Acts 10:2, 22 A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always.… To correct the tendency to limit the operations of Divine grace to particular sections, classes, or nations, the Scriptures record instances of true devoutness and sincere piety both before and outside the Abrahamic covenant. The comforting and inspiring truth of the Divine call and election man has too often changed into a doctrine of Divine favoritism, involving the sovereign and groundless choice of some, and the consequent repudiation and hopeless condition of many. We should ever seek to hold the truth which God is pleased to reveal with a jealousy of ourselves, lest we should unduly apply it to the disadvantage of others. Our God has said, "All souls are mine;" he maketh "his sun to rise upon the evil and upon the good." And if he claims the right to judge all mankind, he must have given them all knowledge, opportunities, and measures of grace. While fully realizing that the only book revelation has been made to the Jew and the Christian, and that the great revelation of God to man has been made in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that this revelation is the key to, and the completion of, all others, we need not refuse to admit that God has had gracious access to the minds and hearts of heathen peoples, and has guided, in measures that seemed wise, their gropings and seekings after him. One of the remarkable cases is that of Cornelius the Roman centurion, a man declared to be of pious character, and to have won the Divine acceptance. As illustrating the above statements, mention may be made of Melchizedek, Balsam, Araunah, etc. Accepting the fact that there may be genuine religion among the heathen, we may ask by what signs may we hopefully recognize it, and then turn to the story of Cornelius for aid in making answer. I. The first sign is BELIEF IN GOD, as distinguished from the gods. The conception of one supreme Being is more common among the heathen than we are wont to admit. It is often lost sight of by the prominence that is given to subordinate divinities, and the elaborate worship rendered to them. It is often sadly limited and deteriorated by the notion of a second being, who is regarded as a rival of the supreme Being, and energetically destroying his work. Polytheism and dualism represent the two evil tendencies of man's religious nature; but we may reasonably hope that not a few of the heathen have, like Cornelius, risen above the prevailing sentiments, and held firmly their faith in one supreme God. And we must, in all charity, assume that there may be a personal trust of heart on the living God, when the intellectual conceptions of him, and of his relations with men, are very imperfect and unworthy. To be acceptable, a man's religion must include faith in one God; and we must remember that this was the first great fact and truth revealed to men, and, however men may have blotted it over in their souls, they have not blotted it out. II. The second sign is SUCH APPREHENSION OF GOD AS BRINGS FEAR. The Bible use of the word "fear" should be carefully explained. It is the word which most suitably expresses the proper attitude of men towards God. It includes awe, reverence, worship, and obedience, and may be best illustrated by the feelings entertained by a good child towards a good and noble parent. The sense of Divine authority should make us fear to do wrong, and the sense of Divine holiness should make us fear to approach unpreparedly his presence or to take his Name in vain. "Fear," as an equivalent for "worship," needs explanation, and, rightly explained, it will be seen that it is the very essence of religion, so far as religion affects man's feeling. Wrong senses of the term fear may be considered. Fear which crushes hope and keeps us from God must be wrong; as is also fear that makes us unwilling to accept the grace he offers. III. The third sign is SUCH APPREHENSION OF GOD AS LEADS TO PRAYER. Not merely to prayer as a sudden act, forced on by calamity or distress, but to prayer as the daily expression of the cherished spirit of dependence on God - a daily leaning on God and waiting for him, which is indicated by the description of Cornelius as a" devout man." Miss Cobbe strikingly says, "Our belief in the personality of God is in a peculiar manner allied to the moral side of religion. In proportion as that moral side is developed in us, so, we may almost say, is the clearness of our conviction that it is indeed a living God who rules the world, and no mere creative intelligence. Now, this moral side comes out only in its full luminousness in prayer. Prayer is in its essence the approach of the finite and fallible moral agent to its infinite moral Lord, to whom it is conscious of erring allegiance, and to whom it comes for forgiveness and strength. In such prayer all the moral life bursts into vivid consciousness. In prayer there comes to us the true revelation of the personality of God." Illustrate by the characteristic feature of the converted Saul of Tarsus, "Behold, he prayeth!" IV. The fourth sign we may speak of as the RESULTS OF TRUE RELIGION IN PRACTICAL CHARITIES. These are signs, because they are the natural and necessary fruitage and expression of true piety. Right ideas of God tone our relations with our fellow-men, so that we can be "kind even to the unthankful and the unholy" Cornelius is marked as one who "gave much alms to the people." The more internal features of true piety are, of necessity, beyond our reading; but our Lord taught us that by men's fruits in conduct we might know them, and that, if there is ever the Divine life in souls, it will force its way out into practical charities and goodness of conduct. When, therefore, we find those we call "heathen" exhibiting Christian virtues, we may reasonably hope that there is a right-heartedness towards God of which these are the expressions. By the story of Cornelius we are taught that God may make more or less open responses to such devout and prayerful souls by visions, revelations, or inward communications, witnessing thus their acceptance, and guiding the open soul to righteousness and truth. It is true for all the world that "if any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine." While this subject needs to be treated with great prudence, and strongly dogmatic statements should be avoided, we may gain from it some relief from the pressure of our questioning as to the salvability of the heathen, and we may conceive how the heathen state may become a moral preparation for Christianity. It is an important feature of modern missionary enterprise that those who preach Christ's gospel seek to find points of contact in the heathen mind and religious sentiments, and expect to discover that God has been beforehand with them, preparing men's hearts to receive the wonderful message of Divine salvation by a Divine sacrifice. -R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway. |
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