Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

filled them with zeal and boldness and endu

rance.

The like qualities will be found, wherever a like sense of obligation is sincerely felt. There will be zeal and boldness in the cause of the gospel: there will be readiness to undergo any inconvenience which may arise. arise. And because this is a sure test of the state of the heart, the Lord has said, "Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words in this sinful and adulterous generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels."

[ocr errors]

LECTURE XV.

SEVEN DEACONS APPOINTED TO MANAGE THE TEMPORAL CONCERNS

COMMUNITY.-A. D. 33.

ACTS vi. 1-6.

OF THE

1. And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians1 against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.

4 Mark viii. 38.

1 By the Grecians are meant persons of Jewish birth, but settled in foreign countries, and only sojourners in Jerusalem, called Grecians, because in those countries the language of Greece was generally spoken.

2. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.

3. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost, and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.

4. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.

The body of Christians which had been formed in the manner described in the foregoing chapters, presented a singular case. There was a community who, together with their families, must have consisted of thirty or forty thousand persons, of whom a large proportion were without the regular support arising from ordinary business or labour. Some, we must suppose, had been deprived of this, directly or indirectly, in consequence of their conversion. The enmity with which they would be treated, as departing from the common faith, and acknowledging Jesus to be the Christ, would pursue them in their vocations, and ruin their worldly business. Others, like the apostles themselves, had abandoned their means of livelihood: their minds being wholly occupied with the interests of their new faith, or with the actual duties of extending it. For the support of these, we saw in the second and fourth chapters that a common fund was created by the liberality of others who had possessions. Acts ii. 44. "All that believed were to

9

5 See Hebrews x. 33, 34.

gether, and had all things common: and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need." Acts iv. 35. "As many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet; and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need."

The creation of such a fund, by the negotiations attending the sale of property; and, still more, the management of it afterwards, would be matter of no small difficulty. If out of all the baptized converts, only a thousand families applied for relief, there would be employment for more time than the apostles could spare. They must become servers of tables, keepers of accounts, instead of dispensers of the word of God.

Moreover, there arose a murmuring of the foreign Jews against the natives of Judea, as if their destitute families, and especially their widows or women, were neglected in the daily ministration. It is not probable that there was just ground for this complaint. It is far more likely that it arose out of those feelings of jealousy, which in nature are grievously predominant, and are hardly kept down by divine grace. Experience was sure to prove that such feelings would exist, when num

3 A xnpus, are manifestly destitute female relations. The christian widows, properly so called, could not yet be numerous. The word is used in the same sense in 1 Timothy v. 9.

bers were to be supplied out of a common fund, to which all had an equal claim.

There is at first sight something very pleasing in the thoughts of a community supplied as these first Christians were. How delightful, we are inclined there were 66 to say; none among them that lacked :" none who had more than their necessities required. What was superfluous to one family supplied what was deficient to another.

This, however, is a state of things which cannot last long in this world. He who ordained that man should "eat bread by the sweat of his brow," also ordained that every man should eat the bread of his own labour : should support, not his neighbour, but himself: should depend upon his own exertions, and enjoy his own possessions. It was only at Jerusalem, only at the first creation of the christian church, that this general rule was interrupted. No such practice prevailed, when new churches were gradually formed at Antioch, and Ephesus, and Philippi, and throughout the whole world. St. Paul speaks very vehemently on this point: saying, (1 Timothy v. 8,) "If any provide not for his own, especially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel."

There would, no doubt, be times, when a man could not provide for his own. And then another ordinance comes in, and supplies a remedy, "Look not every man on his own things, but every man

also on the things (the wants, the interests) of others." "Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate." "Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" 4 To seek out, and to assist, the proper objects, is the business of christian charity. And of such assistance on the one side, and dependence on the other, the result is, mutual good-will. The one party gives that which is his own; that which he denies himself to part with. The other receives that to which he has no elaim, except through the christian principles of his neighbour.

Here, however, at Jerusalem, was a common fund, to which all had an equal claim. And this event shows us the wisdom of the general ordinance, and the danger of annulling it. The multitude, who were so lately “of one heart and one soul," are now likely to be divided. Even their common faith and peculiar circumstances could not prevent a murmuring. Some thought that others obtained too much, and that they and their families were neglected.

For the present emergency, it was needful to maintain the system which had been begun. The apostles, however, provided, that as far as in them lay, there should be no reasonable cause of disPhilip. ii. 4. 1 Timothy vi. 17. 1 John iii. 17.

4

« ForrigeFortsett »