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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadGreater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 623. The Visions
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The Visions
i. Cornelius' Vision
The message was encouraging. His prayers had been accepted, and the desire of his heart for more and fuller light was granted. But the fuller light was to come through human instruments, hence he must send to Joppa for the possessor of the keys who would open the door of the Kingdom to him, and admit him into the secrets of God's household. The instruction to send for Peter tested Cornelius' willingness to be taught by an unknown Jew, and his belief in the Divine origin of the vision. The direction given by which to find this teacher was not promising. A lodger with a tanner by the seaside was certainly not a man of position or wealth. But military discipline helped religious reverence; and without delay, as soon as the angel “was departed” (an expression which gives the outward reality of the appearance strongly), Cornelius' confidential servants, sympathisers with him in his religion, were told all the story, and before nightfall were on their march to Joppa.
The vision appeared to Cornelius in the manner corresponding to his spiritual susceptibility, and it came at the hour of prayer. God's angels ever draw near to hearts opened by desire to receive them. Not in visible form, but in reality, “bright-harnessed angels stand” all around the chamber where prayer is made. Our hours of supplication are God's hours of communication.1 [Note: A. Maclaren.]
1. It was drawing on towards the noon hour. The time was at hand when the body was to be refreshed with food and the soul cheered and strengthened by communion with God. The Apostle went up to the flat roof of the house where he was staying to offer prayer. He was there in retirement, with no eye upon him save the Divine eye, to render his thanks and make his supplications. A sudden hunger seized him, but lingering, he fell into a trance. Shut out from the world by his trance, and shut in with the Spirit, the heavens were opened to his gaze. He saw a vessel, or a great sheet, as near as he could describe it, knit at the four corners, and let down out of the skies to the earth. In it were all manner of creatures-beasts, creeping things, fowls of the air. On the descent of this vessel or sheet there came a voice calling on him to kill and eat. He was hungry. His hunger gave shape to the imagery under which he was to learn his all-important lesson.
Hardly any other form in which the instruction could have been communicated would have been so effective. For the Jews, especially Jews of the strict class to which Peter had always belonged, were exceedingly careful about what they ate. Very naturally, therefore, the Apostle, not yet broadened out to the full dimensions of the love and aim of the Great Teacher, shrank back and said he must not do it. This was not the kind of repast of which he felt at liberty to partake. “Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.” The distinction between things clean and unclean instituted in the ceremonial law had been abolished on the coming of Christ; but Peter had not yet risen up into sympathy with this idea. This was why he had to be put to school to the vision he beheld and trained out of his race pride and narrowness. “Not so, Lord.” He was too dainty and delicate in his tastes. The great commission which he had heard was: “Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations”-no distinctions-“baptizing them”-without distinction-“into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you; and lo, I am with you all the days, even unto the consummation of the age.” But this was not enough to liberate his mind and conquer his prejudices. In his view of men there were still distinctions of clean and unclean. Then there came a second voice: “What God hath cleansed, make not thou common.” After this had been done thrice, the vessel disappeared. But the great words, the significant words, the key words of the whole disclosure, still lingered: “What God hath cleansed, make not thou common.”
2. Taken by itself, this vision might hardly have been quite intelligible to Peter. It might on reflection have indicated no more to him than some approaching change in the laws which regulated food. But the providence of God soon helped him to a clue. He was still meditating on the meaning of what he had seen, when he heard the three strangers approach the outer gate of the entrance court, and call to know if one Peter were lodging there. Hurrying down the outside stair, which led from the roof to the court without passing through the house, Peter himself met and admitted the men. In the light of their message and the dealings of God with their master, Peter felt instinctively that he was meant to read the true lesson of his ecstasy. So read, it was not hard to interpret it aright. He saw that in the abolition of that symbolical distinction betwixt clean animals and unclean, betwixt what might and might not be eaten, there was also enclosed the abolition of all such unreal distinctions as had hitherto divided before the face of God the Gentile from the Hebrew.
We had a vast party at Earlham, and a remarkable day, a perfectly harmonious mixture of High Church, Low Church, Lutheran, Baptist, Quaker! It was a time which seemed to pull down all barriers of distinction, and to melt us all into one common Christianity. Such a beginning warrants us to expect much.
At five we adjourned to Earlham Hall to dinner, when we sat down thirty-four in number-a mixture of different sects and persuasions. Words fail to express the delightful harmony of our feelings. Soon after the cloth was removed, our dear friend Elizabeth Fry [Joseph John Gurney's sister, who had come from London for the occasion] knelt down, and in a most sweet and impressive manner implored the Divine blessing upon the company present, and for the general promotion of truth upon earth. On her rising, the Secretary, Joseph Hughes (a Dissenting minister) observed in a solemn manner: “Now of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but that in every age and nation those who fear Him and work righteousness are accepted of Him”; and the conversation, becoming general, flowed on in a strain which assuredly had less in it of earth than of Heaven.1 [Note: A. J. C. Hare, The Gurneys of Earlham, i. 229.]