Acts 10:1-48 There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band,… I. THE CHARACTER OF CORNELIUS. 1. He was a devout man, and one who feared God. His morality was not of that mean character, or dwarfish stature, or unhallowed allowance, which satisfied the scanty requirements of paganism and idolatry. He had reverence for the demands, he had zeal for the glory, he had impulse from the love of God. 2. He was a charitable man. To heal the sick, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, was his delightful employment. 3. He was a man of prayer. Here lay the great excellence of his character; here the grace which sanctified every other, implanted by the Holy Spirit in his heart; and here the secret of that mercy of which he was made a partaker. His supplication was no transient, hasty homage of the lip or knee, but the settled habit of his mind, the unwearied uninterrupted practice of his life. 4. He was a man of family religion. II. THE COURSE OF DIVINE DEALING TOWARDS CORNELIUS. Lessons: 1. God is no respecter of persons. 2. What should be the character of ministerial labour and duty. (1) The more earnestly and faithfully a minister of religion labours, the more certainly will he find cause to know that the way of God is not as his way, nor the thoughts of God as his thoughts. (2) The more earnestly a minister is engaged in private prayer for himself, and for the success of the great cause of mercy and of man in which he is engaged, the more surely will he learn the mind of God, the more enlarged will be his views, the more certain his success in preaching the gospel. (R. P. Buddicom, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, |
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