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There are three attitudes it is possible for us to assume towards our Maker and Savior. They are those of -

I. HOSTILITY. We may "be found even to fight against God." It is, indeed, as new as it is old for men to contend with God and to oppose themselves to those ends for which he is working.

1. Good men do so unwittingly; as when earnest and holy Catholics have persecuted Protestant men and women; as when devout Protestants have thrown obstacles in the way of their more energetic co-religionists who have been evangelizing in ways not considered legal and correct; as when we ignorantly misconstrue the sacred Scriptures, finding out, farther on, that those views we combated were in harmony with truth.

2. Bad men do so deliberately and guiltily:

(1) when they endeavor positively to overturn influences which they know to be holy and remedial;

(2) when they practically encourage that which they feel to be wrong and hurtful.

II. NEUTRALITY. We may take the position which Gamaliel advised with so much policy on this occasion: "Let these men alone" (ver. 38). When any sacred cause comes up before us, challenging our approval and asking our aid, we may determinately stand aloof, declining either to befriend it on the one hand or to withstand it on the other: we neither bless nor curse.

1. It is impossible to take a neutral position, upon the whole, in relation to Christ. "He that is not with him is against him," as he has said to us. Our influence is either telling in favor of his holy service, of Christian truth, of eternal life, or else against these sacred things.

2. It is possible that we may assume a neutrality toward particular institutions, usages, movements, habits; and this neutrality may be

(1) necessary, because we have not the means of arriving at a judgment at all;

(2) wise, because we have not yet had the opportunity of coming to an intelligent decision;

(3) culpable, because cowardly, selfish, unfaithful.

III. CO-OPERATION. (Vers. 40-42.) When they had beaten the apostles - an act of severe bodily castigation was a grim method of "letting them alone; it was probably a concession to the party of hostile action - they did let them go, with strict prohibitions in their ear. We are to be "co-workers with Christ," "workmen together with him;" and we shall become this by:

1. Speaking for Christ. "Daily in the temple.., they ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ" (ver. 42). In the Church, in the school, in the home, - anywhere, everywhere, we too may speak for him; uttering the truth which he has taught us to prize, more especially upholding him himself as the one great Teacher, almighty Savior, Divine Friend, and rightful Lord of the human soul.

2. Suffering for him. The apostles endured suffering and shame for his Name; they did so gladly, rejoicingly. We may be "counted worthy" to do the same. Many thousands of men, in heaven or on earth, have had this high honor (Matthew 5:10-12; 1 Peter 4:13). And if we are thoroughly true and unflinchingly faithful to our Lord, serving him to the full height of our opportunity, we shall surely

(1) suffer bodily inconveniences, fatigue, exhaustion, if not pain and sickness, for his sake;

(2) endure the dislike and ridicule, if not the blows and imprisonment, of the ungodly. In such ill treatment we shall find occasion for heavenly joy, as they did. - C.

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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.