposed to have replaced that of the scribes. 2 [Note: Judaistic Christianity, 44.] We know that the Christians in Jerusalem, so long as the temple existed, were accustomed to attend its regular services, and it may well be the case that they also developed a synagogue service of their own. St. James, who presided over that Church, speaks of the Christian “synagogue.” It is certain that the synagogue provided the model after which the liturgical services of the Church were originally fashioned—although from the first there were new elements, such as the reading of the apostolic epistles, the exercise of spiritual gifts, the use of the Lord’s Prayer, and, possibly also, Christian hymns, which gave a distinctive aspect to the worship of the Christian synagogue.

Now let us notice two points in connexion with “the prayers” of which we may well make practical application—the place of prayer in public worship, and the value of united prayer.

1. The Place of Prayer in Public Worship. Those who were converted by St. Peter’s address remained steadfast in prayer: by which it is intended, not merely that they prayed privately by themselves, for this probably they did before, but that they were regular in attending the prayers of the Christian Church. The Church, though in its infancy, had yet its public Services, and those who joined the Apostles’ fellowship joined them in their united worship before the throne of God’s grace. And this, it should be observed, is the proper fruit of a sermon; the sermon is rightly appreciated, is manifestly blessed by the Holy Spirit, when it leads persons to value and join heartily in the Church’s prayers: the prayers are not the mere introduction to preaching, but preaching is intended to make people pray. This is the right order of things, and this is what we find in the history of the great Pentecostal Day. Whether or not this is so in these days is a question to be determined by experience; but this is certain, if any preaching is followed after merely for its own sake, and if the effect is not found to be greater earnestness and devotion in the prayers, then it may be the fault of the preacher, or it may be the fault of the people, but there is a fault somewhere, the preacher has missed his aim, his arrows have flown wide of the mark. The same Holy Spirit who came down upon the Church upon the Day of Pentecost, and made the preaching of St. Peter effectual to the conversion of three thousand souls, is with the Church still; and if it is found that in these days many people listen to sermons and yet do not show forth in their lives such clear, practical, almost unmistakable marks of the preaching having touched their hearts, then there is a fault somewhere. It cannot be with God’s Holy Spirit; therefore it must needs lie between minister and people.

It is said about us Free Churchmen that we think a great deal too much of preaching and a great deal too little of the prayers of the congregation. That is a stock criticism. I am bound to say that there is a grain of truth in it, and that there is not, with too many of our congregations, as lofty a conception of the power and blessedness of the united prayers of the congregation as there ought to be, or else you would not hear about “introductory Services.” Introductory to what? Do we speak to God merely by way of preface to one of us talking to his brethren? Is that the proper order? “They continued steadfastly in the Apostles’ teaching” no doubt; but also “steadfastly in prayer.” 1 [Note: A. Maclaren.]

2. The Value of United Prayer. Can there be any one who has never felt how the sympathy of others multiplies joy and mitigates sorrow? and in the domain of religion this is doubly and trebly true. Prayer and meditation upon God come so reluctantly from my heart when I pray and meditate alone, but seem as if they were winged when hundreds begin to pray and sing along with me, and seal the same confession with one general Amen.

I often think of the negro woman who was once asked by the governor of Surinam why she and her fellows always prayed together. Could they not do it each one for himself? He happened to be standing at the time before a coal-fire, and the woman answered: “Dear sir, separate these coals from each other, and the fire will go out; but see how brisk the flame when they burn together.” From the mere circumstance that when in fellowship with others our hearts grow warm, we can easily understand what the Saviour means when He says, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” And again, “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.” This, says a devout man, is as when the whole children of a family take heart, and with one accord beseech the father for a boon. It is then far harder for him to refuse. 2 [Note: A Tholuck.]

Prayer is much weaker than its real self if many do not join in it. 3 [Note: St. Basil, Ep. 68.]

O grant me, Lord, that in my fight

With foes unseen by day and night,

Whether I watch, or praise, or pray,

Victor or vanquished, still I may

Know myself one of an unnumbered host,

Nor feel, like severed branch, my labour lost.

When singly I the foe provoke,

I fall beneath some sudden stroke

Aimed at my solitary head;

But if in compact rank arrayed,

I fight with millions at my side, no foe,

Whoe’er he be, has power to lay me low.

V

They Continued Steadfastly

1. Sudden conversions are not always lasting. Many causes besides enlightened conviction may bring about a change of view; and not the least powerful of those other causes is moral contagion. When a mass of men is moved deeply by impassioned eloquence, it is difficult even for a man of calm self-possession to retain the mastery of his emotions, and keep himself free from the influence of that strong sympathetic feeling which, like an electric current, runs through a crowd, and moves many souls, as the mighty rushing wind heaves and tosses the waves of the deep. And what is too often the sequel? Why, the utter absence of steadfastness in the doctrine of Christ. When the cause ceases, the effect disappears. The sympathy dies out for want of fresh Stimulus. Then all is dead. Like a house without a foundation, the assumed Christian profession may be swept away into utter and irretrievable ruin by the first tempest that beats upon it. It is like a human body whose spinal column has been materially damaged; artificial props and stays are necessary to shore it up and prevent its collapse. One test then of sincere adhesion to Christ is steadfast adherence to His doctrine or His teaching—a walk and conversation in accordance with His mind and His precepts.

I have sometimes heard of converts and workers at exciting revivals, who afterwards became limp and languid. When the missioner had departed, they felt like a wedding party when the bride and bridegroom have gone. When the huge choir was disbanded, the little chapel choir appeared so tame and commonplace, and worship indeed had come to its dregs! But here in the apostolic times the exciting day was over, the wonder had somewhat passed, but there was no perilous relapse. They continued in the same road, stepping out determinedly, continuing steadfast in the way of life. 1 [Note: J. H. Jowett.]

2. Steadfastness implies in particular two points. It implies definiteness and it implies diligence. It suggests either a definite standpoint and diligence to maintain it, or a definite aim and diligence to achieve it. Examples are plentiful to illustrate our meaning. The sentinel at Pompeii who remained firm at his post until the stream of lava engulfed him in its fiery embrace—he was steadfast. The soldiers on the ship Birkenhead who stood in their serried ranks on deck while the women and children got safely off in the boats, and who went down in unbroken order into their vast and wandering grave—they were steadfast. They had a definite standpoint, and they were diligent to maintain it. Nor are instances wanting of definiteness of aim and diligence to achieve it.

Perhaps one of the most striking is presented to us in the history of the famous Warren Hastings. Hastings, when but a boy, conceived a passionate longing to regain for his family the ancient home of his forefathers, Daylesford, which, owing to monetary losses, had passed into the hands of strangers. He was but a poor lad when first the desire seized his mind; but all through his long and chequered career this desire never left him, until towards the end of his life he accomplished his object, and purchased the ancestral home, where he ultimately died. 2 [Note: S. C. Lowry.]

Apostolic Christianity

Literature

Alexander (W.), Verbum Crucis, 147.

Arnold (T.), Sermons, ii. 24.

Bamford (J. M.), The Burning Heart, 151.

Davies (D.), Talks with Men, Women, and Children, iii. 610.

Fairbairn (R. B.), College Sermons, 264.

Gilmore (J. D.), The Church and its Privileges, 25.

Goodwin (H.), Parish Sermons, 3rd Ser., 242.

Henson (H. H.), Godly Union and Concord, 90.

Hort (F. J. A.), Judaistic Christianity, 39.

Maclaren (A.), Expositions of Holy Scripture: Acts, i. 79.

Martyn (H. J.), For Christ and the Truth, 168.

Mylne (R. S.), The True Ground of Faith, 57.

Reichel (C. P.), Cathedral and University Sermons, 185.

Talbot (E. S.), Some Titles and Aspects of the Eucharist, 75.

Tholuck (A.), Hours of Christian Devotion, 227.

Vaughan (C. J.), The Church of the First Days, 41.

Wilson (J. M.), Sermons in Clifton College Chapel, 2nd Ser., 21.

Christian World Pulpit, lvi. 145 (Scott Holland).

Contemporary Pulpit, 2nd Ser., ii. 257 (Alexander).

Examiner, 9th February 1905 (Jowett).

Plain Sermons by Contributors to Tracts for the Times, i. 295.