Acts 17:25 Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he gives to all life, and breath, and all things; He giveth — I. "LIFE," and none but He, the Living One. It is a rill from the Fountain of Life. Growth and other qualities belong to plants, such as circulation of sap and respiration by their leaves; but life characterises man — with its voluntary and involuntary functions, its enjoyments and capabilities, its appetites and instincts, its operations on the world without it, and its conscious possession of its powers within it. Pleasure, glory, and usefulness are bound up with its prolongation. So sweet is it that few choose to part with it, and the cessation of it was regarded by the apostle's hearers as the direst of calamities. He who is our life confers and supports it in His ineffable goodness — for "man liveth not by bread alone." II. "BREATH," Which, as the condition and means of life, is, therefore, singled out. Even then the atmosphere was popularly valued as the first of necessary gifts, and, when scientifically examined, its preciousness is not only confirmed, but it becomes a powerful proof of Divine unceasing goodness. For the air we breathe is endowed with many qualities, the loss or disturbance of which must be fatal to life. If it lose its gravity, or if its elasticity be changed or become changeable; if it thicken, and darken, and cease to be an invisible medium; if it be deprived of its compressibility, or if any amount of cold could condense it; if the gases composing it were to vary in their proportions: or if it were not universally present, and what is vitiated by respiration purified and restored — animal existence would be extinguished on the face of the earth. III. And His bounty is immense, for He giveth "ALL THINGS." Whatever we have He has given us — the food on our table, and the raiment on our persons, with ability to win them and health to enjoy them. Nor let any man boast of being the architect of his own fortune; for the materials out of which he builds it, the skill with which he constructs it, and the propitious season which enables him to rear it without pause or discomfiture — are each of them the gift of the one sovereign Benefactor. Discovery, invention, science, art, adventure, commercial shrewdness, literary power, mechanical skill, and political success; the sharp eye that is first to perceive the "tide in the affairs of men"; and the wary enterprise that launches the vessel upon it — are not self-originated. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights." (Prof. Eadie.) Parallel Verses KJV: Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; |
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