Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1897-02-12
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.
LESSON VII, FIRST QUARTER, INTER-
NATIONAL. SERIES, FEB. IA.


Verses, 20-32 - Golden Text, Acts v,
2O-Commentary by the Rev. ID. NJ.
Stearns.
II. "Then the high priest rose up, and
all they that were with him, and were fill
ed with indignation" The preceding
verses tell of multitudes coming to Jeru-
salem to be healed and they were healed,
every Que. 1t seems that blessing came
even from the shadow of Peter falling up
on them. Multitudes of men and women
believed and were added to the Lord, and
many signs and wonders were wrought by
| the hands of the apostles, but 1t was all
the work of the risen Christ through them
! by His Spirit. The same Christ lives to-
day, and the same Spirit Is in every believ
er, but where are the signs and wonders
to the glory of GodS Is it because belev-
ers do not live to honor Christ as the apos-
ties did?
| 49, And laid their hands on the apos-
ties and put them in the common prison.
The high priest and the Sadducees were
very religious people and professed to wor-
ship the one living and true God, yet they
thus manifested their anger against these
men because they honored Jesus Christ
risen from the dead and because of the
margin of verse II says they were filled
with envy, and there are still many reli-
gious people whose strange and seemingly
! hateful conduct to others can ~ accounted
for only on the ground of envy.
10. But the angel of the Lord by night
opened the prison doors and brought them
forth. " When the Lord wants his people
all night in prison, that is the place for
them to he, as in chapter iv, 3, but when
De wants them out of prison He has an
7els enough to minister to them, and one
angel has more power than all the soldiers
on earth, and prison doors or walls are
nothing to them.
20. $50, stand and speak In the temple
to the people all the words of this life. :"
The words of God are Spirit and life (John
vi, 63). Christ is life and apart from
Him is no life (Col iii, 4 l John V, 12).
If we have life in Christ, it is that we may
pass it on to others by holding forth the
word of life (Phil. H. lG). If we have the
bread of life and living water, it is that
we may pass on the same to those who
have them not. Five small loaves in the
hands of Christ fed over 5000 people. He
is the very same Jesus.
81 The apostles did as they were told
and taught the people in the temple. The
high priest, with the council and senate,
assembled in the morning and sent to the
prison to bring the prisoners 1t was evil
IDENTIFY something very important that
these men, Peter and John, should he dealt
with severely, and hence the calling to-
gether Of the whole senate as well as the
council, and now that they had them safe
ly in prison-as they suppOsed-was the
time to do something very decided.
%, 23. The prison shut safely, the keep
ers before the doors, but no prisoners in
the prison-this is what the officers came
and found and returned and told. The
rulers were taking counsel together against
the Lord and against His anointed, and
the Lord was having them in derision ops
ii, 2, ~.
"a. The high priest and chief priests
: doubted whereunto these things would
grow, and well they might, for if lame
people are made to walk and all manner
of sickness healed, and prison walls anC
faithful guards set at naught, the ruler!
may well ask, What next? We know
whereunto these things will grow-they
will keep growing until to Him every knee
shall bow, all kings fall down before Him
and all nations serve Him, and the king
dom and dominion under the whole heav
en- be given to the saints of the Most High
20, 26. Hearing from some one that til,
prisoners were teaching the people in TIN
temple, the captain and officers went an(
brought them without violence The SAM
power that took the apostles out of prison
and that sent the soldiers to the grount
when they came to take the Lord Jesus ii
Getbsemane might have arrested this cap
tain and his officers if the Lord had though
t best, but His plan for them now SCENE,
to be that they should quietly go with tn
officers Quiet submission to circum
stances, trusting God to arrange the cir
cumstances, is the way of peace for the be
lever. | find great help in this word, sd
as occasion serve thee, for God is wit
thee Il sam. Y, y.
%, rs. Being set before the council, tn
high priest accuses them of filling Jerusa
lem with their doctrine and making til
council guilty of the death of Christ, ant
this in spite of the command of tho coun
Gil to stop teaching in the name of Christ
There is no reference to their escape iron
prison, perhaps because they felt compelle
to acknowledge the hand of God in thi
and dared say nothing against it, perhap
for other reasons
20. "Then Peter and the other apostle
answered and said, We ought to obey Go
rather than men," In the presence of tn
council that put Christ to death they feaI
the will of God for them. They had pray
ed not for deliverance from their enemies
but for boldness in teaching whatever tn
result might be Chapter iy, 29-3D The
remind us of the friends of Daniel, who
with the fiery furnace before them feare
not to honor God and defy the king. TIL
fear of God delivers from all fear of men.
30. THE God of our fathers raised u
Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on
tree" The end of all their conversatio
as we'll as the beginning is Jesus Christ
- the same yesterday, today and foreve
(Heb xiii, Z, 81. They are not afraid t
insist upon the fact that the rulers of tn
Jews crucified Christ, and with trump
they assert that God raised Him from tn
dead.
81. Him hath God exalted with Hi
right hand to be a Prince and a Sayiou
for to give repentance to Israel and fol
=; giveness of sins. Humbled unto deaf
n- and cruciaed by His enemies, God raise
NJ Him from tho 6pad and c,ova Him u1or