Acts 3:2 And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful… There is great beauty in conscience. When it tempers the speech, and makes it true and just; when it tempers the actions, and makes them noble and right; when it produces fairness, and honour, and just judgments — how beautiful are all the direct and indirect influences of a Christian conscience in a man! But it sometimes leads Christian men to a sphere of uncharitable judgment. It inspires a high conception of what is right, and men take that conception as a rule by which to measure the conduct of their fellow-men, without consideration of their organisations, without making allowance for their weaknesses, without sympathy with them. There are many men that, adhering strictly to God's ideal of rectitude, fail to have sympathy with poor, crippled, and broken-down human nature; and they go aside and away from God just in proportion as they do this. It was this cruelty that brought down from our Saviour His most vehement denunciations; for vice and crime were not regarded by Christ as being as guilty as moral purity without any heart, without any sympathy, without any charitable judgment. (H. W. Beecher.) Parallel Verses KJV: And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; |
    |