Unprofitable Gazing
Bp. Huntington. Acts 1:10-11 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;… The "two men in white apparel" make a part of the grand supernatural array which the common scenery of the earth put on as the Lord was leaving it. From the entrance of the Saviour into the garden, on through the following forty-three days, the spiritual world and the material seemed to have the doors between them swung open, and to become one. If we believe the history, or credit the incarnation, at all, is not this just as we should expect? He in whom the realities of both heaven and earth were united; He who could say — "The Son of Man is now in heaven," He is passing back personally into the unseen communion, where all His friends are to follow Him. I believe in miracles because I see the greater miracle — Christ — grander than all this world's men, and yet lowlier, saying that He comes forth from God, and goes to God, as simply as my child shows me the flower found in the garden-yet so saying it that all the philosophers and critics of eighteen hundred years have not been able to break the authority or explain the secret. The question is — I. A CALL FROM CONTEMPLATION TO ACTION. Only a little breathing space was to be given them first to gather up their energies; and even that was not to be an interval of idleness. They were to go at once to Jerusalem, and their waiting there was to be like the waiting of the still midsummer elements, before the mountain winds sweep down and the tongues of fire leap out — a busy waiting — a preparation for this long campaign of many ages. They were to be earnest and constant in prayer and praise; to settle in their minds the doctrines and directions of their Master, pertaining to the kingdom; to fasten and cement the bonds of unity with one accord, and to fill up the vacant place in the apostolate. Thus their business had been marked out as every Christian's is. But the apostles are not turning to that business; they are still resting in a kind of sentimental trance between their commission and their ministry. They were living as some Christians do nowadays-in their feelings, more than in their convictions and their will, in fruitless memories, not in daring hopes. Indulged any longer, this would become a mere life of religious sentiment, not a life of religious service — and so not a healthy life at all. If those men that had companied so long with Christ needed to be startled out of a false indulgence in the mere idle luxury of feeling, most of us need it much more. I hear a man say it makes him "feel better" to say his prayers; so far so good; but how far does the feeling go, and the power of the prayer keep him company, as a law of regulation to his lips and a purifier of his conduct? Lacordaire says, "I desire to be remembered only as one who believed, who loved, and who prayed." But why only these? Ought there not to be an equal desire to honour the Lord in an active following of His steps and proclaiming Him in life? II. A SUMMONS TO WALK, HENCEFORTH, NOT BY THE LIGHT OF AN OUTWARD LEADER, BUT BY A SECRET AND STEADFAST TRUST IN HIM WHO IS FOR EVER WITH US BY AN INWARD POSSESSION. If, then, the question of the heavenly men be put into some paraphrase for ourselves here, this would be its import. Reduce your privileges to Christian practice, and your faith to action. Life is not given us for speculation, or gazing, or mere delight, even though the relish be religious — not for reverie and dreaming, even though it were the reverie of devotion, or a dream of Paradise. This world, our own little corner of it, wants sacrifice and labour, running feet and open hands, busy thoughts and gentle tongues. III. A DEMAND THAT OUR CHRISTIAN LIFE SHOULD BE INDEPENDENT OF EXTERNAL SUPPORT, SO THAT IT MAY BE ONLY DEPENDENT ON GOD. Not that we are to cast away any outward prop so long as God's providence holds it in its place and comforts us by letting us lean upon it; but that we should not be perplexed or disheartened when any such help is taken away by Him, or enfeeble ourselves by letting our integrity, or our purity, or our prayers depend on it instead of depending directly on Him. There is no danger that our eyes or our hearts will he turned too much upwards, heavenwards — provided we look there, in faith and prayer, for the light and the strength to do our Christian service here. At present this is our place; and the judgment before us is a judgment for deeds done in the body. These men, when they were bidden to stop gazing into heaven and go to their work were not turned away from heavenly things to earthly things, but the opposite. They were to stop looking into the air, that by a truer and God-appointee road they might travel, in God's time, higher up into the Christian heaven. They were to rouse themselves from a dream, that they might work out their salvation and the salvation of the world. To that end, the present line of living, however agreeable and prosperous, the present residence or occupation, however delightful, or the present apparent helps, however prized, as soon as they become tempters to sluggishness, must be given up — a sacrifice to Him whose sacrifice to us is the only assurance of life. Hence God's providence is continually pushing us on, displacing one or another scheme, or vision, or staff, or companion. He does it for what he would make of us — better men. (Bp. Huntington.) Parallel Verses KJV: And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; WEB: While they were looking steadfastly into the sky as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white clothing,