The Church's immediate assertion of her own moral forces.
"And fear came upon every soul … daily such as should be saved." For many an institution of human society it is most easy to fix the date for the commencement of its operation, and to assign its term. It is one among many of the marks of Christianity that, once embodied, it begins its work there and then, and begins it never to pause, never to cease, till it is all finished. The peculiar and, at the same time, rightful influences of Christianity embodied in human society showed themselves promptly and decisively, Nothing artificial could help, nothing arbitrary could hinder, these. And if to the last possible moment they stole their march on the world silently, and to that same world insensibly, they no sooner come into sight than they are felt also, and unmistakably felt. The kingdom of God, that in some sense "cometh not with observation," when once come, is ever making a mark, that calls to it all manner of observation. It is full to overflowing of influence on the individual heart, on the individual life, and on human society. The intrinsic character of Christian principle and the possibilities that are in it, are simply and beautifully witnessed to in the very first of the fruits which it bore.
I. IT WROUGHT AN UNUSUAL FEAR. It was an unusual fear, for more reasons than one.
1. The fear fell on all. If the "all" here mean the disciples and new converts only, yet the gain was great and the phenomenon noteworthy. But the great probability is that the "every soul" does not mean to point to those who were nosy enrolled in the new community alone, but to the vast number outside, who saw and heard of the apostles' "signs and wonders." The city was still oftentimes because of this new portent in the very midst of it. The men of the city "talked often one with another." There was a temporary, general weaning from indifference, from frivolity, and from the zeal of mere earthly business.
2. The source of the fear was unusual. It was not that of Sinai. It was not that of wind and storm, earthquake or fire. The elements of nature were what they long had been. Just now, at all events, the sun was not "turned into darkness, nor the moon into blood." It was a fear that came on men, not because of any overwhelmed impression made on the senses, but upon the mind.
3. The character of the fear was unusual. For it was that of awe and reverence—one that awoke inquiry, and provoked irresistibly deeper thinking than those hearts had been generally familiar with. It more resembled the fear that ought to possess men in the presence of the facts, responsibilities, and heaven-born opportunities of human life. There is no evidence nor even room to suppose that it savored of anguished fear, or slavish fear, or tumultuous apprehension. This is one of the grand legitimate effects of Christian impression and conviction on the heart of either converted or unconverted, that they reduce to soberness and to some due sense of the things that are, whether in heaven or on earth, of which we may have thought previously far too little.
II. CHRISTIANITY BORE THE FRUIT OF A MOST UNUSUAL UNITY. The brotherhood of humanity now is exampled. And though for many a reason and from many a cause, better or worse, its duration was very brief, yet we may say," It is enough." We shall know it again, "in like manner" as we now know it. These two things may be most permissibly said to the grief that mourns devoutly its short duration:
III. IT BORE THE FRUIT OF A MOST UNUSUAL CHARITY. "To do good and to communicate" was not an absolute novelty; to give, and to give kindly and ungrudgingly, was not an unheard of thing; to feed the poor and give him garments, and to visit him, sick and in prison, was exalted moral philosophy, and godly practice too, in and from the days of Job. But the charity, and the sacrifice of the just rights of property, and the equality of this large family, was, for the thoroughness and the scale of them and for the occasion—not one of shipwrecked distress on a desolate shore—something very new under the sun. This, again, in outside show and bulk, was of short duration, but perhaps not of so short stay as it seems sometimes. And this; too, we shall recognize again.
IV. CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE NOW BORE A VERY UNUSUAL MANIFOLD FRUIT. Yes, not only manifold for quantity, but in kind. These, all these together, are found by the disciples; namely, great happiness of heart, great happiness in association with one another (as though no "root of bitterness" sprang up), great handiness in worshipping God, and great popularity with all the people. They were halcyon days indeed! Their peculiarity, as representing the infancy of the Church, irresistibly reminds us of the peculiarity of those early years in the humanity of the now risen, ascended, glorified Master himself. There was a time when it was said that "Jesus increased … in favor with God and man." It is even so now with the family of his followers. The analogy is striking. And it is striking as one novel indication of the condescension of the great Lord, who so closely shared, who still so closely shares, his Church's fortunes. For the resemblance must be quoted, not as one that shows the Church sharing its Founder's fortunes, but the Founder anticipating his Church's fortunes. In both examples how gratefully are we reminded of the legitimate influence, even in this world, of goodness. And how gratefully are we, by a mere foretaste, as it were, assured of that "favor" that Jesus and his truth and his faithful disciples must eventually command from the judgment of the world, whenever the time shall come! Nor was the Divine contentment that spread over and that evidently interpenetrated this newly fashioned society one which looked to mere selfishness then or to mere picturesqueness now. The favorable impression that it made on them that were without was useful as well as beautiful. It was attractive. And the very same qualities that made it attractive made it a safe refuge, home, school, nursery, to those that might own to the Divine attraction. To such a society the Lord added daily. And, let it with reverence be said, it could not be otherwise; but if it could, it would not. This is what the Church of Christ must be. It must be these all in one. The refuge for the sinner "saved;" his home on earth; his school; for many, because of their tender years, also the nursery of piety and devotion; but for all, young or old, a nursery, from which heaven is looked to as the introduction to the presence and abiding society of the Father himself. Thus, now, not the abstraction of a perfection of Christianity unlikely to be yet reached, but the oft-erring, oft-deficient embodiment of it in the lives of frail sinful, men, gave clear and beautiful proofs of what is the genius of it, of what it has in itself to do, and no obscure foreshadowing of the reign of love and peace and joy that Jesus is hastening on.—B.