Acts 7:38
He was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. And he received living words to pass on to us.
Sermons
Living OracleBp. Lightfoot.Acts 7:38
The Bible -- its Life OrganicA. Saphir, D. D.Acts 7:38
The Bible -- its Living FreshnessC. H. Spurgeon.Acts 7:38
The Excellence of the ScripturesJ. Lathrop, D. D.Acts 7:38
The Law of God, a Living WordK. Gerok.Acts 7:38
St. Stephen's DefenceG. T. Sokes, D. D.Acts 7:1-53
Stephen's Address in the SanhedrimR.A. Redford Acts 7:1-53
Stephen's Answers to the Charge of Blasphemy Against GodG. V. Lechler, D. D.Acts 7:1-53
Stephen's DefenceDean Alford.Acts 7:1-53
Stephen's DefenceD. Thomas, D. D.Acts 7:1-53
Stephen's TestimonyW. Arnot, D. D.Acts 7:1-53
The Defence of StephenJ. Parker, D. D.Acts 7:1-53
The Earliest Appearance of God to AbrahamBp. Jacobsen.Acts 7:1-53
The High Priest and His QuestionBp. Jacobson.Acts 7:1-53
The Recital of a Nation's Spiritual PedigreeP.C. Barker Acts 7:1-53
Stephen's DefenseR. Tuck Acts 7:2-53
The Divine and the HumanW. Clarkson Acts 7:20-39
Beauty a Divine TalentDr. Wogan.Acts 7:20-43
Beauty, its CriterionLord Greville.Acts 7:20-43
Human Learning Recommended from the Example of MosesW. Berriman, D. D.Acts 7:20-43
Moses and ChristK. Gerok.Acts 7:20-43
Moses' BeautyActs 7:20-43
Moses' EducationF. W. Robertson, M. A.Acts 7:20-43
Moses, a Man of God and a Man of the PeopleK. Gerok.Acts 7:20-43
Moses, a Pattern of God's Chosen InstrumentsK. Gerok.Acts 7:20-43
Moses, a True ReformerK. Gerok.Acts 7:20-43
ProvidenceK. Gerok.Acts 7:20-43
The Training of MosesK. Gerok.Acts 7:20-43
Virtue Necessary to BeautyActs 7:20-43
Moses, and Israel's Bearing Towards Him: a Figure of ChristE. Johnson Acts 7:35-43














The reference is to Deuteronomy 18:18, and, as introduction, the difficulties which Moses found in executing his mission may be vividly described. In Stephen's day it was the fashion to exalt Moses and the Mosaic system, but this was done in forgetfulness of the facts connected with Moses' career. Again and again his leadership was refused. The stiff-neckedness and unspirituality of the people tried him very sorely; once, to so great an extent, that he spake unadvisedly with his lips, and threw down the tables of the Law. This Moses, in whom now they trusted, they were not really willing to heed, any more than their fathers had been; for Moses had himself prophesied of the Messiah, and any one who chose could make the comparison between Moses and Jesus of Nazareth, and see that the one answered to the other just as the great lawgiver had indicated. Some of the points of similarity between Moses and Messiah may be considered and illustrated.

I. EACH HAD A DIVINE CALL. Both in childhood: Moses in his mysterious preservation; Messiah in his mysterious birth. Both in early manhood (each early relatively to the age they lived): Moses in the vision of the flaming bush; Messiah in the dove-vision and heavenly voice at his baptism.

II. EACH HAD A SPECIAL PREPARATION. Moses in the experience of the Egyptian court and in the solitudes of Horeb; Messiah in the experiences of the carpenter's house at Nazareth, and in the temptations of the Jordan desert.

III. EACH FOUNDED A DISPENSATION. Moses, one which was both an advance and a decline from the older patristic dispensation; an advance as a fuller revelation of God's will, and a decline as imprisoning spiritual truth, for a time and purpose, in stiff religious rites and ceremonies. Messiah, one which was in every way an advance, liberating men from all ritual bonds, and bringing to open hearts the fuller revelations of the Father.

IV. EACH WAS A NEW SPIRITUAL FORCE. As bringing God near to men; exhibiting afresh his claims, and revealing himself. Every man who sees God thereby becomes a power on his fellows. Moses, in a surprising manner, saw God on Sinai; and with his vision there may be compared our Lord's vision on the Mount of Transfiguration.

V. EACH WAS A TEACHER. Precisely of that which man could not gain by any studies and inquiries of his own. Both were

(1) moral teachers;

(2) religious teachers;

(3) teachers of a specific Divine truth;

(4) each enabled, by the power of miracle, to attest their teaching claims.

VI. EACH CLAIMED A HEARING ON DIVINE AUTHORITY. Moses made it continually known that God sent him and God spake by him. Messiah made it fully known that he did not speak of himself, but the words which the Father gave him he gave forth to men. This claim, based on Divine authority, Stephen presses on the attention of the Sanhedrim, urging that it makes their rejection of Christ positively criminal.

VII. EACH WERE REJECTED BY THEIR OWN GENERATION. See ver. 35 and compare the rejection of Messiah. Impress that the many-sided and abundant proofs that Jesus is indeed the Christ, the Son of God, and the Savior, bring his personal claims closely home to us, and make great indeed the guilt of our rejecting him. "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" - R.T.

This is he... who received the lively oracles to give unto us.
Whatever sense "lively" (A.V.) may once have had, it can only now mislead: it is limited to certain special characteristics of life; "living" (R.V.) implies life in itself, life as a principle, life with all its manifold issues. The one is particular, the other is comprehensive. What more striking illustration could we have of this life, this vitality, than the great Bible Society, comprising members of many countries and churches, dispensing an income of more than £200,000 a year, dependent on gratuitous support, and bringing no gain to its members, concentrating all its energies and absorbing all its resources on the reproduction and the dissemination of one single Book — a Book, too, of which the latest page is some eighteen centuries old; claiming to have distributed already between ninety and a hundred million copies, and at this moment distributing year by year close upon three million of its volumes, whole or in part, in well-nigh every spoken language of the globe; however you may look at it this is a fact, to which the long roll of history presents not the faintest parallel. And yet this society does not stand alone. It is the handmaid of almost all the missionary associations throughout the world, to whatever church or whatever country they belong.

I. LIFE INVOLVES GROWTH; growth is at once a characteristic and an evidence of life. We speak of life in a plant or tree, because it puts forth leaves and flowers and throws out fresh branches. We do not speak of a crystal as living. A crystal may be a very beautiful thing, but one thing it wants — Life. This figure fitly describes the Bible as contrasted with other sacred books. It did not come into being all at once; it was not the product of one mind or age; it is not a book, but a library; it is legislation, chronicles, poetry, philosophy, epistolography, allegory, romance, apocalyptic. It spreads over some thousands of years; it traverses the history of the race from the earliest dawn to the full noon-day of an elaborate civilisation. It was not written in any one place; Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, all contribute. Now we find ourselves wandering with nomadic tribes over lonely pastures beneath the starry sky; now we are dazzled by all the splendid surroundings of an Oriental despot's court; now we are lodged in some humble peasant household, and now we stand face to face with the majesty and the insignia of the imperial law. Sea and land, mountain, field and forest, crowded city and trackless desert, each in its turn furnishes a theme for this ever-shifting drama. All the vicissitudes of human life, poverty, and wealth, mourning and joy, the marriage and the funeral, the secret communings of the individual soul, and the tumultuous activity of public life — all contribute their quota to its incidents.

II. LIFE INVOLVES UNITY — a unity underlying the various devolopment. There must be some principle of life from which all the growth is evolved, which stamps its character on all the parts, which secures the harmony and coherence of the whole. We speak of the germ in the plant, of the soul in the man. So it is with the Bible. Amidst all these marvellous diversities of time, place, condition, form, subject-matter, there is a principle of unity which is also the principle of life. This unity is quite as real in the different parts of the Bible as in the different; parts of a plant, or in the different ages of man. The first chapter of Genesis finds its natural and appropriate climax in the last chapter of Revelation, while all the intermediate parts have their proper place in the sequence written though they were long centuries apart and gathered together we hardly know when and we cannot say how; the New Testament latent in the Old, the Old Testament patent in the New. Its fame can never grow old or out of date. And this principle of life, this animated soul — what is it but the Eternal Word speaking through lawgiver and captain and priest and prophet and king, speaking in the continuous history of a nation and in the chequered but unbroken light of the Church until at length He became incarnate in the man Christ Jesus. The many modes and the many parts of the Divine revelation were harmonised, explained, completed when in the last days God spoke through His Son. Contrast this infinite variety, these worldwide interests and associations with the monotony of other great books. The Koran is Arabian, the Vedas are Indian, the Zendavesta is Persian, the Bible alone is cosmopolitan. Other books for the most part have a oneness of treatment, of subject-matter, even of style. They are like the statue fused in a mould; it may have a beauty of its own, but it is rigid; it has no movement and no life, and the purpose served by all this is that life speaks to life. As a living thing the Bible appeals to the mind, affections, historical instincts, domestic sympathies, political aspirations. It arrests first that it may instruct afterwards. And here in this intimate union of intensely human sympathies and interests with intensely Divine teaching, this close alliance of heaven and earth, the Bible ever is a type, a reflection, a counterpart of the Incarnation itself. In the Bible God stoops to man, in the Incarnation God becomes man. Thus the Incarnation is the ultimate satisfaction of all religious craving and the final goal of all religious history, beyond which no other step is possible or conceivable.

III. LIFE INVOLVES STRUGGLE. The Scriptures have proved themselves as living oracles by the controversies which they excite and the antipathies which they provoke. Is it not an eloquent fact that in the early persecutions, pre-eminently in the last and fiercest of all, the main object of attack was the sacred writings; that the foes of the gospel were ready enough to spare the lives of men if only they might take the life of the Book; that those were branded by their fellow-Christians with the name of traitor, not who had surrendered a human being, whether leader or confederate or friend, but who had betrayed the Book into the hands of the destroyer? Aye, these heathen persecutors were wise in their generation; they felt instinctively that these Scriptures were living things; that they were active and aggressive; that, as Luther said of St. Paul's Epistles, "They have hands and feet — hands to grasp and feet to march; therefore they must be killed; they must be hurried out of sight." Was Milton so far wrong after all when he said that one who killed a good book is worse than a homicide; for, striking at the very breath of reason, he slays an immortality rather than a life? And as it was with the Greek Bible in the days of Diocletian, so was it also with the English Bible in the days of Henry. What a testimony to its living power is the record of its early days when that great man, who has won for himself an undying name, not only in English Christianity, but in English literature also, an outlaw and a wanderer in a foregin land, fled from city to city, carrying with him the half-translated texts, the half-printed sheets of his new version, the parent of our English Bible of to-day! Can we reflect without the deepest thanksgiving on this magnificent irony of the Divine goodness that within a stone's-throw of the place where the gentle, tender-hearted, reasonable Tunstall committed to the flames the first issue of Tyndale's New Testament as a thing to be abhorred and detested by all faithful Christian people, his latest successor in the see of Durham is able this day to congratulate a large, powerful, and wealthy society on its distributing within a single year no less than one million and a half copies of the English Bible, whole or in parts?

(Bp. Lightfoot.)

I. IN ITSELF it is living — an efflux of the living God; and was thus for man, in a state of innocence, a lawgiving life, not killing and oppressing, but regulating and forming.

II. IN A STATE OF SIN it indeed at first proves itself as killing; it reveals spiritual death and threatens eternal; but even then it is not dead, but living, otherwise it could not as a fire burn in the hearts of sinners, and as a sword pierce them; and also it there operates to life, awakening the conscience and pointing to Him whose Word gives life.

III. IN A STATE OF GRACE it is not dead and abolished, but objectively in Christ, the Revealer and Fulfiller of the law, it has become living and embodied; and subjectively by the Holy Ghost it is employed as a motive of life, and as a power of sanctification in the heart and life of the believer.

(K. Gerok.)

I heard a gentleman say yesterday that he could walk any number of miles when the scenery was good; but, he added, "When it is flat and uninteresting, how one tires!" What scenery it is through which the Christian man walks — the towering mountains of predestination, the great sea of providence, the mighty cliffs of Divine promise, the green fields of Divine grace, the river that makes glad the city of God — oh, what scenery surrounds the Christian, and what fresh discoveries he makes at every step! The Bible is always a new book. If you want a novel, read your Bible; it is always new; there is not a stale page in the Word of Goal; it is just as fresh as though the ink were not yet dry, but had flowed to-day from the pea of inspiration. There have been poets whose sayings startled all England when first their verses were thrown broadcast over the land, but nobody reads their writings now; yet the pages that were written by David and by Paul are glowing with the radiant glory which was upon them when long ago the Holy Spirit spake by them.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

If the Bible were like a collection of stones, we might select some and put aside others, as less valuable and beautiful; and although in such selection we might make great mistakes, we should still be in possession of something more or less complete. But the Bible is like a plant, and all its parts are not mechanically or accidentally connected, but organically united, and hence a law of life rules here; and he who reveres life will neither add nor take away from the beautiful plant which the Father hath planted in and through Christ by the Spirit... Nobody asserts that a man would be killed if you cut off his hair and his nails. But there is a vital union of all his members. If you cut off my little finger I shall survive it; but it is my little finger you cut off, and it is a loss, a disfigurement. So with the Bible. It is not like a piece of cloth that you can clip and cut. It is a body, animated by one Spirit.

(A. Saphir, D. D.)

I. THE EXCELLENCE OF THE SCRIPTURES.

1. They are lively oracles so called —(1) In contradistinction to heathen oracles which proceeded from the pretended responses of senseless idols or departed spirits under the artful management of impostors. The Bible is the voice of the living and true God.(2) Because they instruct men in the way of life.(3) The Scriptures of both Testaments are called by this name because they are the means by which God communicates the knowledge of His will and of the way of salvation.

2. If we consider the sacred volume merely as history it is the most complete, entertaining, and instructive ever written. We have a view of the world from its creation to its final dissolution.

3. How grand, solemn, and interesting are its doctrines.

4. It exhibits the most correct view of human nature.

5. It prescribes the most excellent precepts and rules of life.

(1)It proposes the purest motives to virtue.

(2)It teaches the noblest virtues in the sublimest exercises.

(3)It furnishes the best defence against temptation, and the sweetest consolation in affliction.

(4)It has instituted the most excellent means of moral improvement in the order and discipline of the Church.

6. It gives us affecting illustrations of God's attributes and providence in His various dealings toward the children of men.

II. WE ARE BOUND TO CONVEY THE SCRIPTURES TO SUCCEEDING generations (Deuteronomy 4:5; Deuteronomy 6:7; Psalm 78:1).

1. If the Scriptures are of such importance to ourselves they are equally so to our children.

2. Their excellence demonstrates our obligation to transmit them.

3. If we regard the temporal much more ought we to regard the eternal happiness of posterity. The former is promoted, the latter essential depends on the knowledge of the Scriptures.

4. That we may transmit them

(1)We must make a pious use of them ourselves: family worship.

(2)Have them read in our schools.

(3)Take care never to treat them with disrespect.

(4)Never allow our children to read books which treat them with ridicule.

(5)Maintain the preaching of the Word.

(6)Show our belief in and reverence for the Bible by that holy and blameless life it requires.

(J. Lathrop, D. D.)

People
Aaron, David, Egyptians, Emmor, Hamor, Haran, Isaac, Israelites, Jacob, Joseph, Joshua, Molech, Pharaoh, Saul, Solomon, Stephen, Sychem
Places
Babylon, Canaan, Egypt, Haran, Jerusalem, Mesopotamia, Midian, Mount Sinai, Red Sea, Shechem
Topics
Angel, Assembly, Church, Congregation, Desert, Ever-living, Fathers, Forefathers, Lively, Messenger, Mount, Oracles, Pass, Receive, Received, Sina, Sinai, Spake, Speaking, Spoke, Talking, Utterances, Waste, Wilderness
Outline
1. Stephen, permitted to answer to the accusation of blasphemy,
2. shows that Abraham worshipped God rightly, and how God chose the fathers,
20. before Moses was born, and before the tabernacle and temple were built;
37. that Moses himself witnessed of Christ;
44. and that all outward ceremonies were ordained to last but for a time;
51. reprehending their rebellion, and murdering of Christ, whom the prophets foretold.
54. Whereupon they stone Stephen to death,
59. who commends his soul to Jesus, and humbly prays for them.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Acts 7:38

     4111   angels, servants
     5103   Moses, significance

Acts 7:36-39

     7223   exodus, significance

Acts 7:37-38

     4269   Sinai, Mount

Acts 7:37-41

     8840   unfaithfulness, to God

Library
Stephen's vision
'Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God'--ACTS vii. 56. I. The vision of the Son of Man, or the abiding manhood of Jesus. Stephen's Greek name, and his belonging to the Hellenistic part of the Church, make it probable that he had never seen Jesus during His earthly life. If so, how beautiful that he should thus see and recognise Him! How significant, in any case, is it he should instinctively have taken on his lips that name, 'the Son of Man,' to designate
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

The Young Saul and the Aged Paul [Footnote: to the Young. ]
'...the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.'--ACTS vii. 58. '...Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.' --PHILEMON 9. A far greater difference than that which was measured by years separated the young Saul from the aged Paul. By years, indeed, the difference was, perhaps, not so great as the words might suggest, for Jewish usage extended the term of youth farther than we do, and began age sooner. No doubt, too, Paul's life had aged him fast,
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

The Death of the Master and the Death of the Servant
'And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. 60. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And, when he had said this, he fell asleep.'--ACTS vii. 59, 60. This is the only narrative in the New Testament of a Christian martyrdom or death. As a rule, Scripture is supremely indifferent to what becomes of the people with whom it is for a time concerned. As long as the man is the organ of the divine Spirit he is
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

The Prayer of Stephen.
(Fifth Sunday after Trinity, 1832.) TEXT: ACTS vii. 60. "And Stephen kneeled down and cried with, a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep." FREE and unrestricted as we are in our church as to our choice of subjects for meditation from the treasuries of the divine Word, many of you may still perhaps wonder why I have selected this passage. For you are aware that I have often lately taken occasion to express the opinion that the state of things
Friedrich Schleiermacher—Selected Sermons of Schleiermacher

Our Lord Appears after his Ascension.
^F I. Cor. XV. 8. ^f 8 and last of all, as to the child untimely born, he appeared to me also. [Since Paul reckons this among the bodily appearances of our Lord, we have included it in our work; but it borders upon those spiritual appearances which belong rather to apostolic history and may be classed with the vision of Stephen (Acts vii. 55) and John (Rev. i. 9-17), to which it was near kin. Accounts of the appearance will be found in the ninth, twenty-second and twenty-sixth chapters of Acts. For
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Letter iv. You Reply to the Conclusion of My Letter: "What have we to do with Routiniers?...
My dear friend, You reply to the conclusion of my Letter: "What have we to do with routiniers? Quid mihi cum homunculis putata putide reputantibus? Let nothings count for nothing, and the dead bury the dead! Who but such ever understood the tenet in this sense?" In what sense then, I rejoin, do others understand it? If, with exception of the passages already excepted, namely, the recorded words of God--concerning which no Christian can have doubt or scruple,--the tenet in this sense be inapplicable
Samuel Taylor Coleridge—Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit etc

St. Stephen's Day and Stephen, Full of Faith and Power, did Great Wonders and Miracles among the People. . . . Then they Stirred up the People. . . . And Caught Him, and Set up False Witnesses against Him.
And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. . . . Then they stirred up the people. . . . and caught him, and set up false witnesses against him. Verzage nicht du Haüflein klein [52]Altenburg Gustavus Adolphus' Battle-song. 1631. trans. by Catherine Winkworth, 1855 Fear not, O little flock, the foe Who madly seeks your overthrow, Dread not his rage and power: What though your courage sometimes faints, His seeming triumph o'er God's saints Lasts but
Catherine Winkworth—Lyra Germanica: The Christian Year

The Death of Stephen. Acts 7:54-60

John Newton—Olney Hymns

Whether in Christ There was the Gift of Prophecy?
Objection 1: It would seem that in Christ there was not the gift of prophecy. For prophecy implies a certain obscure and imperfect knowledge, according to Num. 12:6: "If there be among you a prophet of the Lord, I will appear to him in a vision, or I will speak to him in a dream." But Christ had full and unveiled knowledge, much more than Moses, of whom it is subjoined that "plainly and not by riddles and figures doth he see God" (Num. 6:8). Therefore we ought not to admit prophecy in Christ. Objection
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether those who are not Practiced in Keeping the Commandments Should Enter Religion?
Objection 1: It would seem that none should enter religion but those who are practiced in the observance of the commandments. For our Lord gave the counsel of perfection to the young man who said that he had kept the commandments "from his youth." Now all religious orders originate from Christ. Therefore it would seem that none should be allowed to enter religion but those who are practiced in the observance of the commandments. Objection 2: Further, Gregory says (Hom. xv in Ezech., and Moral. xxii):
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether the Old Law was Given through the Angels?
Objection 1: It seems that the Old Law was not given through the angels, but immediately by God. For an angel means a "messenger"; so that the word "angel" denotes ministry, not lordship, according to Ps. 102:20,21: "Bless the Lord, all ye His Angels . . . you ministers of His." But the Old Law is related to have been given by the Lord: for it is written (Ex. 20:1): "And the Lord spoke . . . these words," and further on: "I am the Lord Thy God." Moreover the same expression is often repeated in Exodus,
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether Christ's Birth Should have Been Manifested by Means of the Angels and the Star?
Objection 1: It would seem that Christ's birth should not have been manifested by means of the angels. For angels are spiritual substances, according to Ps. 103:4: "Who maketh His [Vulg.: 'makest Thy'] angels, spirits." But Christ's birth was in the flesh, and not in His spiritual substance. Therefore it should not have been manifested by means of angels. Objection 2: Further, the righteous are more akin to the angels than to any other, according to Ps. 33:8: "The angel of the Lord shall encamp round
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether it is Fitting that Christ Should Sit at the Right Hand of God the Father?
Objection 1: It would seem unfitting that Christ should sit at the right hand of God the Father. For right and left are differences of bodily position. But nothing corporeal can be applied to God, since "God is a spirit," as we read in Jn. 4:24. Therefore it seems that Christ does not sit at the right hand of the Father. Objection 2: Further, if anyone sits at another's right hand, then the latter is seated on his left. Consequently, if Christ sits at the right hand of the Father, it follows that
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether Judgment is Rendered Perverse by Being Usurped?
Objection 1: It would seem that judgment is not rendered perverse by being usurped. For justice is rectitude in matters of action. Now truth is not impaired, no matter who tells it, but it may suffer from the person who ought to accept it. Therefore again justice loses nothing, no matter who declares what is just, and this is what is meant by judgment. Objection 2: Further, it belongs to judgment to punish sins. Now it is related to the praise of some that they punished sins without having authority
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

In Process of Tithe, that is to Say, in the Tenth Generation after the Flood...
In process of tithe, that is to say, in the tenth generation after the Flood, Abraham appeared, [120] seeking for the God who by the blessing of his ancestor was due and proper to him. [121] And when, urged by the eagerness of his spirit, he went all about the world, searching where God is, and failed to find out; God took pity on him who alone was silently seeking Him; and He appeared unto Abraham, making Himself known by the Word, as by a beam of light. For He spake with him from heaven, and said
Irenæus—The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching

And Jacob, when He Went into Mesopotamia, Saw Him in a Dream...
And Jacob, when he went into Mesopotamia, saw Him in a dream, standing upon the ladder , that is the tree which was set up from earth to heaven; [172] for thereby they that believe on Him go up to the heavens. For His sufferings are our ascension on high. And all such visions point to the Son of God, speaking with men and being in their midst. For it was not the Father of all, who is not seen by the world, the Maker of all who has said: Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will
Irenæus—The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching

The Law Given, not to Retain a People for Itself, but to Keep Alive the Hope of Salvation in Christ Until his Advent.
1. The whole system of religion delivered by the hand of Moses, in many ways pointed to Christ. This exemplified in the case of sacrifices, ablutions, and an endless series of ceremonies. This proved, 1. By the declared purpose of God; 2. By the nature of the ceremonies themselves; 3. From the nature of God; 4. From the grace offered to the Jews; 5. From the consecration of the priests. 2. Proof continued. 6. From a consideration of the kingdom erected in the family of David. 7. From the end of the
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Wisdom and Revelation.
"Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness
W. H. Griffith Thomas—The Prayers of St. Paul

As God in his Word Enjoins Common Prayer, So Public Temples are the Places Destined...
As God in his word enjoins common prayer, so public temples are the places destined for the performance of them, and hence those who refuse to join with the people of God in this observance have no ground for the pretext, that they enter their chamber in order that they may obey the command of the Lord. For he who promises to grant whatsoever two or three assembled in his name shall ask (Matth. 18:20), declares, that he by no means despises the prayers which are publicly offered up, provided there
John Calvin—Of Prayer--A Perpetual Exercise of Faith

A Glorious vision.
THE Epistle to the Hebrews, this profound and blessed portion of the Holy Scriptures, unfolds a most wonderful vision of the Person, the Glory and the great Redemption work of our adorable Lord. The portion of the Epistle which is the richest in this respect is the Second Chapter. Here is a vista for the eyes of faith which is sublime. Our Lord in His Person, in His humiliation and exaltation, in His suffering and glory, stands out in a way which makes the believing heart rejoice with joy unspeakable
Arno Gaebelein—The Lord of Glory

It Follows in the Creed, "And in the Holy Ghost. ...
13. It follows in the Creed, "And in the Holy Ghost." This Trinity, one God, one nature, one substance, one power; highest equality, no division, no diversity, perpetual dearness of love. [1795] Would ye know the Holy Ghost, that He is God? Be baptized, and ye will be His temple. The Apostle says, "Know ye not that your bodies are the temple within you of the Holy Ghost, Whom ye have of God?" [1796] A temple is for God: thus also Solomon, king and prophet, was bidden to build a temple for God. If
St. Augustine—On the Creeds

The Secret of Its Greatness
[Illustration: (drop cap G) The Great Pyramid] God always chooses the right kind of people to do His work. Not only so, He always gives to those whom He chooses just the sort of life which will best prepare them for the work He will one day call them to do. That is why God put it into the heart of Pharaoh's daughter to bring up Moses as her own son in the Egyptian palace. The most important part of Moses' training was that his heart should be right with God, and therefore he was allowed to remain
Mildred Duff—The Bible in its Making

From Egypt to Sinai.
Ex. Chs. 1-19 Israel in Egypt. The length of time the Hebrews remained In Egypt is a perplexing question. Exodus 6:16-20 makes Moses the fourth generation from Levi (See Gen. 15:16; Num. 26:57-59). This would make it about 150 years. Gen. 15:13 predicts 400 years. Ex. 12:40 says they were there 430 years and Paul (Gal. 3:17) says 430 years from Abraham to Sinai. These apparently conflicting dates may be explained because of different methods of counting generations, probably based on long lives of
Josiah Blake Tidwell—The Bible Period by Period

The Son of Man
"The Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins." MARK 2:10 (R.V.) WHEN asserting His power to forgive sins, Jesus, for the first time in our Gospel, called Himself the Son of man. It is a remarkable phrase. The profound reverence which He from the first inspired, restrained all other lips from using it, save only when the first martyr felt such a rush of sympathy from above poured into his soul, that the thought of Christ's humanity was more moving than that of His deity. So too it is then alone
G. A. Chadwick—The Gospel of St. Mark

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