Acts 3:1-11 Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.… The spiritual lessons we ought to learn are — I. IT IS WELL FOR CHRISTIANS TO BECOME ACQUAINTED WITH WHAT IS GOING ON "AT THE GATE," over the borders of our serene and comfortable lives; we must look after those who dwell on the outside. II. OPPORTUNITIES OF DOING GOOD LIE IN OUR WAY EVERY DAY AND HOUR, if we really desire to improve them. One slight turn of the eye across the temple-area, where we pass on our way to prayers, will introduce us to two entirely different and totally distinct worlds of feeling, thought, and history. III. CHRISTIANS OUGHT NOT TO LOSE TIME IN SIGNING AFTER NEW SPHERES OF CONSPICUOUS SACRIFICE. Like Peter and John, we ourselves, children of the covenant, are apt to be jostled against those who are ignorant, poor, feeble, and in pain. But it does not follow that all of them are certainly vicious and unworthy of help; some of them may actually have "faith to be healed." IV. WORKING HANDS AND WILLING VOICES OUGHT TO GO WITH WEEPING EYES WHEN WE KNOW THE WANTS OF THE LORD'S POOR. Poverty at hand, weakness close beside us, are quite unromantic; it is distance which lends enchantment to the view in many cases as we converse about heathenism. But our home-heathen must not be absolutely neglected because they are so near. Many men, and some women, will shed tears over the painted picture of a Neapolitan boy begging, who would speak most savagely to the same lad if they met him alive in New York streets; they would quote with vigour the first part of Peter's little speech, and leave off the rest of it; and they would not put out their hands at all. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.WEB: Peter and John were going up into the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. |
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