Acts 5:33-42 When they heard that, they were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them.… What would be thought of a doctor who, when called in to a suffering patient, should not at once prescribe the best and swiftest remedy without note or comment; but should proceed to discuss the comparative merits of homoeopathy and allopathy, with sly sarcastic glances at massage, hydropathy and faith-healing, then go on to describe, negatively, all the medicines which have been, or might be given; then positively to describe a remedy recently discovered by a young German doctor, saying he was not quite certain whether it would be effectual, but it was worth trying; that, in any case, with or without medicine, the patient would probably be cured, in this world or the next, and that in the course of a few years, such is the march of intellect in this enlightened age, a better remedy would, no doubt, be discovered? Equally foolish and wrong it is for a Christian minister, standing before a congregation, all suffering more or less from mental and moral disorders, doubts and fears, sins and sorrows, ignorance and self-deceit — all hungering and thirsting after righteousness, or. if not, the more needing a warm-hearted gospel of truth and love to awaken in them a sense of unrighteousness — to make the staple of his discourse a series of clever hair splitting of words with all the opinions of commentators (A B C to Z) who. had tried to find out (say) what St. Paul meant, perhaps winding up with the consolatory remark, that after all, it was not so much to be regretted that the true key to his meaning had been lost, as probably, if Paul had lived now, he would not only have used different words but held different opinions! Let us learn all that grammar and theology can put into our heads, but when we go into the pulpit we go not as grammarians, theologians, scientists, or philosophers, but as preachers to speak from the heart to the heart. Our people ask for bread, not flour and "water; for water, not oxygen and hydrogen. (R. Bruce, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: When they heard that, they were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them.WEB: But they, when they heard this, were cut to the heart, and determined to kill them. |
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