And some believed, etc. The end of all preaching is practical faith. Not sentiment. Not mere intellectual change. Illustrate from those who listened to Paul. What faith involved to a Jew, to a heathen. The alternative, not indifference, not neutrality, but "disbelief" (Revised Version), exemplified in the opposition of Jews. Moral responsibility for faith, as seen in the light of the Old Testament view (vers. 26, 27). Resistance to the Spirit a moral perversion and hardening.

I. GOD'S SPIRIT WORKS BY MEANS OF HUMAN AGENCY.

1. The truth is presented to the heart, notwithstanding infirmities of method and manner.

2. The external ministration corresponds to the internal work of grace.

3. The essential point in all preaching is the presentation of an object of faith. Jesus.

II. THOSE WHO LISTEN TO THE WORD OF GOD ARE TRIED BY IT.

1. The broad distinction between acceptance and rejection of Christ. The heart which moves towards the Savior is changed.

2. No compromise in the final result, though hearts may deceive themselves. By faith we stand.

3. While there is the opportunity of hearing, there is hope of turning the unbelief into faith. God's people must never take it for granted that any are beyond reach. They hear not as they might hear.

4. The opportunity may be itself decisive. "Now is the accepted time." - R.

The passage from which the apostle quotes is Isaiah 6, where the prophet received a special commission and was forewarned that he would address his message to a hardened, unbelieving people — the effect of the message on the people's minds is described as if it were the express design of the message. It would be easy to adduce other examples, in which the prophets are said to do that which they predict. The passage is quoted —

1. In Matthew 13:14, to illustrate the design of the parabolic mode of instruction which the Saviour adopted. By this application of the passage we learn that it not merely foretold the unbelief of the Jews, but its judicial consequence. Slighted privileges were to be diminished. Despised instructions were to be rendered more obscure (cf. Mark 4:12; Luke 8:10).

2. In John 12:37-41, where the Jews having, disregarded the miracles of Christ it is said, "Therefore they could not believe, because Esaias had said again, He hath blinded their eyes." It cannot mean that the prediction prevented their believing; but that it could not have been falsified by fact. Yet the additional idea of judicial abandonment seems to be conveyed. Not merely is the message, in just retribution, obscure; but the unbelieving mind is left to its perversity, which is equivalent to judicial hardening.

3. In Romans 11:7, 8. There the unbelieving Jews are said to be "blinded"; and God is said to have "given them the spirit of slumber." Here we discover, also, the sentiment of judicial abandonment issuing in hardened unbelief. The text —

I. DESCRIBES THE CHARACTER OF SUCH AS ARE THE SUBJECTS OF JUDICIAL HARDNESS. Note —

1. The examples of this sad and guilty state Chat we may learn what are its characteristics.(1) Take —(a) The Israelites of the prophet's day. It was the lot of Isaiah to prophesy during the period of Israel's degeneracy. From the time of Solomon the worship of God had begun to be polluted by idolatry, which now had become prevalent. At this juncture Isaiah was raised up, but though his lips were touched with the living coal, his messages fell upon rebellious ears. Their hearts were hardened. The prophet retired, saying, "Who hath believed our report?" At length the threatened judgment came; idolatrous Judah was carried captive into Assyria.(b) Pass on to the times of Jesus. Kings and prophets desired to see His day, and died without the sight. How hallowed was His ministry! how privileged were His auditors! Who could hear Him, and not be convinced? Alas! even from Him the people turned away in hardened unbelief, and then they crucified Him.(c) Next came the apostles with their offer of a full salvation, but many believed not. Their prejudices were inveterate.(d) The spirit Of the ancient Jews has descended upon their descendants (2 Corinthians 3:14, 15; Romans 11:10).(2) After this examination of instances, we see the principal elements of judicial hardness. It is in one word — spiritual stupidity. While sufficiently perspicacious in regard to everything worldly, they were blind, and deaf, and insensible to Divine things. In characterising such a state of mind, I must point out —(a) Its perversity. Evidence might amount to demonstration; they would not believe.(b) Its prejudice. They scarcely deigned to examine, because they had already formed their conclusion.(c) Its wilfulness. Though the gleamings of conviction might glance on their minds they would not yield to it.(d) Its infatuation. That which had been long, repeatedly, and resolutely rejected seemed at last unworthy of a moment's investigation.(e) Its obstinate malignity.

2. Having, by an induction of Scripture instances, ascertained the elements of judicial hardness, we may now apply the test to living character.(1) Ignorance is one form of it. Not a few who attend an evangelical ministry find all its messages a parable. They are not obtuse in intellectual faculty, yet the gospel of Christ is to them an unintelligible mystery. You go to them determined that, at least, they shall not mistake your meaning, you speak to them as little children; but, after all, they know not whereof you affirm.(2) Error is another form. Scepticism is but a form of judicial hardness. The truth is distasteful; the mind, preoccupied with its own distaste, turns away from evidence, and eagerly seizes on difficulty and objection.(3) But the form which is most prevalent is the unbelief or insensibility of orthodoxy. Its subjects are persons who are not ignorant of the doctrines we preach, nor disposed to deny them. Yet they come and go at ease, whilst living without God in the world. Is not this a case of amazing stupidity? It is as if the dead should come forth from their graves, and clothe themselves anew in the habiliments of this world, and with eyes unclosed, and ears unstopped, should sit in this place, beholding and listening, yet uniting, with the recovery of sensation, a soulless insensibility to the purport of all which they should see and hear.

II. EXHIBITS THE RIGHTEOUS RETRIBUTION INVOLVED IN THE CASE OF JUDICIAL HARDNESS.

1. This will appear, when you observe how mercy, slighted, becomes the means of developing depravity. Had no prophet arisen in Judah, we might have mourned the seduction of the idolatrous tribes, rather than have denounced their criminality. When judgment at length descended upon them, no plea was left them, for ample warning had been given, and had tended but to demonstrate their perversity (2 Chronicles 36:14-16). When Jesus was upon earth the unbelief of the Jews demonstrated the hardness of their hearts and became an aggravation of guilt (John 15:22-24). When apostles conveyed the gospel to their countrymen, and they rejected the message, those heralds of mercy shook off the very dust of their feet as a witness against them (Luke 10:12). In every age the faithful ministers of Christ have to say, "We are the savour of death unto death," etc. (2 Corinthians 2:15, 16). Thus does mercy itself become the occasion of demonstrating depravity. It is not, however, the cause of that aggravated depravity, although it becomes the means of developing it. "For judgment," said the Saviour, "I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind." Their blindness was not, however, the effect of the light; the light was but the occasion of demonstrating it. It is thus that Jesus Himself expounds His own words (John 9:39, 41).

2. When mercy has thus been slighted and insulted it may be withdrawn; the hardened hearer may be removed beyond the sound of the gospel; and he that trifled with impression may be debarred of the means of impression. God may say to His minister, "Thou shalt be dumb," etc. (Ezekiel 3:26).

3. But the more ordinary course of Divine retribution is to leave the hardened heart to its own hardness. Hence, as the hardening of our nature is the consequence of Divine withdrawment, God is Himself said to harden the heart. And God has but to abandon us to ourselves, and then the most fearful characteristics will be developed. "My Spirit shall not always strive with man" (Genesis 6:3; 1 Thessalonians 5:19; Hebrews 10:29). The soul from which God has withdrawn is like the barren soil on which no rain descends, ever becoming more sterile; like the body from which life has passed, every day yielding more and more to corruption.

4. Under such a state the soul is becoming daily more meet for wrath. It is, in itself, the most fearful token of wrath ever to be experienced. It is death to the soul, the commencement of death eternal, even in this world. But the doom is not yet sealed. For the text —

III. CONSTITUTES AN ALARM CALCULATED TO AWAKEN FROM THE SLUMBERS OF JUDICIAL HARDNESS. The whole dispensation of Divine government towards us is a dispensation of mercy. Even the severest denunciations of wrath are uttered in merciful warning, and the flames of the pit are made a beacon to arrest our attention and awaken our alarms. When the prophet was sent to the people of Israel, it was that he might arouse them. After Jesus had wept over Jerusalem as lost He charged His disciples to begin their ministry at Jerusalem. When Paul described the hardness and abandonment of the Jews he did so that he "might save some of them" (Romans 11:14). And in the case of our text he called back the unbelieving Jews to say this one word, with the hope that the faithful warning he gave them might haply be the means of awakening them.

(J. Ely.)

At this moment when I am beginning to preach there are many persons dying. There is the last breath, the last sharp pang, the last sore struggle, and now they are dead. Let us follow the course their souls have taken; and think that, in this minute, some souls are entering heaven. Now, even now, some are enjoying the beatific vision of Christ. And at this moment also some who were living when I began to speak to you are now in woe, feeling for the first time what is meant by losing the soul. But why is it that this tremendous fact does not strike us more forcibly? If we saw one drowning man, that sight would disturb our waking hours and haunt our sleep. And why should it be, then, that the thought of a matter incomparably more striking and weighty should wake in us no feeling that will last? It is that hearing we can hear and not understand, and seeing we can see and not perceive. The monster evil of our fallen nature is this want of power to realise spiritual things. The misery is that we know such things are, but cannot make it seem as if they were. We know that Moses and the prophets are enough if men would but hear them; we know that Christ, lifted up from the earth, exerts a force that ought to draw all men to Him; yet men will not hear, and will not come, and will not be saved. And will nothing serve to waken men up from this sleep of ruin? Do not we sometimes think, like the rich man in woe, that if one went to them from the dead men would repent? Ah, but what could he tell them that they do not know already? It is no news that "the wicked shall be turned into hell," and that is the sum of what he could say. I shall point out some of the leading truths and realities in regard to which our souls are affected by this wretched dulness of perception.

I. THE CONSTANT PRESENCE AND INSPECTION OF GOD. Every man knows, and is ready to acknowledge, that God is everywhere, and therefore of course is here; but is there one man in a million who will venture to say he realises what is meant by this? Unless you feel the presence of God just as forcibly as if the flames of Sinai shone on your face, or the still small voice that spoke to Elijah fell thrilling on your ear, you are hearing without understanding, and seeing while you do not perceive. And if it be that even in this solemn place, and with all the advantage of having your thoughts specially directed to the subject your minds labour in vain to bring it home to them that God is here as much as you, how little realised must have been the thought that He was your constant Companion in the long hours of common life. Now, why should this be? If some dimly seen form, a being from another world, should haunt your steps, you think that that would be something whose presence you would feel as something real and true. And why, then, should it be, that the constant presence of the Infinite Spirit should be so often forgot, and so faintly felt when it is remembered best? A man whose blood would be chilled and his tongue palsied by even the suspicion of the presence of an apparition of a human being, hears us tell with absolutely no emotion how there is beside him forever the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible. And the only explanation is that to believe a thing and to realise it are wide as the poles asunder.

II. THE REALITY OF THE FUTURE LIFE. Almost every man will confess that all the millions who have lived on this earth are living yet; and that he him self, when he dies, will be only going into another world. But the vast majority of those who profess to believe all this do not realise it. Their conduct proves this. Very many live as if they were to live on earth forever. Think of the worldly prudent man who is content to wear away the best years of his life in constant toil and pinching privation, that he may surround his declining years with comfort. And think you that this prudent man would live on without making the least provision for life hereafter, if he really felt, what he professes to believe, that after-years in this world are not half so sure to come to him, as endless ages are in a state of being for which earthly riches make no provision? Or, think of the regardless sinner who goes on in the path of guilt and shame, though he has read of the worm that never dies and the fire that is never quenched, and though he never doubts that these things are somewhere. Yes, he believes it, but he does not feel it; he hears without understanding, and he sees without perceiving. For, if he could call up the black picture of the place of woe, would he live one hour more in the path which must lead thither?

III. A NEED OF A SAVING INTEREST IN CHRIST. This seems a simple thing. A man perishing for thirst knows thoroughly his need of that water which will quench it; and every sinful creature's need of the Saviour is just as pressing and as real. Ask any thoughtful professing Christian what it is he most needs. It requires no deliberation to answer such a question. Many firings are desirable, but one thing is needful; and that is a saving interest in Christ. Well, then, if a thing be truly felt to be the thing we most need, there are two consequences which will follow — the desire we feel for that thing so needful, and the exertion we put forth to gain it, will be incomparably greater than we ever felt or put forth in the case of anything else. Is all this so? Let me ask what you have been most earnestly desiring for the last few days? The thing you most need? If not, then you have not realised your need of the Saviour. If you feel that you are more anxious to get on in life, then you are not realising that need. Again, look back and consider what it is you have spent most pains on. Most of us have worked hard in our day. Did we work hardest to get the one thing needful? Or is it not rather true that we have spent the best part of our strength upon our worldly affairs; and given only jaded powers, and any odd scraps of time to doing that which we profess to believe is the great thing we have to do on earth?

(A. K. H. Boyd, D. D.)

Esaias, Isaiah, Paul, PubliusAlexandria, Forum of Appius, Jerusalem, Judea, Malta, Puteoli, Rhegium, Rome, Syracuse, Three TavernsCallous, Calloused, Close, Closed, Converted, Cure, Dull, Ears, Fat, Fear, Gross, Grown, Haply, Hardly, Heal, Hearing, Heart, Hearts, Heavily, Heavy, Lest, Mind, Minds, Otherwise, People's, Perceive, Prevent, Return, Scarcely, Seeing, Shut, Slow, Turn, Turning, Understand, Understanding, Waxed, Wise1. Paul, after his shipwreck, is kindly entertained on Malta.
5. The snake on his hand hurts him not.
8. He heals many diseases in the island.
11. They depart toward Rome.
17. He declares to the Jews the cause of his coming.
24. After his preaching some were persuaded, and some believed not.
30. Yet he preaches there two years.

Acts 28:27

     5016   heart, fallen and redeemed
     5149   eyes
     5885   indifference
     6178   hardness of heart
     6732   repentance
     8228   discernment, examples

Acts 28:17-31

     7703   apologetics

Acts 28:24-28

     7135   Israel, people of God

Acts 28:25-27

     3236   Holy Spirit, and Scripture
     5534   sleep, spiritual

Acts 28:25-28

     4824   famine, spiritual

Acts 28:26-27

     5135   blindness, spiritual
     8355   understanding

After the Wreck
'And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita. 2. And the barbarous people showed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold. 3. And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand. 4. And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

The Last Glimpse of Paul
'And it came to pass, that, after three days, Paul called the chief of the Jews together: and when they were come together, he said unto them, Men and brethren, though I have committed nothing against the people or customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans; 18. Who, when they had examined me, would have let me go, because there was no cause of death in me. 19. But when the Jews spake against it, I was constrained to appeal unto Caesar; not that …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

Paul in Rome
And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, 31. Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.' --ACTS xxviii. 30, 31. So ends this book. It stops rather than ends. Many reasons might be suggested for closing here. Probably the simplest is the best, that nothing more is said for nothing more had yet been done. Probably the book was written during these two years. …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

On Faith
"Without faith it is impossible to please him." Heb. 11:6. 1. But what is Faith? It is a divine "evidence and conviction of things not seen;" of things which are not seen now, whether they are visible or invisible in their own nature. Particularly, it is a divine evidence and conviction of God, and of the things of God. This is the most comprehensive definition of faith that ever was or can be given; as including every species of faith, from the lowest to the highest. And yet I do not remember any …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

Pastoral and Personal
FOURTH GROUP OF EPISTLES FIRST TIMOTHY. TITUS. SECOND TIMOTHY. THE PLACE OF THE EPISTLES +When Written.+--It is generally agreed among scholars that no place can be found for the writing of First Timothy, Titus, and Second Timothy in the period covered by Luke in his narrative in Acts. Agreeing with the tradition of the church, however, the opinion of many eminent scholars is that Paul was released from the first Roman imprisonment (Acts 28:16, 30), that he again took up his missionary work, and …
Henry T. Sell—Bible Studies in the Life of Paul

The Supremacy of Christ
THIRD GROUP OF EPISTLES COLOSSIANS. PHILEMON. EPHESIANS. PHILIPPIANS. THE QUESTION AT ISSUE +The Supremacy of Christ.+--These Epistles mark a new stage in the writings of Paul. The great question discussed in the second group of Epistles was in regard to the terms of salvation. The question now at issue (in Colossians, Ephesians, Philippian+The Reason for the Raising of this Question+ was the development of certain false religious beliefs among which were, "asceticism, the worship of angels, …
Henry T. Sell—Bible Studies in the Life of Paul

The Apostle's Position and Circumstances
PHILIPPIANS i. 12-20 Disloyal "brethren"--Interest of the paragraph--The victory of patience--The Praetorian sentinel--Separatism, and how it was met--St Paul's secret--His "earnest expectation"--"Christ magnified"--"In my body" St Paul has spoken his affectionate greeting to the Philippians, and has opened to them the warm depths of his friendship with them in the Lord. What he feels towards them "in the heart of Christ Jesus," what he prays for them in regard of the growth and fruit of their …
Handley C. G. Moule—Philippian Studies

The New Name of Methodism
Sunday, 9.--I declared to about ten thousand, in Moorfields, what they must do to be saved. My mother went with us, about five, to Kennington, where were supposed to be twenty thousand people. I again insisted on that foundation of all our hope, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved." From Kennington I went to a society at Lambeth. The house being filled, the rest stood in the garden. The deep attention they showed gave me a good hope that they will not all be forgetful hearers. Sunday, …
John Wesley—The Journal of John Wesley

Wesley in Wales
Monday, 15.--Upon a pressing invitation, some time since received, I set out for Wales. About four in the afternoon I preached on a little green at the foot of the Devauden (a high hill, two or three miles beyond Chepstow) to three or four hundred plain people on "Christ our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." After sermon, one who I trust is an old disciple of Christ, willingly received us into his house: whither many following, I showed them their need of a Saviour from these …
John Wesley—The Journal of John Wesley

The Theme of Acts
'The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach. 2. Until the day in which He was taken up.'--ACTS i. 1, 2. 'And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, 31. Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.' --ACTS xxviii. 30, 31. So begins and so ends this Book. I connect the commencement and the close, because I think …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

Lix. What was Learned in God's House. Isaiah vi.
NOT SEEN BY EVERYONE THERE.--Isaiah had his eyes opened. The same awful Person had been present before, but had not been seen, and He is still there, but how few of us are conscious of His presence. How differently the church and chapel-goers would look next Sunday morning as they come home, if only they realised what had been going on in the place where they had spent the last hour. I. A LESSON FROM HISTORY.--"In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord." The King of Judah was dead, but …
Thomas Champness—Broken Bread

The Church of Jerusalem and the Labors of Peter.
Su hei Petros, kai epi taute petra oikodomeso mou ten ekklesian, kai pulai hadou ou katischusousin autes.--Matt. 16:18. Literature. I. Genuine sources: Acts 2 to 12; Gal. 2; and two Epistles of Peter. Comp. the Commentaries on Acts, and the Petrine Epistles. Among the commentators of Peter's Epp. I mention Archbishop Leighton (in many editions, not critical, but devout and spiritual), Steiger (1832, translated by Fairbairn, 1836), John Brown (1849, 2 vols.), Wiesinger (1856 and 1862, in Olshausen's …
Philip Schaff—History of the Christian Church, Volume I

Quotations from the Old Testament in the New.
1. As it respects inspiration, and consequent infallible authority, the quotations of the New Testament stand on a level with the rest of the apostolic writings. The Saviour's promise was: "When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth;" literally, "into all the truth," that is, as immediately explained, all the truth pertaining to the Redeemer's person and work. When, therefore, after the fulfilment of this promise, Peter and the other apostles expounded to their brethren …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible

Chronology of the Apostolic Age.
See the works quoted in § 20 p. 193, 194, especially Wieseler. Comp. also, Hackett on Acts, pp. 22 to 30 (third ed.). The chronology of the apostolic age is partly certain, at least within a few years, partly conjectural: certain as to the principal events from a.d. 30 to 70, conjectural as to intervening points and the last thirty years of the first century. The sources are the New Testament (especially the Acts and the Pauline Epistles), Josephus, and the Roman historians. Josephus ( b. 37, …
Philip Schaff—History of the Christian Church, Volume I

Mission and Return of the Seventy.
(Probably in Judæa, October, a.d. 29.) ^C Luke X. 1-24. ^c 1 Now after these things the Lord appointed seventy others [i. e., other messengers in addition to the twelve apostles], and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself was about to come. [Luke has told us of the journey through Samaria to Jerusalem, and John has told us what occurred at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem. We learn from John also that Jesus was at the Feast of Dedication (John …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Ancient Versions of the Old Testament.
In the present chapter only those versions of the Old Testament are noticed which were made independently of the New. Versions of the whole Bible, made in the interest of Christianity, are considered in the following part. I. THE GREEK VERSION CALLED THE SEPTUAGINT. 1. This is worthy of special notice as the oldest existing version of the holy Scriptures, or any part of them, in any language; and also as the version which exerted a very large influence on the language and style of the New Testament; …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible

Preaching (iii. ).
Eternal Fulness, overflow to me Till I, Thy vessel, overflow for Thee; For sure the streams that make Thy garden grow Are never fed but by an overflow: Not till Thy prophets with Thyself run o'er Are Israel's watercourses full once more. Again I treat of the sermon. We have looked, my younger Brother and I, at some main secrets and prescriptions for attractive preaching. What shall I more say on the subject of the pulpit? In the first place I will offer a few miscellaneous suggestions, and then …
Handley C. G. Moule—To My Younger Brethren

Divine Healing.
The thirty-fifth chapter of Isaiah is a prophecy beautifully extolling the glories and virtues of Christ's redemptive works. "The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." "It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.... Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the …
Charles Ebert Orr—The Gospel Day

The Work of the Holy Spirit in Prophets and Apostles.
The work of the Holy Spirit in apostles and prophets is an entirely distinctive work. He imparts to apostles and prophets an especial gift for an especial purpose. We read in 1 Cor. xii. 4, 8-11, 28, 29, R. V., "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.... For to one is given through the Spirit wisdom; and to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit; to another faith, in the same Spirit; and to another gifts of healings, in the one Spirit; and to another workings …
R. A. Torrey—The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit

First Missionary Journey Scripture
STUDY III FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY Scripture, Acts 13:1-14:26 INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE MISSIONARY JOURNEYS Before taking up the study of the first missionary journey, attention is called to certain points which should be considered in regard to all three of them (Acts 13:1-21:17). We have now arrived at what we might call the watershed of the Acts of the Apostles. Hitherto we have had various scenes, characters, personages to consider. Henceforth Paul, his labors, his disputes, his speeches, occupy …
Henry T. Sell—Bible Studies in the Life of Paul

The Purpose in the Coming of Jesus.
God Spelling Himself out in Jesus: change in the original language--bother in spelling Jesus out--sticklers for the old forms--Jesus' new spelling of old words. Jesus is God following us up: God heart-broken--man's native air--bad choice affected man's will--the wrong lane--God following us up. The Early Eden Picture, Genesis 1:26-31. 2:7-25: unfallen man--like God--the breath of God in man--a spirit, infinite, eternal--love--holy--wise--sovereign over creation, Psalm 8:5-8--in his own will--summary--God's …
S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks about Jesus

Interpretation of Prophecy.
1. The scriptural idea of prophecy is widely removed from that of human foresight and presentiment. It is that of a revelation made by the Holy Spirit respecting the future, always in the interest of God's kingdom. It is no part of the plan of prophecy to gratify vain curiosity respecting "the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power." Acts 1:7. "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God"--this is its key-note. In its form it is carefully adapted to this great end. …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible

The Epistles of Paul.
1. The apostolic epistles are a natural sequence of the office and work committed by the Saviour to the apostles. They were the primitive preachers of the gospel, and, under Christ, the founders of the Christian church. From the necessity of the case they had a general supervision of all the local churches, and their authority in them was supreme in matters of both faith and practice. It was to be expected, therefore, that they should teach by writing, as well as by oral instruction. It does not …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible

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