Homilist Acts 7:23-30 And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers the children of Israel.… These words were spoken by the Christian martyr, Stephen, when he was standing before the Jewish council. He was accused of seeking to overthrow the institutions of Moses, and his mind not unnaturally reverted to the time when Moses himself was an innovator, and repelled by the ancestors of the very men who now taxed Stephen with seeking to change the customs which he had delivered to them. The passage in the life of Moses which Stephen relates gives us an example of — I. THE TRUE LEADER'S INSTINCT. He went to see his brethren, and to look on their burdens. This is the instinct of a true leader. He does it from policy; for how can the general regulate the marches unless he knows how much the soldier has to carry? Or how can he prescribe methods of lightening burdens unless he knows of what they consist? But not only from policy; from piety and humanity. The true leader's nature comprises the true shepherd's nature — not the robber's or the mere hireling's. II. THE TRUE LEADER'S MISTAKE. He supposed the people would understand. A superiorly-gifted mind often finds a peculiar difficulty in judging of average human nature, and its calculations may prove to be ill-founded. III. THE TRUE LEADER'S AIM. It is to cause unity to be recognised; for what but unity can give the power which it is his nature and his function to wield? Here there was no absence of natural grounds of union. They had two of the strongest — oneness of race and a common oppressor. IV. THE TRUE LEADER'S DISAPPOINTMENT. That his efforts to promote union were in vain. But in the case of the Israelites, blindness was combined with jealousy. They saw in Moses only a man of their own order. "His own received him not." Stephen might well recall these circumstances when he was standing before that tribunal of his countrymen, which was perpetrating a still greater refusal. The repulse was a personal one; but the disappointment was far from being merely personal. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. |
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